This is an extraordinary work, the product of probing research and fluent writing. Despite the sparse written record, Vesey's 'lives' as emigrant, slave, and freeman are sketched with vitality and understanding. The twenty-first century needs this readable reminder of an inspiring man and a significant event.

Leslie H. Fishel, Jr., author of Black America: A Documentary History

The riveting story of Denmark Vesey and his comrades allows Egerton to explore expertly both the brutality and the limits of white planters' rule. This study is a rich reminder of the centrality of movement and revolt in the history of the emancipation of U.S. slaves.

David Roediger, author of The Wages of Whiteness and Towards the Abolition of Whiteness

A fine biography that sheds light on an important but often misunderstood conspiracy. Together with Gabriel's Rebellion, this book establishes Douglas R. Egerton as a leading student of American slave revolts.

Peter Kolchin, author of American Slavery: 1619–1877

An informed and compelling portrait of a Herculean figure in Southern history. Egerton combines careful sleuthing and a biographer's intuition to bring a key American life out of the shadows and place it in a complicated Atlantic setting.

Peter H. Wood, author of Black Majority: Negroes in Colonial South Carolina from 1670 Through the Stono Rebellion

Egerton seeks Vesey in the few records that remain, ranging from newspaper stories to hastily scribbled court transcripts, in uncommon sources from the Carolinas to Haiti. He finds that Vesey was a complicated man whose freed status and eloquence in several languages did not seem to matter, whose frustration with white society, white religion, and white power led him to organize a revolt that consisted of slaves simply walking away from it all. Egerton includes very useful essays on his sources and on Vesey's treatment by historians.

Reference and Research Book News

Egerton writes in a clear, engaging style; his work is fully documented and reflects a solid grasp of scholarship on slavery and slave revolts.

Choice Reviews