Raynors HCA 2017-02
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 2/23/2017
A complete and authentic of the Niles Weekly Register, September 7, 1822, 16pp., disbound, VG. From the interior and running nearly two full pages is the text of a circular letter written by South Carolina Governor, Thomas Bennett. Bennett, in an effort to calm the fears of the South Carolina white population, details the arrest, trial and execution of the conspiring slaves. In very small part, “On the 18th of June ten slaves were arrested ...the 28th that the sentence of death was was pronounced ... Denmark Vessey, a free Negro was arrested on the 21st and on the 22nd put on trial. Although unquestionably the instigator ... no positive proof appeared until the 25th. This grew out of the confession of one of the convicts ... In the short space of seven days, thirty-two negroes were convicted; twenty-two were executed on the 20th of July ...” Immediately following the report is 1/2 page editorial, in small part, “It appears that 131 blacks were arrested, of whom 35 were executed, 21 sentenced out of the United States ...” Vessey settled in Charleston, South Carolina as a youth, where Joseph Vesey kept him as a domestic slave. On November 9, 1799, Denmark Vesey won $1500 in a city lottery. He bought his own freedom and began working as a carpenter. Although a Presbyterian as late as April 1816, Vesey co-founded a branch of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1817. The church was temporarily shut down by white authorities in 1818 and again in 1820.
Click on a thumbnail above to display a larger image below
Hold down the mouse button and slide side to side to see more thumbnails(if available).
Click above for larger image.