As the leaders
refused to divulge any details of their plans, the exact number
involved in the plot remains unknown. However, rumor had it that
somewhere between two thousand and fifty thousand slaves were
connected with the conspiracy. During the trials, one of the rebels
said that he had done nothing more than what Washington had done, that
he had ventured his life for his countrymen, and that he was a willing
sacrifice.
In Charleston, South Carolina, a young slave named Denmark Vesey
won $1,500 in a lottery with which he purchased his freedom. During
the following years he worked as a carpenter. In his concern over the
plight of his slave brethren, he formed a plan for an insurrection
which would bring them their freedom. He and other freedmen collected
two hundred pike heads and bayonets as well as three hundred daggers
to use in the revolt, but, before the plans could be put into motion
in 1882, a slave informed on them. This time it was rumored that
there had been some nine thousand involved in the plot. Over a
hundred arrests were made, including four whites who had encouraged
the project, and several of the leaders, including Vesey, were
executed.
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