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Denmark Vesey's Bible: The Thwarted Revolt That Put Slavery and Scripture on Trial
A timely and provocative account of the Bible’s role in one of the most consequential episodes in the history of slavery
On July 2, 1822, Denmark Vesey, a formerly enslaved man, was hanged in Charleston, South Carolina. He was convicted of plotting what might have been the largest insurrection against slaveholders in US history. Witnesses claimed that Vesey appealed to numerous biblical texts to promote and justify the revolt. While sentencing Vesey to death, Lionel Henry Kennedy, a magistrate at the trial, accused Vesey not only of treason but also of “attempting to pervert the sacred words of God into a sanction for crimes of the blackest hue.” Denmark Vesey’s Bible tells the story of this momentous trial, examining the role of scriptural interpretation in the deadly struggle against American white supremacy and its brutal enforcement.
Jeremy Schipper brings the trial and its aftermath vividly to life, drawing on court documents, personal letters, sermons, speeches, and editorials. He shows how Vesey compared people of African descent with enslaved Israelites in the Bible, while his accusers portrayed plantation owners as benevolent biblical patriarchs responsible for providing religious instruction to the enslaved. What emerges is an explosive portrait of an antebellum city in the grips of racial terror, violence, and contending visions of biblical truth.
Shedding light on the uses of scripture in America’s troubled racial history, Denmark Vesey’s Bible draws vital lessons from a terrible moment in the nation’s past, enabling us to confront racism and religious discord today with renewed urgency and understanding.
On July 2, 1822, Denmark Vesey, a formerly enslaved man, was hanged in Charleston, South Carolina. He was convicted of plotting what might have been the largest insurrection against slaveholders in US history. Witnesses claimed that Vesey appealed to numerous biblical texts to promote and justify the revolt. While sentencing Vesey to death, Lionel Henry Kennedy, a magistrate at the trial, accused Vesey not only of treason but also of “attempting to pervert the sacred words of God into a sanction for crimes of the blackest hue.” Denmark Vesey’s Bible tells the story of this momentous trial, examining the role of scriptural interpretation in the deadly struggle against American white supremacy and its brutal enforcement.
Jeremy Schipper brings the trial and its aftermath vividly to life, drawing on court documents, personal letters, sermons, speeches, and editorials. He shows how Vesey compared people of African descent with enslaved Israelites in the Bible, while his accusers portrayed plantation owners as benevolent biblical patriarchs responsible for providing religious instruction to the enslaved. What emerges is an explosive portrait of an antebellum city in the grips of racial terror, violence, and contending visions of biblical truth.
Shedding light on the uses of scripture in America’s troubled racial history, Denmark Vesey’s Bible draws vital lessons from a terrible moment in the nation’s past, enabling us to confront racism and religious discord today with renewed urgency and understanding.
216 pages, Hardcover
Published March 8, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
September 30, 2025
On July 14, 1822, freeman Denmark Vesey, along with several hundreds of other African Americans (both freeman and slaves), planned to execute their masters, liberate the city of Charleston, South Carolina, and escape to Haiti. Two of the people in on the plot leaked the information and turned him in. Being antebellum South Carolina, Vesey’s fate was a foregone conclusion. Jeremy Schipper’s “Denmark Vesey’s Bible: The Thwarted Revolt that Put Slavery and Scripture on Trial” (Princeton University Press, 2022) tries to piece together what we know about Vesey – a sizeable task when almost everything we have about him was handed down to us by slave owners or pro-slavery white churchmen. Looking at original documents, Schipper examines the various ways in which the Bible was used to shore up both Vesey’s pro-revolt arguments and the pro-slavery arguments of white Charlestonians.
Chapter One takes up Exodus 21:16 - “Whoever kidnaps a person, whether they have sold them or are still holding them, must be put to death” – which was used by some clergy as an anti-slavery apologetic. Vesey preached this verse and others like it in clandestine meetings with his co-conspirators to draw parallels between themselves as enslaved or formerly enslaved persons with the Israelites who bore the yoke of slavery in ancient Egypt. Of course, Vesey didn’t frame it in the language that we use today, but it’s clear that he saw the Bible as a vitally important tool not just for quiet reflection and study, but also for social justice. Vesey thought the South, and Charleston especially, were so morally marred from the sin of slavery and an apathetic white clergy that hastening a revolt was one way of bringing about Biblical justice.
While Vesey thought that he had found a model for justice in planning a revolt, white Charlestonians also looked to the Bible to justify current social norms, with parallels drawn between slave masters and ancient Biblical patriarchs. Of course, this worldview reinforced not only white supremacy but also violent misogyny with the patriarch being the master of not only his slaves, but also of his wife and children. Some preachers suggested slavery was unfortunate but nevertheless necessary because of how it civilized and tamed the passions of slaves. One churchman, the Reverend Frederick Dalcho, even suggested it was no coincidence there were no Episcopalians among those convicted for the plot because worship in his church was “sober, rational, and sublime” – in other words, not like Vesey and those other crazy Methodists.
Much of the book looks at how Charlestonians reacted to Vesey’s revolt, including the predictable calls for greater surveillance of slaves. There were also suggestions that maybe slaves shouldn’t be allowed to attend church at all, with another group of Charleston ministers suggesting no matter how Vesey and his cohort may have abused the scriptures, all slaves still had the right to hear the word of God – as long as it was preached by lifeless, somber, white clerics who circuitously walked on tenterhooks around Biblical injunctions for justice.
Lest we think this history is long gone, Schipper concludes with the bittersweet mention of the words delivered by South Carolina State Senator Clementa Pinckney during an April 2015 speech celebrating the 150th anniversary of the end of the Civil War: “It was 1822 that Mother Emanuel was standing strong and one of its members and ministers Denmark Vesey had this wonderful, crazy idea that the Constitution actually was correct that freedom was for all people. Little did he know that there would be such a backlash when he wanted to make sure that freedom, and those of you may know that after the Denmark Vesey incident, Denmark Vesey and others were rounded up, they were imprisoned, and later killed.” Two months later on June 17 2015, someone who knew and researched Mother Emanuel’s status as a historically important Black church with connections to Vesey chose it as a target, walked in, and murdered nine people as they sat worshipping, including Clementa Pinckey.
As it is, Schipper’s book mostly appeals to scholars of the antebellum South, especially those interested in how the Bible was used to apologize for various cultural institutions like slavery. But it could have been so much more. In 136 pages of text, we have little more than a bare minimum of information about Vesey or his plot and, true to the subtitle, a lot of exegetical work on how certain verses of the Bible were interpreted. Had the book been twice as long, it still would have been short (well under 300 pages), but Schipper would have had the opportunity to appeal to a broader audience. The premise has all the elements of something that has potential for more dramatic flair: a former slave trying to destroy his owners’ city in the name of Biblical justice, a riveting courtroom scene, and biographical information about Vesey himself whose life was fascinating even before he concocted his plot. All of this should have been included to give the book a broader audience. Books like this should be page turners. Instead, Schipper has written a very competent but bland, dry and all-too-short recounting of Vesey’s 1822 revolt and a broader discussion of how the Bible was deployed to uphold the social mores of the time. Not a bad book by any means, but in important ways a missed opportunity.
Chapter One takes up Exodus 21:16 - “Whoever kidnaps a person, whether they have sold them or are still holding them, must be put to death” – which was used by some clergy as an anti-slavery apologetic. Vesey preached this verse and others like it in clandestine meetings with his co-conspirators to draw parallels between themselves as enslaved or formerly enslaved persons with the Israelites who bore the yoke of slavery in ancient Egypt. Of course, Vesey didn’t frame it in the language that we use today, but it’s clear that he saw the Bible as a vitally important tool not just for quiet reflection and study, but also for social justice. Vesey thought the South, and Charleston especially, were so morally marred from the sin of slavery and an apathetic white clergy that hastening a revolt was one way of bringing about Biblical justice.
While Vesey thought that he had found a model for justice in planning a revolt, white Charlestonians also looked to the Bible to justify current social norms, with parallels drawn between slave masters and ancient Biblical patriarchs. Of course, this worldview reinforced not only white supremacy but also violent misogyny with the patriarch being the master of not only his slaves, but also of his wife and children. Some preachers suggested slavery was unfortunate but nevertheless necessary because of how it civilized and tamed the passions of slaves. One churchman, the Reverend Frederick Dalcho, even suggested it was no coincidence there were no Episcopalians among those convicted for the plot because worship in his church was “sober, rational, and sublime” – in other words, not like Vesey and those other crazy Methodists.
Much of the book looks at how Charlestonians reacted to Vesey’s revolt, including the predictable calls for greater surveillance of slaves. There were also suggestions that maybe slaves shouldn’t be allowed to attend church at all, with another group of Charleston ministers suggesting no matter how Vesey and his cohort may have abused the scriptures, all slaves still had the right to hear the word of God – as long as it was preached by lifeless, somber, white clerics who circuitously walked on tenterhooks around Biblical injunctions for justice.
Lest we think this history is long gone, Schipper concludes with the bittersweet mention of the words delivered by South Carolina State Senator Clementa Pinckney during an April 2015 speech celebrating the 150th anniversary of the end of the Civil War: “It was 1822 that Mother Emanuel was standing strong and one of its members and ministers Denmark Vesey had this wonderful, crazy idea that the Constitution actually was correct that freedom was for all people. Little did he know that there would be such a backlash when he wanted to make sure that freedom, and those of you may know that after the Denmark Vesey incident, Denmark Vesey and others were rounded up, they were imprisoned, and later killed.” Two months later on June 17 2015, someone who knew and researched Mother Emanuel’s status as a historically important Black church with connections to Vesey chose it as a target, walked in, and murdered nine people as they sat worshipping, including Clementa Pinckey.
As it is, Schipper’s book mostly appeals to scholars of the antebellum South, especially those interested in how the Bible was used to apologize for various cultural institutions like slavery. But it could have been so much more. In 136 pages of text, we have little more than a bare minimum of information about Vesey or his plot and, true to the subtitle, a lot of exegetical work on how certain verses of the Bible were interpreted. Had the book been twice as long, it still would have been short (well under 300 pages), but Schipper would have had the opportunity to appeal to a broader audience. The premise has all the elements of something that has potential for more dramatic flair: a former slave trying to destroy his owners’ city in the name of Biblical justice, a riveting courtroom scene, and biographical information about Vesey himself whose life was fascinating even before he concocted his plot. All of this should have been included to give the book a broader audience. Books like this should be page turners. Instead, Schipper has written a very competent but bland, dry and all-too-short recounting of Vesey’s 1822 revolt and a broader discussion of how the Bible was deployed to uphold the social mores of the time. Not a bad book by any means, but in important ways a missed opportunity.
December 4, 2022
This book had the potential to be really interesting, looking at the different ways scripture was used politically both to convince slaves to revolt and to prosecute and justify killing them. Most of the evidence that exists is from the politically powerful slave owners and there's just not enough evidence from the side of the rebellion to build a truly compelling argument. That said, the author analyzed what he did have really well and it was an interesting treatise on rhetoric, scripture, and the uses the bible can be put to to justify oppression.
October 2, 2024
Best treatment of biblical justifications for slavery and white supremacy I’ve ever read. See also “Second Class Saints.”
November 30, 2025
People use the Bible to justify literally anything, even diametrically opposed views? Wow. I didn’t know that. You’re telling me now for the first time.
I found it somewhat interesting, but you probably don’t need to check it out.
I found it somewhat interesting, but you probably don’t need to check it out.
April 8, 2023
This careful study of primary sources is related to the thwarted slave revolt led by Denmark Vesey (c. 1767-1822) which took place in Charleston, South Carolina in 1822. The focus is on the use of Scriptural texts in either justifying or condemning armed insurrections against slaveholders. Court transcripts, sermons, pamphlets, and legislative acts are investigated in an attempt to uncover the way the Bible was used on both sides of the debate around the legitimacy of slavery as an institution.
Though a few anti-slavery preachers such as Lorenzo Dow are mentioned, the abolitionist voice does not dominate. Instead, most of the discussion is on the works of pro-slavery clergy. The voices of Vesey and his collaborators, and the biblical arguments they gave in support of their insurrection, are heard largely through those who rejected their arguments in the legal process of condemning them to death. This absence is a problem with the available sources, more than with the author.
We know very little about Denmark Vesey (also called “Telemaque”) including whether he was born in the Caribbean or in Africa. He was named after his former “owner” Joseph Vesey who purchased him in Saint-Domingue in 1781. After winning a lottery in Charleston, he was able to purchase his freedom and establish a carpentry business. Vesey married three times and had many children, some of whom remained in slavery because he could not afford to buy their freedom. After the Missouri Compromise of 1820, the anti-slavery writings of Rufus King (1755-1827) became known to Vesey, and it was from these, as well as from the Bible, that Vesey developed his conviction that slavery was unlawful. Though he was admitted to the membership of Second Presbyterian Church in April 1817, Vesey soon became involved with the African [Methodist Episcopal] Church which was known as a centre of abolitionist preaching. Here, Black-led Methodist class meetings were seen as subversive organisational centres of slave revolt by the city’s power brokers. In June 1822, a court of magistrates led by Lionel Henry Kennedy and Thomas Parker tried Vesey for organising a plot to rise up and murder the White citizens of Charleston and on 2 July, along with five others, he was hanged. By August. thirty-five persons would be executed for their involvement in Vesey’s alleged insurrection.
In addition to trying to retrieve the scriptural arguments offered by the insurrectionists, the book spends a good deal of its brief size exploring the documents that emerged after Vesey’s execution. These include Kennedy and Parker’s official 202-page report on The Trials of Sundry Negroes, the Rev Arthur Buist’s sermon, “On the Doctrine of Divine Providence” and the Rev Richard Furman’s Exposition of the Views of the Baptists Relative to the Coloured Population of the United Sates, all of which appeared in 1822. These were followed in 1823 by the Episcopalian priest, Frederick Dalco’s proslavery pamphlet on Practical Considerations Founded on the Scriptures, Relative to the Slave Population of South-Carolina. Each of these offered arguments for the legitimacy of slavery as divinely warranted, and evidence a white supremacist and paternalistic view of rebel slaves as ungrateful children in need of the protection of their superiors.
Each chapter is headed by a scriptural text that is cited as central to a particular argument within each chapter. There is no attempt to explore the hermeneutical principles that lay behind the various interpretive moves discussed. Rather, the author settles for a description of the use of particular texts, sometimes rather redundantly stating what has only just been stated in the source. Vesey drew upon Exodus 21:16 with its declaration that “He that steals a man and sells him…shall surely be put to death” as justification for his alleged conspiracy. If the United States government would not call slaveholders to account, the slaves themselves, with this scriptural warrant would have to carry out this divine decree. Upon being urged to repent of his sin, one of Vesey’s co-conspirators gave the insightful reply. “What sin? You applaud the leaders of the American Revolution, who resisted a small tax on tea; and rather than pay it killed tens of thousands, but what was that tax to our sufferings? Washington was a white man, and you idolised him; but I, alas, am a black man, and you hang me for the very act you applauded in him” (p. 77). This anecdote underscores the double standard employed and the unequal balance of power in any race-based social and political system of oppression.
Though it does not intend to offer a larger scale backdrop against which to understand the chosen sources, a reader would benefit from larger scale works such as Mark Noll, America’s God (2005) or Jeremy Black, The Atlantic Slave Trade (2015) to situate this brief case study within its larger context. There is a helpful list of major figures, a timeline of major events, and seven well-chosen illustrations. The book ends with a reflection on the statue of Vesey by Ed Dwight, erected in Hampton Park, Charleston in 2014. The park was named after Wade Hampton, the Confederate general who became Governor of South Carolina in 1876, in an election that saw the murder of 150 African Americans in attempts to suppress their vote. Democratic state senator, the Rev Clementa C. Pinckney, minister of Emmanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, gave a conciliatory speech in Hampton Park in April 2015 to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the end of the Civil War. Pinckney spoke of Denmark Vesey as a patriot and lamented the deaths of soldiers on both sides of the war to end slavery. Two months later he was among the nine people murdered by a white supremacist at Emmanuel Church. As the author concludes, “the enduring question of what the Bible implies in the context of American white supremacy continues as a matter of life and death in Charleston and cities across [America]” (p. 127). Careful study of historical sources such as that undertaken in this book continue to inform that important interpretative challenge.
Though a few anti-slavery preachers such as Lorenzo Dow are mentioned, the abolitionist voice does not dominate. Instead, most of the discussion is on the works of pro-slavery clergy. The voices of Vesey and his collaborators, and the biblical arguments they gave in support of their insurrection, are heard largely through those who rejected their arguments in the legal process of condemning them to death. This absence is a problem with the available sources, more than with the author.
We know very little about Denmark Vesey (also called “Telemaque”) including whether he was born in the Caribbean or in Africa. He was named after his former “owner” Joseph Vesey who purchased him in Saint-Domingue in 1781. After winning a lottery in Charleston, he was able to purchase his freedom and establish a carpentry business. Vesey married three times and had many children, some of whom remained in slavery because he could not afford to buy their freedom. After the Missouri Compromise of 1820, the anti-slavery writings of Rufus King (1755-1827) became known to Vesey, and it was from these, as well as from the Bible, that Vesey developed his conviction that slavery was unlawful. Though he was admitted to the membership of Second Presbyterian Church in April 1817, Vesey soon became involved with the African [Methodist Episcopal] Church which was known as a centre of abolitionist preaching. Here, Black-led Methodist class meetings were seen as subversive organisational centres of slave revolt by the city’s power brokers. In June 1822, a court of magistrates led by Lionel Henry Kennedy and Thomas Parker tried Vesey for organising a plot to rise up and murder the White citizens of Charleston and on 2 July, along with five others, he was hanged. By August. thirty-five persons would be executed for their involvement in Vesey’s alleged insurrection.
In addition to trying to retrieve the scriptural arguments offered by the insurrectionists, the book spends a good deal of its brief size exploring the documents that emerged after Vesey’s execution. These include Kennedy and Parker’s official 202-page report on The Trials of Sundry Negroes, the Rev Arthur Buist’s sermon, “On the Doctrine of Divine Providence” and the Rev Richard Furman’s Exposition of the Views of the Baptists Relative to the Coloured Population of the United Sates, all of which appeared in 1822. These were followed in 1823 by the Episcopalian priest, Frederick Dalco’s proslavery pamphlet on Practical Considerations Founded on the Scriptures, Relative to the Slave Population of South-Carolina. Each of these offered arguments for the legitimacy of slavery as divinely warranted, and evidence a white supremacist and paternalistic view of rebel slaves as ungrateful children in need of the protection of their superiors.
Each chapter is headed by a scriptural text that is cited as central to a particular argument within each chapter. There is no attempt to explore the hermeneutical principles that lay behind the various interpretive moves discussed. Rather, the author settles for a description of the use of particular texts, sometimes rather redundantly stating what has only just been stated in the source. Vesey drew upon Exodus 21:16 with its declaration that “He that steals a man and sells him…shall surely be put to death” as justification for his alleged conspiracy. If the United States government would not call slaveholders to account, the slaves themselves, with this scriptural warrant would have to carry out this divine decree. Upon being urged to repent of his sin, one of Vesey’s co-conspirators gave the insightful reply. “What sin? You applaud the leaders of the American Revolution, who resisted a small tax on tea; and rather than pay it killed tens of thousands, but what was that tax to our sufferings? Washington was a white man, and you idolised him; but I, alas, am a black man, and you hang me for the very act you applauded in him” (p. 77). This anecdote underscores the double standard employed and the unequal balance of power in any race-based social and political system of oppression.
Though it does not intend to offer a larger scale backdrop against which to understand the chosen sources, a reader would benefit from larger scale works such as Mark Noll, America’s God (2005) or Jeremy Black, The Atlantic Slave Trade (2015) to situate this brief case study within its larger context. There is a helpful list of major figures, a timeline of major events, and seven well-chosen illustrations. The book ends with a reflection on the statue of Vesey by Ed Dwight, erected in Hampton Park, Charleston in 2014. The park was named after Wade Hampton, the Confederate general who became Governor of South Carolina in 1876, in an election that saw the murder of 150 African Americans in attempts to suppress their vote. Democratic state senator, the Rev Clementa C. Pinckney, minister of Emmanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, gave a conciliatory speech in Hampton Park in April 2015 to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the end of the Civil War. Pinckney spoke of Denmark Vesey as a patriot and lamented the deaths of soldiers on both sides of the war to end slavery. Two months later he was among the nine people murdered by a white supremacist at Emmanuel Church. As the author concludes, “the enduring question of what the Bible implies in the context of American white supremacy continues as a matter of life and death in Charleston and cities across [America]” (p. 127). Careful study of historical sources such as that undertaken in this book continue to inform that important interpretative challenge.
January 10, 2024
This is a book that is likely to be of very narrow interest. As such, I am challenged to understand whether I've unfairly rated the book lower because it didn't meet my expectations or because it didn't deliver on what it presented.
This is a short book, less than 200 pages *including* appendix, notes and index - and there are 40 pages of those!
The historical fact is that in 1822 a court in South Carolina condemned and executed a free Black man named Denmark Vesey as one of the key ringleaders planning a very violent slave revolt. The difficulty is that much of the trial events have to be understood from court records and what the elite social group of southerners published afterwards.
My interest comes in the overall category of "how we think wrongly" - whether it is human cognitive failures, all of the various biases we fall under, etc. As such, a scriptural defense of slavery - at least in my view - falls deeply into the category of "broken thinking". But such thinking was prevalent prior to the civil war and this book seemed like it might give me some insight into that (corrupt) mindset.
To some extent, the book succeeds on that point. We hear what preachers, officials and the elite had to say, as their words were recorded at trial and copies exist of articles they wrote in the newspapers of the day after the trial.
We also know some of the opposite arguments raised by Denmark Vesey - but more from the rebuttals made by his prosecutors and government officials after the fact as his entire testimony has not survived (or might never have been recorded).
The difficulty for slave holders is that the very existence of such planning for a massive revolt with so many involved runs directly counter to their storyline that slaves were happy with their situation and were overwhelming aligned with slave holders frame of the situation. (What I'll call the "Gone with the Wind" perspective). When you hang 22 men for a giant conspiracy, it is extraordinarily difficult to simultaneously hold the argument that your "servants" are contented and well protected under your "patriarchal care".
The value for us today is that through this book we get to see two viewpoints, each built on powerful distortions of scripture and how it pervaded thinking. For Vesey and his fellow conspirators (how many were true conspirators vs being coerced into confession is a good question), scripture is used to justify what would be wholesale murder of whites, including women and children, based on old testament history of the Israelites to destroying various peoples, sometimes, utterly and completely: men, women, children, even the animals. As an over simplification in Vesey's view, slaves were the equivalent of Israel entering the promised land and whites were the equivalent of Canaanites - and God was commanding them to rise up destroy those accursed people.
Faced with a scriptural attack (more from Northern abolitionists then Vesey) on their economic foundation, slave holders continued to evolve their own distortion of Bible texts to justify why slavery was supported, even a mandated state of human society.
In present day, the fine art of justifying evil behaviors based on often incredibly convoluted reasoning from a wide range of scripture, persists. So many giving themselves the title "Christian" are busy with this - built on a long tradition of the American grown variety of religious flavored racists and white supremacists.
What is needed are better skills for everyday people of faith to recognize that despite an argument for white supremacy being dressed up in direct quotes from scripture, it's just as much a garbage argument as it was when it came from the mouth of Klansmen in 1920 or Governor Wallace in the 1960s. I don't think this book quite delivers on that - but also, probably not the author's intention.
This is a short book, less than 200 pages *including* appendix, notes and index - and there are 40 pages of those!
The historical fact is that in 1822 a court in South Carolina condemned and executed a free Black man named Denmark Vesey as one of the key ringleaders planning a very violent slave revolt. The difficulty is that much of the trial events have to be understood from court records and what the elite social group of southerners published afterwards.
My interest comes in the overall category of "how we think wrongly" - whether it is human cognitive failures, all of the various biases we fall under, etc. As such, a scriptural defense of slavery - at least in my view - falls deeply into the category of "broken thinking". But such thinking was prevalent prior to the civil war and this book seemed like it might give me some insight into that (corrupt) mindset.
To some extent, the book succeeds on that point. We hear what preachers, officials and the elite had to say, as their words were recorded at trial and copies exist of articles they wrote in the newspapers of the day after the trial.
We also know some of the opposite arguments raised by Denmark Vesey - but more from the rebuttals made by his prosecutors and government officials after the fact as his entire testimony has not survived (or might never have been recorded).
The difficulty for slave holders is that the very existence of such planning for a massive revolt with so many involved runs directly counter to their storyline that slaves were happy with their situation and were overwhelming aligned with slave holders frame of the situation. (What I'll call the "Gone with the Wind" perspective). When you hang 22 men for a giant conspiracy, it is extraordinarily difficult to simultaneously hold the argument that your "servants" are contented and well protected under your "patriarchal care".
The value for us today is that through this book we get to see two viewpoints, each built on powerful distortions of scripture and how it pervaded thinking. For Vesey and his fellow conspirators (how many were true conspirators vs being coerced into confession is a good question), scripture is used to justify what would be wholesale murder of whites, including women and children, based on old testament history of the Israelites to destroying various peoples, sometimes, utterly and completely: men, women, children, even the animals. As an over simplification in Vesey's view, slaves were the equivalent of Israel entering the promised land and whites were the equivalent of Canaanites - and God was commanding them to rise up destroy those accursed people.
Faced with a scriptural attack (more from Northern abolitionists then Vesey) on their economic foundation, slave holders continued to evolve their own distortion of Bible texts to justify why slavery was supported, even a mandated state of human society.
In present day, the fine art of justifying evil behaviors based on often incredibly convoluted reasoning from a wide range of scripture, persists. So many giving themselves the title "Christian" are busy with this - built on a long tradition of the American grown variety of religious flavored racists and white supremacists.
What is needed are better skills for everyday people of faith to recognize that despite an argument for white supremacy being dressed up in direct quotes from scripture, it's just as much a garbage argument as it was when it came from the mouth of Klansmen in 1920 or Governor Wallace in the 1960s. I don't think this book quite delivers on that - but also, probably not the author's intention.
June 11, 2024
"What sin? You applaud the leaders of the American revolution who resisted a small tax on tea and rather than pay it, killed tens of thousands. But what was that tax to our sufferings? Washington was a white man and you idolized him. But I, alas, am a black man, and you hang me for the very act you applauded in him." I took this statement from one of Mr. Vesey's codefendants down while reading, as it was such a succinct summation and condemnation of the supposedly righteous SC government's actions against them.
This book is dry and unfortunately there's not a lot of solid information available about Denmark Vesey himself; still, what a devastating read. I was well aware of the fact that white supremacists used phrases and words from the Bible to justify themselves, but the meticulously laid out "arguments" and the sheer amounts of time and effort they put into it is as covered in this book far beyond what I had previously allowed myself to imagine. The depths of cognitive dissonance required to spend your entire life denying the humanity of many of the people around you (which is unfortunately still common today, obviously), and writing about the "superior" race and some supposed hierarchy ordained by God is absolutely appalling (again, even as I know it's still going on today). There was a law allowing free black men who came into the port of Charleston to be imprisoned until their ships were ready to leave, lest they give enslaved people who looked like them any ideas?!?
I was honestly shocked right from the start that Mr. Vesey was able to even win a lottery AND purchase his own freedom, with how insanely and explicitly racist the laws in SC were at the time. And again, the cognitive dissonance of the judge condemning him and his supposed co-conspirators for "twisting" Scripture to fit their own experience, while doing the exact same thing himself in his sentencing of them?!? I appreciate the author specifically calling out the poorly constructed arguments by pro-enslavers over and over again.
It's so easy to dismiss these psychos as evil men stroking their mustaches like villains in movies or comics, but knowing they were everyday evangelical white men of the period is worse. There was the man who claimed that the enslavers would free the people they were enslaving if they "could," but unfortunately it wasn't economically feasible and that his generation wasn't morally responsible because they didn't institute the practice or chattel slavery; they only inherited it. Just pure evil.
I don't know how any person who exposes themselves to the reality of this evil in American history can believe or claim that the US was founded as or has even been a "Christian" nation - the reality of the slave-dependent economy shoots that right out of the water. But oh the comfort of cognitive dissonance.
The smug use of Scripture in support of evil is truly unsettling and raises a lot of questions about how it continues today and what it means about God and faith. The appendix that quotes the sentences of Judge Kennedy on the accused is damning beyond words.
This book is dry and unfortunately there's not a lot of solid information available about Denmark Vesey himself; still, what a devastating read. I was well aware of the fact that white supremacists used phrases and words from the Bible to justify themselves, but the meticulously laid out "arguments" and the sheer amounts of time and effort they put into it is as covered in this book far beyond what I had previously allowed myself to imagine. The depths of cognitive dissonance required to spend your entire life denying the humanity of many of the people around you (which is unfortunately still common today, obviously), and writing about the "superior" race and some supposed hierarchy ordained by God is absolutely appalling (again, even as I know it's still going on today). There was a law allowing free black men who came into the port of Charleston to be imprisoned until their ships were ready to leave, lest they give enslaved people who looked like them any ideas?!?
I was honestly shocked right from the start that Mr. Vesey was able to even win a lottery AND purchase his own freedom, with how insanely and explicitly racist the laws in SC were at the time. And again, the cognitive dissonance of the judge condemning him and his supposed co-conspirators for "twisting" Scripture to fit their own experience, while doing the exact same thing himself in his sentencing of them?!? I appreciate the author specifically calling out the poorly constructed arguments by pro-enslavers over and over again.
It's so easy to dismiss these psychos as evil men stroking their mustaches like villains in movies or comics, but knowing they were everyday evangelical white men of the period is worse. There was the man who claimed that the enslavers would free the people they were enslaving if they "could," but unfortunately it wasn't economically feasible and that his generation wasn't morally responsible because they didn't institute the practice or chattel slavery; they only inherited it. Just pure evil.
I don't know how any person who exposes themselves to the reality of this evil in American history can believe or claim that the US was founded as or has even been a "Christian" nation - the reality of the slave-dependent economy shoots that right out of the water. But oh the comfort of cognitive dissonance.
The smug use of Scripture in support of evil is truly unsettling and raises a lot of questions about how it continues today and what it means about God and faith. The appendix that quotes the sentences of Judge Kennedy on the accused is damning beyond words.
February 24, 2022
Denmark Vesey (1767-1822) was a free Black man living in Charleston, South Carolina and the leader, if it had succeeded, of the biggest slave rebellion in the ante-bellum South. But in the summer of 1822 the plan to burn down Charleston and kill the city's entire white population was betrayed. He was hanged, along with five other convicted ring leaders. Thirty more enslaved men would be tried and executed, and over thirty others, banished from the USA.
This is a meticulously researched and documented study of how Vesey and his supporters used the Bible, in particular passages from Exodus, Isiah, Deuteronomy and others, to justify, recruit and model the uprising. It is also an account, based on letters, trial transcripts, editorials and sermons, of how pro-slavery advocates used the same Bible to condemn the uprising, convict Vesey and his fellow rebels, and justify the continued enslavement of Africans. The Biblical arguments, both against and for enslavement, that arose from the Vesey case would influence the struggle for abolition for decades to come, and lend authority to those arguments.
Historical context is given whenever possible. Vesey bought his freedom after winning the state lottery, but the enslaver of Vesey's wife and children refused to release them. Likening the enslaved to the Old Testament Israelites, Vesey (a leader in Charleston's newly established African Methodist Episcopal Church, later demolished because of the attempted uprising) argued to all who would listen that Blacks had a moral commandment to rebel and punish enslavers. Witnesses testified that, on the day of the rebellion, white ministers were to be confronted as to why they did not 'preach up' the condemnation of 'man stealing', found in Exodus, chapter 21, verse 16. Vesey's use of the Bible to encourage rebellion was seen as a crime in itself, and led later to a fierce debate about the rights or wrongs of teaching Black people to read the Bible.
These references help dramatize what was at stake. Fascinating, too, are the trial transcripts which allude to another conspirator who used traditional African beliefs and rituals to also recruit and encourage the rebellion. The audiobook is ably narrated by Sean Crisden. This interesting exploration of an important event in American history will interest both scholars and lay people with an interest in American slavery and history. The book will be published in March 2022.
This is a meticulously researched and documented study of how Vesey and his supporters used the Bible, in particular passages from Exodus, Isiah, Deuteronomy and others, to justify, recruit and model the uprising. It is also an account, based on letters, trial transcripts, editorials and sermons, of how pro-slavery advocates used the same Bible to condemn the uprising, convict Vesey and his fellow rebels, and justify the continued enslavement of Africans. The Biblical arguments, both against and for enslavement, that arose from the Vesey case would influence the struggle for abolition for decades to come, and lend authority to those arguments.
Historical context is given whenever possible. Vesey bought his freedom after winning the state lottery, but the enslaver of Vesey's wife and children refused to release them. Likening the enslaved to the Old Testament Israelites, Vesey (a leader in Charleston's newly established African Methodist Episcopal Church, later demolished because of the attempted uprising) argued to all who would listen that Blacks had a moral commandment to rebel and punish enslavers. Witnesses testified that, on the day of the rebellion, white ministers were to be confronted as to why they did not 'preach up' the condemnation of 'man stealing', found in Exodus, chapter 21, verse 16. Vesey's use of the Bible to encourage rebellion was seen as a crime in itself, and led later to a fierce debate about the rights or wrongs of teaching Black people to read the Bible.
These references help dramatize what was at stake. Fascinating, too, are the trial transcripts which allude to another conspirator who used traditional African beliefs and rituals to also recruit and encourage the rebellion. The audiobook is ably narrated by Sean Crisden. This interesting exploration of an important event in American history will interest both scholars and lay people with an interest in American slavery and history. The book will be published in March 2022.
February 28, 2022
This is a work of nonfiction about a trial that I was previously not familiar with. This may be considered academic reading, though I think it is written so people with an interest in any of the subjects covered in the book can benefit from it.
The book is very well research. It includes appendices at the end. Since I had an audio review copy, I did not have access to illustrations, index, references that may be included with the print version.
The topic itself was fascinating, though at times hard to listen to because the views of the people presented at this time in history were horrifying, which is obviously the point. The author included how quotes from the Bible were used by both sides of the argument.
This is an important work of nonfiction. I recommend it to anyone with interest in history, sociology, African American issues, history of the US legal system, and religious studies. This book contains plenty of information for discussion in a university course on any of the above subjects.
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.
The book is very well research. It includes appendices at the end. Since I had an audio review copy, I did not have access to illustrations, index, references that may be included with the print version.
The topic itself was fascinating, though at times hard to listen to because the views of the people presented at this time in history were horrifying, which is obviously the point. The author included how quotes from the Bible were used by both sides of the argument.
This is an important work of nonfiction. I recommend it to anyone with interest in history, sociology, African American issues, history of the US legal system, and religious studies. This book contains plenty of information for discussion in a university course on any of the above subjects.
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.
March 9, 2022
In the book Denmark Vesey’s Bible, author and professor Jeremy Schipper writes about the largest planned revolt against slaveholders in American history. Vesey used numerous Biblical Scriptures to rally his group to not just escape slavery, but called them to overthrow all slaveholders and kill everyone – men, women and children as part of their fight for freedom.
I am still trying to figure out the point of the author writing this book. I guess the main point is that anyone can use and manipulate what the Bible says for their own use. But this book falls far short of challenging our thinking today. This could have been a great book but fell well short of my recommendation. I received a copy of this audio-book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I am still trying to figure out the point of the author writing this book. I guess the main point is that anyone can use and manipulate what the Bible says for their own use. But this book falls far short of challenging our thinking today. This could have been a great book but fell well short of my recommendation. I received a copy of this audio-book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
April 12, 2024
Short, in-depth read on history and religious interpretation. The titular document, unfortunately, does not feature as it didn't make it into the modern era. All the author has instead is the fear-driven dialogues and pamphlets from those justifying slavery in the aftermath of Vesey's failed plot. Many trained men were either blind to their own ignorance of God's word, or were truly twisted in attempts to keep power.
Would also recommend 'A Holy Baptism of Fire and Blood,' which covers much of the same debates (though in more detail and 40 years later that Vesey).
Would also recommend 'A Holy Baptism of Fire and Blood,' which covers much of the same debates (though in more detail and 40 years later that Vesey).
January 3, 2023
The book seemed to drag on repeatedly to the point that its focus and stakes were lost. It also became much less about “Denmark Vesey’s Bible” and more about the white Charlestonians? A minority of the book was focused on Vesey himself and the rebellion he led. I’m not quite sure what the point of writing this book was.
June 6, 2022
*received for free from netgalley for honest review* never heard of any of this before so this was an interesting and educational read, unlikely to reread but learned a lot.
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