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 magistra...