[Footnote 2:  For reasons of policy the names of these informers were withheld from publication, but they were well known, of course, to the Negroes of Charleston.  The published documents said of the chief informer, “It would be a libel on the liberality and gratitude of this community to suppose that this man can be overlooked among those who are to be rewarded for their fidelity and principle.”  The author has been informed that his reward for betraying his people was to be officially and legally declared “a white man.”]

[Footnote 3:  Jervey:  Robert Y. Hayne and His Times, 131-2.]

Two courts were formed for the trial of the conspirators.  The first, after a long session of five weeks, was dissolved July 20; a second was convened, but after three days closed its investigation and adjourned August 8.[1] All the while the public mind was greatly excited.  The first court, which speedily condemned thirty-four men to death, was severely criticized.  The New York Daily Advertiser termed the execution “a bloody sacrifice”; but Charleston replied with the reminder of the Negroes who had been burned in New York in 1741.[2] Some of the Negroes blamed the leaders for the trouble into which they had been brought, but Vesey himself made no confession.  He was by no means alone.  “Do not open your lips,” said Poyas; “die silent as you shall see me do.”  Something of the solicitude of owners for their slaves may be seen from the request of Governor Bennett himself in behalf of Batteau Bennett.  He asked for a special review of the case of this young man, who was among those condemned to death, “with a view to the mitigation of his punishment.”  The court did review the case, but it did not change its sentence.  Throughout the proceedings the white people of Charleston were impressed by the character of those who had taken part in the insurrection; “many of them possessed the highest confidence of their owners, and not one was of bad character."[3]

[Footnote 1:  Bennett letter.]

[Footnote 2:  See City Gazette, August 14, 1822, cited by Jervey.]

[Footnote 3:  Official Report, 44.]

As a result of this effort for freedom one hundred and thirty-one Negroes were arrested; thirty-five were executed and forty-three banished.[1] Of those executed, Denmark Vesey, Peter Poyas, Ned Bennett, Rolla Bennett, Batteau Bennett, and Jesse Blackwood were hanged July 2; Gullah Jack and one more on July 12; twenty-two were hanged on a huge gallows Friday, July 26; four more were hanged July 30, and one on August 9.  Of those banished, twelve had been sentenced for execution, but were afterwards given banishment instead; twenty-one were to be transported by their masters beyond the limits of the United States; one, a free man, required to leave the state, satisfied the court by offering to leave the United States, while nine others who were not definitely sentenced were strongly recommended to their owners for banishment.