Just before picking up Kidd’s Invention of Wings, I read James McBride’s The Good Lord Bird: A Novel, which, using the point of view of a young boy (disguised as a girl), offers a very funny look at John Brown’s abolitionist campaign, culminating in the famous debacle of Harpers Ferry (1859). (I recommend the novel: it’s a great read!)
John Brown, deeply religious, considered slavery a “moral blight” with a fervor and authenticity that caused Frederick Douglass to write, “Though a white gentleman, [Brown] is in sympathy a black man and as deeply interested in our cause as though his own soul had been pierced by the iron of slavery.”
Brown hoped the local slave population would join the raid on Harper’s Ferry, obtain the weapons held at its arsenal, and with them become freedom fighters to eliminate slavery. He failed, of course, but even after being captured and hung Brown asserted that “the crimes [of slavery] of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood.” He was convinced there could not be a peaceful means to end slavery.
This story about Brown takes me to Denmark Vesey, the lover of Handful’s mauma and leader of the “almost” slave rebellion in Charleston in 1822. Kidd describes him as a “bull of a man,” ferociously indignant of the treatment of slaves and free blacks in Charleston. According to “Essays in History,” Charleston was an African-American city -- 11,568 slaves and 1,472 free African Americans made up 53.2 percent of the city's population.” For this reason, Denmark Vesey had very good reasons to think he might instigate an insurrection for he had numbers on his side.
Sue Monk Kidd offers David Robertson’s ‘s account of him at the back of her book as her source in constructing this character. I pause in reading the title: The Buried Story of American’s Largest Slave Rebellion and the Man Who Led It, with “largest slave rebellion” leaping out at me,” for as Kidd depicts the rebellion, it was an event that never was – it was put down before it had a chance to do much at all.
The Kirkus Review describes Robertson’s book as “A fascinating historical detective story about an abortive 1822 slave insurrection in Charleston,” masterminded by Denmark Vesey.” This insurrection could have been “the most devastating uprising in American history” because its goals were huge: Vessey intended to “assassinate the governor and other high elected officials, torch the city, murder the entire white population, including children, and escape to either Haiti or Africa.”
Everyone knows about John Brown’s failed attempts at Harper’s Ferry, but how many of us know about Denmark Vessey?
Aside to students: Consider Vesey as a topic for a future research paper in cultural studies or American History!.
John Brown, deeply religious, considered slavery a “moral blight” with a fervor and authenticity that caused Frederick Douglass to write, “Though a white gentleman, [Brown] is in sympathy a black man and as deeply interested in our cause as though his own soul had been pierced by the iron of slavery.”
Brown hoped the local slave population would join the raid on Harper’s Ferry, obtain the weapons held at its arsenal, and with them become freedom fighters to eliminate slavery. He failed, of course, but even after being captured and hung Brown asserted that “the crimes [of slavery] of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood.” He was convinced there could not be a peaceful means to end slavery.
This story about Brown takes me to Denmark Vesey, the lover of Handful’s mauma and leader of the “almost” slave rebellion in Charleston in 1822. Kidd describes him as a “bull of a man,” ferociously indignant of the treatment of slaves and free blacks in Charleston. According to “Essays in History,” Charleston was an African-American city -- 11,568 slaves and 1,472 free African Americans made up 53.2 percent of the city's population.” For this reason, Denmark Vesey had very good reasons to think he might instigate an insurrection for he had numbers on his side.
Sue Monk Kidd offers David Robertson’s ‘s account of him at the back of her book as her source in constructing this character. I pause in reading the title: The Buried Story of American’s Largest Slave Rebellion and the Man Who Led It, with “largest slave rebellion” leaping out at me,” for as Kidd depicts the rebellion, it was an event that never was – it was put down before it had a chance to do much at all.
The Kirkus Review describes Robertson’s book as “A fascinating historical detective story about an abortive 1822 slave insurrection in Charleston,” masterminded by Denmark Vesey.” This insurrection could have been “the most devastating uprising in American history” because its goals were huge: Vessey intended to “assassinate the governor and other high elected officials, torch the city, murder the entire white population, including children, and escape to either Haiti or Africa.”
Everyone knows about John Brown’s failed attempts at Harper’s Ferry, but how many of us know about Denmark Vessey?
Aside to students: Consider Vesey as a topic for a future research paper in cultural studies or American History!.