This book had the potential to be really interesting, looking at the different ways scripture was used politically both to convince slaves to revolt and to prosecute and justify killing them. Most of the evidence that exists is from the white politically powerful slave owners and there's just not enough evidence from the side of the rebellion to build a truly compelling argument. That said, he author analyzed what he did have really well and it was a very interesting treatise on rhetoric, scripture, and the uses the bible can be put to to justify oppression.

*received for free from netgalley for honest review* never heard of any of this before so this was an interesting and educational read, unlikely to reread but learned a lot.

Interesting to me not what I generally read. But very interesting stuff to think about. I don’t really know how to sum this book up. There’s a lot to think about and very interesting helpful I know As always thinking that galley for sending me this review copy all opinions are my own. Obviously

In the book Denmark Vesey’s Bible, author and professor Jeremy Schipper writes about the largest planned revolt against slaveholders in American history. Vesey used numerous Biblical Scriptures to rally his group to not just escape slavery, but called them to overthrow all slaveholders and kill everyone – men, women and children as part of their fight for freedom.
I am still trying to figure out the point of the author writing this book. I guess the main point is that anyone can use and manipulate what the Bible says for their own use. But this book falls far short of challenging our thinking today. This could have been a great book but fell well short of my recommendation. I received a copy of this audio-book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is a work of nonfiction about a trial that I was previously not familiar with. This may be considered academic reading, though I think it is written so people with an interest in any of the subjects covered in the book can benefit from it.
The book is very well research. It includes appendices at the end. Since I had an audio review copy, I did not have access to illustrations, index, references that may be included with the print version.
The topic itself was fascinating, though at times hard to listen to because the views of the people presented at this time in history were horrifying, which is obviously the point. The author included how quotes from the Bible were used by both sides of the argument.
This is an important work of nonfiction. I recommend it to anyone with interest in history, sociology, African American issues, history of the US legal system, and religious studies. This book contains plenty of information for discussion in a university course on any of the above subjects.
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

Denmark Vesey (1767-1822) was a free Black man living in Charleston, South Carolina and the leader, if it had succeeded, of the biggest slave rebellion in the ante-bellum South. But in the summer of 1822 the plan to burn down Charleston and kill the city's entire white population was betrayed. He was hanged, along with five other convicted ring leaders. Thirty more enslaved men would be tried and executed, and over thirty others, banished from the USA.

This is a meticulously researched and documented study of how Vesey and his supporters used the Bible, in particular passages from Exodus, Isiah, Deuteronomy and others, to justify, recruit and model the uprising. It is also an account, based on letters, trial transcripts, editorials and sermons, of how pro-slavery advocates used the same Bible to condemn the uprising, convict Vesey and his fellow rebels, and justify the continued enslavement of Africans. The Biblical arguments, both against and for enslavement, that arose from the Vesey case would influence the struggle for abolition for decades to come, and lend authority to those arguments.

Historical context is given whenever possible. Vesey bought his freedom after winning the state lottery, but the enslaver of Vesey's wife and children refused to release them. Likening the enslaved to the Old Testament Israelites, Vesey (a leader in Charleston's newly established African Methodist Episcopal Church, later demolished because of the attempted uprising) argued to all who would listen that Blacks had a moral commandment to rebel and punish enslavers. Witnesses testified that, on the day of the rebellion, white ministers were to be confronted as to why they did not 'preach up' the condemnation of 'man stealing', found in Exodus, chapter 21, verse 16. Vesey's use of the Bible to encourage rebellion was seen as a crime in itself, and led later to a fierce debate about the rights or wrongs of teaching Black people to read the Bible.

These references help dramatize what was at stake. Fascinating, too, are the trial transcripts which allude to another conspirator who used traditional African beliefs and rituals to also recruit and encourage the rebellion. The audiobook is ably narrated by Sean Crisden. This interesting exploration of an important event in American history will interest both scholars and lay people with an interest in American slavery and history. The book will be published in March 2022.