On the 1st of July the Court proceeded to the trial of MONDAY GELL, who, together with CHARLES DRAYTON, had been apprehended; the first, on the 27th of June, and the latter, on the 2d of July.
By referring to the Appendix (D.) & (E.) the nature of the testimony against these individuals will be seen. In reference to the case of Monday Gell it was established that he had been a very important ringleader, and that his shop, in Meeting-Street, was a place at which many meetings were held; at all of which he was present, lending the most zealous aid, and affording the strongest countenance; and if any confirmation of his guilt should be sought for, it may be found in his own confession in the Appendix (K.) After Monday Gell and Charles Drayton were convicted there appeared to be a pause in our further discoveries, and some prospect of the investigation closing with their execution and that of John Horry, Harry Haig and Gullah Jack, (for the guilt of the latter, see Appendix (D.) (E.) & (F.))
On the 9th of July, however, these five men, were called before the Court to receive sentence, and after it had been pronounced, with the most impressive solemnity, they were withdrawn to a common ward in the Work-House, for half an hour, until separate cells could be provided for them. It was at this moment that Charles Drayton, overwhelmed with terror and guilt, went up to Monday and reproached him with having induced him to join in a scheme which had placed him in such a miserable and perilous situation. To this appeal Monday, not only confessed his guilt, but observed to Charles—that their present fate was justly and precisely what they had a right to expect, after their detected and defeated project. On which there immediately ensued between them a conversation on the extent of the guilt of others, in which Monday gave Charles the names of many accomplices whom he had not previously known in the plot;—the arrival of the blacksmith to iron the convicts, and the turnkey to convey them to separate cells, interrupted the conversation.
Charles, during the night of the 9th, sent for Mr. Gordon, who has charge of the Work-House, and informed him that he was extremely anxious to see the Intendant, as he had some important disclosures to make. By day-light, on the morning of the 10th, this message was conveyed to the person for whom it was intended, and Charles was visited at sun-rise. He was found, in a state of the most lamentable depression and panic, and he seemed prepared to make the most ample declarations from the fear of death, and the consequences of an hereafter, if he went out of the world without revealing all that he knew, in relation to the Conspiracy, in which he had been so active an agent. Before his narrative was received, he was most specially put on his guard, that no promises could be made to him of a reversal of his fate, but that he might rest satisfied, his condition could not be worse by his coming out with a full disclosure of all that he knew. He then stated many particulars, that had come to his own knowledge, proving a much wider diffusion of the plot than, at that period, was imagined; and, after giving up the names of several of his comrades, he mentioned the conversation which had been commenced and broken off, in the common ward of the Work-House, between Monday Gell and himself. As Monday, at this period, did not seem disposed to make any confessions to others, whatever he might be inclined to do to his friend Charles, it was considered important, that the conversation between them should be renewed, and they were brought together in the same cell, and left for twenty-four hours alone; but some little stratagem was employed, to divert the suspicions of Monday, that Charles was confined with him, merely for the purpose of getting information out of him.
On the morning of the 10th, the Court were convened, and apprized, generally, of these new disclosures, which Charles had made, but as he was still closeted with Monday, he could not be examined on that day, the Court adjourned to meet on the 13th; on which day Monday Gell’s own confession was heard by them. Between the 10th and 13th, Charles and Monday were separated (having been respited by His Excellency, the Governor, at the request of the Court) and Charles, on his re-examination afforded much important information, which he had derived from Monday. On Monday’s having all this brought to his view, he confessed his own guilt, as well as the truth of the statements which he had made to Charles.[[9]]
Cotemporaneously with these communications, PERAULT, belonging to Mr. Strohecker, was taken up, on the 10th, and on his being closely and judiciously examined by his master, he gave a large mass of intelligence confirming what had been related by Monday and Charles, and supplying several deficiencies in their testimony, more especially that part of it which related to the transmission of certain letters to San Domingo. These disclosures, with some further details which were obtained from Harry Haig, (whose confession and subsequent testimony went to implicate a corps of Gullah or Angola negroes, that had been organized under the command of their Chief, Gullah Jack,) gave ample employment for three or four days to the Committee of Vigilance, during which upwards of sixty slaves were apprehended.
It would very much transcend the limits necessarily prescribed to this brief memoir, to go over all the trials that subsequently ensued, on these fresh discoveries. As the most important part of the testimony, adduced on these trials, is to be found in the Appendix, it is deemed altogether, superfluous, to make a special application of it to each of the cases, as this would result in a repetition fatiguing and uninteresting to the reader. It will be sufficient to single out a few of the cases most pregnant in interest, and to remark, that the Court on its reorganization on the 13th, justly estimating the extent of the labour before them, laid down certain rules of discrimination in the guilt of the parties to which they give the most definite precision and perspicuity, by adopting two classes of offence; the first involving a primary and the second a minor degree of guilt. Under the first class, they brought all those who were ringleaders, who had made a declaration of their belonging to the association, and who had been present, aiding and abetting in the contribution of money, arms or ammunition, at Denmark Vesey’s, or who were in the constant habit of visiting Monday Gell’s shop and Bulkley’s farm, for the purpose of obtaining and communicating intelligence of the progress of the conspiracy. Those found guilty in this class, were to be punished with death. Under the second class were arranged those who had merely sent in their adhesion to the ringleaders without ever having attended a meeting at Vesey’s, or having been recognized by him as confidential men, or contributed to the purchase of arms or ammunition, or endeavoured to enlist others. The punishment which awaited those found guilty in this class, was transportation beyond the limits of the United States.[[10]]
By reference to the Calendar marked (S) in the Appendix, the names of the prisoners committed will be found, and under a proper column, the mode in which they were disposed of, whether by death, transportation, or discharge, from the insufficiency of testimony. The extent of the evidence adduced, therefore, against each individual, may be inferred with accuracy, by observing the punishment awarded him; as the Court adhered with great and rigid fidelity to these rules, which were in unison both with justice and humanity.
Among the vast number of cases disposed of by the first Court; in a session of nearly six weeks, involving the most intense and unremitting labour, it would be impossible to overlook the case of Jack Pritchard, otherwise called GULLAH JACK. The testimony in the Appendix, of more than one of the witnesses, will establish fully his guilt, and prove the justice of the sentence, by which he was ushered into another world; but no description can accurately convey to others the impression which his trial, defence and appearance made on those who witnessed the workings of his cunning and rude address. Born a conjurer and a physician, in his own country (for in Angola they are matters of inheritance) he practised these arts in this country for fifteen years, without its being generally known among the whites. Vesey, who left no engines of power unessayed, seems, in an early stage of his design, to have turned his eye on this Necromancer, aware of his influence with his own countrymen, who are distinguished both for their credulous superstition and clannish sympathies. It does not appear that Jack required much persuasion to induce him to join in a project, which afforded him the most ample opportunities of displaying his peculiar art, whilst it is very obvious that his willingness, to do all that Vesey might require, was in no little degree stimulated, by his bitterness and his gall against the whites. Altho’ he had been fifteen or twenty years in this country, yet he appeared to be untouched by the influences of civilized life.—If the part which he was to play in this drama, bespoke that the treacherous and vindictive artifices of war in his own country, existed in unimpaired vigour in his memory, his wildness and vehemence of gesture and the malignant glance with which he eyed the witnesses who appeared against him, all indicated the savage, who indeed had been caught, but not tamed. It would be both tedious and disgusting to relate the many artifices employed by this miscreant to deceive and cajole his deluded countrymen. Such was their belief in his invulnerability, that his charms and amulets were in request, and he was regarded as a man, who could only be harmed but by the treachery of his fellows. Even those negroes who were born in this country seem to have spoken of his charmed invincibility with a confidence which looked much like belief. When Jack was dragged forth to the scaffold he seemed conscious that his arts would stand him in little stead, and gave up his spirit without firmness or composure.
The case of TOM RUSSEL, another of the Gullah Band, deserves a brief notice. He was tried some days after Jack, and was executed among the twenty-two Criminals hung on the Lines, on the 26th July. Tom was Jack’s armourer, and kept his blacksmith’s shop on East-Bay. His part in the conspiracy was confined to the making of pikes and spears, which it appears he did on a very approved model. After these weapons were finished, they were held subject to the order of Jack, and by him sent up to Mr. Bulkley’s farm,[[11]] near the Cross Roads, where handles were provided for them by Polydore Faber, a Gullah, who met his fate on the same scaffold with Tom Russel. This farm was one of the principal rendezvous of the Gullah Band, of which Jack was the Captain.