Denmark Vesey

Upon reading Johnson's article "Denmark Vesey and His Co-Conspirators" the points of his argument become very evident. Johnson is writing of a time when courts of justice were solely meant to protect and adhere to the needs of the white population in the South. Johnson follows the Vesey trial and thoroughly dissects all of the injustices and foul play that courts in that time were able to practice. Johnson shows how the accused within this trial including Vesey were judged and somewhat forced to comply to the certain ways they testified to the killings of the white victims. Johnson also follows the black witnesses in the trial and details their part in the trial, and how they were significantly swayed into testifying a particular way.

Johnson's argument in his article is that the courts exercised the power to impose upon the witnesses and the accused of what the white society believed in was right and fair. However, because of the racial tensions of this time, what the courts proposed were mainly prejudiced towards non-whites, and in this particular case, the outcomes of the blacks. The black witnesses and accused were prosecuted under what the whites defined to be right and wrong, good and bad, and so on. I agree with Johnson's argument because during these times when blacks were coming into their own freedom, they were still viewed as a minority figure within society, with less than equal rights. I also believe that with the Vesey trial, and the fact that whites were killed at the hands of blacks, hatred would evidently fill the courts, and both justice and injustices would be committed to appeal to the white society's desires.

Johnson also comments on how the records documenting this trial were constantly changed and inconsistent to what was actually happening in the trial. He states that many historians have failed to recognize these differences within the court documents with such things as what a particular witness may have said, to the dates when certain witnesses were on trial. Also within these records of the Vesey trial, there were many claims that stated that Vesey had fits or was epileptic, some considering that he participated in voodoo ceremonies. Johnson believes that the courts made Vesey appear to be less mentally developed than he actually was.

I believe that this type of behaviour from the courts ties into the power that the courts had at this time over its cases. I believe that Johnson tries to acknowledge how the courts were able to make its accused look unstable in order to make them appear to be a threat in front