Denmark Vesey had come very near figuring as a revolutionist in Hayti, instead of South Carolina.  Captain Vesey, an old resident of Charleston, commanded a ship that traded between St. Thomas and Cape Francais, during our Revolutionary War, in the slave-transportation line.  In the year 1781 he took on board a cargo of three hundred and ninety slaves, and sailed for the Cape.  On the passage, he and his officers were much attracted by the beauty and intelligence of a boy of fourteen, whom they unanimously adopted into the cabin as a pet.  They gave him new clothes and a new name, Telemaque, which was afterwards gradually corrupted into Telmak and Denmark.  They amused themselves with him until their arrival at Cape Francais, and then, “having no use for the boy,” sold their pet as if he had been a macaw or a monkey.  Captain Vesey sailed for St. Thomas, and presently making another trip to Cape Francais, was surprised to hear from his consignee that Telemaque would be returned on his hands as being “unsound,”—­not in theology nor in morals, but in body,—­subject to epileptic fits, in fact.  According to the custom of that place, the boy was examined by the city physician, who required Captain Vesey to take him back; and Denmark served him faithfully, with no trouble from epilepsy, for twenty years, travelling all over the world with him, and learning to speak various languages.  In 1800, he drew a prize of fifteen hundred dollars in the East Bay Street Lottery, with which he bought his freedom from his master for six hundred dollars,—­much less than his market value.  From that time, the official report says, he worked as a carpenter in Charleston, distinguished for physical strength and energy.  “Among those of his color he was looked up to with awe and respect.  His temper was impetuous and domineering in the extreme, qualifying him for the despotic rule of which he was ambitious.  All his passions were ungovernable and savage; and to his numerous wives and children he displayed the haughty and capricious cruelty of an Eastern bashaw.”

“For several years before he disclosed his intentions to any one, he appears to have been constantly and assiduously engaged in endeavoring to embitter the minds of the colored population against the white.  He rendered himself perfectly familiar with all those parts of the Scriptures which he thought he could pervert to his purpose; and would readily quote them, to prove that slavery was contrary to the laws of God,—­that slaves were bound to attempt their emancipation, however shocking and bloody might be the consequences,—­and that such efforts would not only be pleasing to the Almighty, but were absolutely enjoined and their success predicted in the Scriptures.  His favorite texts, when he addressed those of his own color, were Zechariah, xiv. 1-3, and Joshua, vi. 21; and in all his conversations he identified their situation with that of the Israelites.  The number of inflammatory pamphlets on slavery brought