In partnership with the Carolina Lowcountry and Atlantic World (CLAW) Program at the College of Charleston, the Center for the Study of Slavery in Charleston (CSSC) is hosting its second annual scholarly lecture at 6 p.m. on Monday, April 18, 2022, in room 101 of the Rita Liddy Hollings Center (58 Coming St.). The event will also be livestreamed via Zoom. The public is invited to register for the free event.
James O’Neil Spady of Soka University in Aliso Viejo, California, will deliver the lecture “A Movement, not a Conspiracy: A New Narrative of the 1822 Denmark Vesey ‘Affair,'” in recognition of the upcoming 200th anniversary of the historic Denmark Vesey rebellion on June 8, 1822.
Spady is an associate professor of American history at Soka University, author of Education and the Racial Dynamics of Settler Colonialism in Early America: Georgia and South Carolina, ca. 1700 – ca. 1820 and editor and contributor of Fugitive Movements: Commemorating the Denmark Vesey Affair and Black Radical Antislavery in the Atlantic World.
Denmark Vesey was a free Black community leader in Charleston who was accused and convicted of planning a major revolt among enslaved people in 1822. Although the alleged plot was discovered before it could be realized, its potential scale stoked the fears of the antebellum planter class that led to increased restrictions on enslaved people and free Blacks alike.
“Denmark Vesey is a principal figure in the history of anti-slavery campaigns throughout the Atlantic World with a legacy that influences modern day liberation movements both in and beyond Charleston,” says Mary Jo Fairchild, special collections research services coordinator for College of Charleston Libraries and chair of the CSSC’s Academic Research Working Group, which is organizing the event. , which is organizing the event. “We are excited to have James O’Neil Spady here to kick off the 200th anniversary of the 1822 uprising led by Denmark Vesey.”
The day after Spady’s lecture on Monday, he will lead a small research seminar, “Mapping a Movement: Archival and Digital Methods for Representing the Social and Spatial Connections of the 1822 Denmark Vesey ‘Affair,'” at which he will explain aspects of his sources and methodology for exploring Denmark Vesey’s biography, ideology and Charleston during his lifetime. The seminar will be held in room 360 of the Marlene and Nathan Addlestone Library from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 19, 2022.
Spady’s presentations are part of the efforts of the College of Charlestonโs Center for the Study of Slavery in Charleston to foster a deeper public understanding of slavery and its complex legacies. It supports academic research and teaching that examine the role of slavery in the history of the College and the region. The Center engages its community, area residents and the general public in collaborative programming and dialog to disseminate new knowledge and promote social justice, racial healing and reconciliation.
Register for the April 18 event.
