Denmark Veseys Bible, Jeremy Schipper
Denmark Veseys Bible, Jeremy Schipper
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Denmark Vesey's Bible
The Thwarted Revolt That Put Slavery and Scripture on Trial

Author: Jeremy Schipper

Narrator: Sean Crisden

Unabridged: 4 hr 42 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 03/08/2022


Synopsis

On July 2, 1822, Denmark Vesey, a formerly enslaved man, was hanged in Charleston, South Carolina. He was convicted of plotting what might have been the largest insurrection against slaveholders in US history. Witnesses claimed that Vesey appealed to numerous biblical texts to promote and justify the revolt. While sentencing Vesey to death, Lionel Henry Kennedy, a magistrate at the trial, accused Vesey not only of treason but also of "attempting to pervert the sacred words of God into a sanction for crimes of the blackest hue." Denmark Vesey's Bible tells the story of this momentous trial, examining the role of scriptural interpretation in the deadly struggle against American white supremacy and its brutal enforcement.

Jeremy Schipper brings the trial and its aftermath vividly to life, drawing on court documents, personal letters, sermons, speeches, and editorials. He shows how Vesey compared people of African descent with enslaved Israelites in the Bible, while his accusers portrayed plantation owners as benevolent biblical patriarchs responsible for providing religious instruction to the enslaved. What emerges is an explosive portrait of an antebellum city in the grips of racial terror, violence, and contending visions of biblical truth.

About Jeremy Schipper

Jeremy Schipper is professor in the Departments of the Study of Religion and Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations at the University of Toronto. Recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, he is coauthor, with Nyasha Junior, of Black Samson: The Untold Story of an American Icon and the author of Disability and Isaiah's Suffering Servant and Parables and Conflict in the Hebrew Bible. He lives in Toronto.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Hunter

Best treatment of biblical justifications for slavery and white supremacy I’ve ever read. See also “Second Class Saints.”......more

Goodreads review by Glen

This careful study of primary sources is related to the thwarted slave revolt led by Denmark Vesey (c. 1767-1822) which took place in Charleston, South Carolina in 1822. The focus is on the use of Scriptural texts in either justifying or condemning armed insurrections against slaveholders. Court tra......more

Goodreads review by Stuart

This is a book that is likely to be of very narrow interest. As such, I am challenged to understand whether I've unfairly rated the book lower because it didn't meet my expectations or because it didn't deliver on what it presented. This is a short book, less than 200 pages *including* appendix, note......more

Goodreads review by Jodi

"What sin? You applaud the leaders of the American revolution who resisted a small tax on tea and rather than pay it, killed tens of thousands. But what was that tax to our sufferings? Washington was a white man and you idolized him. But I, alas, am a black man, and you hang me for the very act you......more