Denmark Vesey's Bible: The Thwarted Revolt That Put Slavery and Scripture on Trial
Jeremy Schipper, "Denmark Vesey's Bible: The Thwarted Revolt That Put Slavery and Scripture on Trial"
English | ISBN: 0691192863 | 2022 | 216 pages | PDF | 6 MB
English | ISBN: 0691192863 | 2022 | 216 pages | PDF | 6 MB
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.”
Read more