A decade prior, Denmark Vesey, a free African American in Charleston, South Carolina, laid the groundwork for his own slave revolt. This year marks the bicentennial of his eventual execution. Vesey first appears in the historical record as an enslaved teenager in Bermuda, although it's possible he was born in West Africa, kidnapped, and brought to the Caribbean. A failed sale led the ship's captain, Joseph Vesey, to bring the young man to Charleston. Vesey developed a trade in carpentry, and in 1799 he won a major lottery, allowing him to purchase his freedom.

Vesey could have continued plying his profession peacefully, but he rankled under the injustice of slavery, a burden he still felt as several of his children remained enslaved. He was also inspired by the American Revolution's promise of equality, rooted in a divine creation of all. So he began plotting an uprising, enacted mostly by enslaved men, to set fire to Charleston, kill as many whites as resisted, and escape to Haiti.

When recruitment reached too far, however, the conspiracy was discovered. Vesey and the other plotters were arrested. After trials, they were executed in the summer of 1822. Then retribution expanded to others with any connection to the leaders. In all, 35 African Americans were executed, with one group of 22 hanged at the same time.

Through the drama of that year, the Bible loomed large. The place of the Bible for Vesey, for opponents of slavery, and for white Southerners who developed a proslavery Christianity is the central concern of Denmark Vesey's Bible, a new book from religion professor Jeremy Schipper.

We know Vesey read from the Bible--by himself, in large groups, and when recruiting for the uprising. He was a class (small group) leader at the African Church, a congregation associated with what would become the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Vesey knew both the political and biblical arguments against slavery. He was particularly moved by the condemnation of "man stealing" in Exodus 21:16. Not only those who kidnapped slaves but those who purchased them came under God's judgment.

Vesey thus believed and taught that violent uprising was a righteous cause. He and his followers would be reenacting the path of ancient Israel, both in desiring release from Egyptian bondage and in waging war against the Canaanites to gain a promised land.