This court having first made its own rules that no negro was to be tried except in the presence of his master or attorney, that everyone on trial should be heard in his own defense, and that no one should be capitally sentenced on the bare testimony of a single witness, proceeded to the trial of Peter Poyas, Denmark Vesey and others against whom charges had then been lodged.  By eavesdropping those who were now convicted and confronting them with their own words, confessions were procured implicating many others who in turn were put on trial, including Gullah Jack whose necromancy could not save him.  In all 130 negroes were arrested, including nine colored freemen.  Of the whole number, twenty-five were discharged by the committee of vigilance and 27 others by the court.  Nine more were acquitted with recommendations with which their masters readily complied, that they be transported.  Of those convicted, 34 were deported by public authority and 35 were hanged.  In addition four white men indicted for complicity, comprising a German peddler, a Scotchman, a Spaniard and a Charlestonian,[73] were tried by a regular court having jurisdiction over whites and sentenced to prison terms ranging from three to twelve months.

[Footnote 73:  An Account of the late intended Insurrection among a portion of the Blacks of this City.  Published by the Authority of the Corporation of Charleston (Charleston, 1822); Lionel H. Kennedy and Thomas Parker (the presiding magistrates of the special court), An Official Report of the Trials of sundry Negroes charged with an attempt to raise an insurrection, with a report of the trials of four white persons on indictments for attempting to excite the slaves to insurrection (Charleston, 1822); T.D.  Jervey, Robert Y. Hayne and His Times (New York, 1909), pp. 130-136.]

A number of Charleston citizens promptly memorialized the state assembly recommending that all free negroes be expelled, that the penalties applicable to whites conspiring with negroes be made more severe, and that the control over the blacks be generally stiffened.[74] The legislature complied except as to the proposal for expulsion.  Charlestonians also organized an association for the prevention of negro disturbances; but by 1825 the public seems to have begun to lose its ardor in the premises.[75]

[Footnote 74:  Memorial of the Citizens of Charleston to the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of South Carolina (Charleston, 1822), reprinted in Plantation and Frontier, II, 103-116.]

[Footnote 75:  Address of the association, in the Charleston City Gazette, Aug. 5, 1825.]