[Footnote 1:  Official Report, 31-32.]

On May 25[1] a slave of Colonel Prioleau, while on an errand at the wharf, was accosted by another slave, William Paul, who remarked:  “I have often seen a flag with the number 76, but never one with the number 96 upon it before.”  As this man showed no knowledge of what was going on, Paul spoke to him further and quite frankly about the plot.  The slave afterwards spoke to a free man about what he had heard; this man advised him to tell his master about it; and so he did on Prioleau’s return on May 30.  Prioleau immediately informed the Intendant, or Mayor, and by five o’clock in the afternoon both the slave and Paul were being examined.  Paul was placed in confinement, but not before his testimony had implicated Peter Poyas and Mingo Harth, a man who had been appointed to lead one of the companies of horse.  Harth and Poyas were cool and collected, however, they ridiculed the whole idea, and the wardens, completely deceived, discharged them.  In general at this time the authorities were careful and endeavored not to act hastily.  About June 8, however, Paul, greatly excited and fearing execution, confessed that the plan was very extensive and said that it was led by an individual who bore a charmed life.  Ned Bennett, hearing that his name had been mentioned, voluntarily went before the Intendant and asked to be examined, thus again completely baffling the officials.  All the while, in the face of the greatest danger, Vesey continued to hold his meetings.  By Friday, June 14, however, another informant had spoken to his master, and all too fully were Peter Poyas’s fears about “waiting-men” justified.  This man said that the original plan had been changed, for the night of Sunday, June 16, was now the time set for the insurrection, and otherwise he was able to give all essential information.[2] On Saturday night, June 15, Jesse Blackwood, an aid sent into the country to prepare the slaves to enter the following day, while he penetrated two lines of guards, was at the third line halted and sent back into the city.  Vesey now realized in a moment that all his plans were disclosed, and immediately he destroyed any papers that might prove to be incriminating.  “On Sunday, June 16, at ten o’clock at night, Captain Cattle’s Corps of Hussars, Captain Miller’s Light Infantry, Captain Martindale’s Neck Rangers, the Charleston Riflemen and the City Guard were ordered to rendezvous for guard, the whole organized as a detachment under command of Colonel R.Y.  Hayne."[3] It was his work on this occasion that gave Hayne that appeal to the public which was later to help him to pass on to the governorship and then to the United States Senate.  On the fateful night twenty or thirty men from the outlying districts who had not been able to get word of the progress of events, came to the city in a small boat, but Vesey sent word to them to go back as quickly as possible.

[Footnote 1:  Higginson, 215.]