A House Divided: Denmark Vesey's Rebellion | |
---|---|
Written by |
|
Directed by | Stan Lathan |
Starring | |
Country of origin | United States |
Original language | English |
Production | |
Cinematography | Larry Pizer |
Editors |
|
Running time | 90 minutes [1] |
Production companies | |
Release | |
Original release | February 17, 1982 |
A House Divided: Denmark Vesey's Rebellion is a 1982 television film about Denmark Vesey, a literate skilled carpenter and former slave who planned a slave rebellion in 1822 in Charleston, South Carolina. Denmark Vesey's Rebellion was produced by WPBT and PBS, and Yaphet Kotto played Vesey.
Denmark Vesey is a former slave in Charleston, South Carolina who has been free for 20 years after buying his freedom. He is literate and a skilled carpenter, one of the founders of an AME church in the city. In 1822 he decides to organize a slave rebellion. Authorities discover the plan and arrest Vesey and many others before the rebellion is carried out, quickly convicting and executing them in secret proceedings. [1]
A House Divided: Denmark Vesey's Rebellion is directed by Stan Lathan based on a teleplay written by William Thornton Hauptman. The television film was produced by WPBT in Miami, Florida. Filming took place in Charleston, South Carolina. [2] The film was produced by Shep Morgan and partially funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. An advisory board of scholars helped ensure the film's historical accuracy. [3]
Ebony said the film "drew the largest Black viewership of any PBS show". [4]
Richard F. Shepard of The New York Times said, "This 90-minute play... gives us a colorful and apparently well-researched account of the incident." Shepard said Kotto "set the tone" as Vesey as "a large and impressive man, absolutely dedicated to his purpose" and with speaking "in quiet voice, sometimes too soft for the high drama he launches". The critic said, "The play does not give us unvarnished villains and heroes, black or white," and he concluded, "'Denmark Vesey's Rebellion'... is a sound and absorbing work that acquits itself with distinction as both history and drama." [2]
People said, "Neither [Yapher Kotto] nor co-stars Cleavon Little and Ned Beatty can unshackle this plodding drama." [5]
Douglas R. Egerton, author of a 2004 biography of Denmark Vesey, said, "PBS produced a moving television drama... featuring the charismatic—if then too youthful—Caribbean-born actor Yaphet Kotto as the aged revolutionary." [6]
Thomas Pinckney was an American statesman, diplomat, and military officer who fought in both the American Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, achieving the rank of major general. He served as Governor of South Carolina and as the U.S. minister to Great Britain. He was also the Federalist candidate for vice president in the 1796 election.
Gabriel's Rebellion was a planned slave rebellion in the Richmond, Virginia, area in the summer of 1800. Information regarding the revolt, which came to be known as "Gabriel's Rebellion", was leaked prior to its execution, and Gabriel, a blacksmith who planned the event, and twenty-five followers were hanged. The site of Gabriel's execution was for several years believed to have been at the Shockoe Bottom African Burial Ground, historically known as the Burial Ground for Negroes. His execution was advertised as occurring at the usual place, however in 1800 that may have been a location other than the Burial Ground for Negroes. The location of Gabriel's burial is also unknown.
Denmark Vesey was an 18th-century and early 19th century free Black and community leader in Charleston, South Carolina, who was accused and convicted of planning a major slave revolt 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 both slaves and free blacks.
James Hamilton Jr. was an American lawyer and politician. He represented South Carolina in the U.S. Congress (1822–1829) and served as its 53rd governor (1830–1832). Prior to that he achieved widespread recognition and public approval for his actions as Intendant (mayor) of the city of Charleston, South Carolina in 1822, during the period when plans for a slave rising were revealed. As governor, he led the state during the Nullification Crisis of 1832, at the peak of his power.
Robert Young Hayne was an American slave-owner, lawyer, and politician. He served in the United States Senate from 1823 to 1832, as Governor of South Carolina 1832–1834, and as Mayor of Charleston 1836–1837. As Senator and Governor, he was a leading figure in the Nullification Crisis and, along with John C. Calhoun and James Hamilton Jr., a vocal proponent of the doctrines of states' rights, compact theory, and nullification; his 1830 debate in the Senate with Daniel Webster is considered a defining episode in the constitutional crisis which precipitated the American Civil War.
Antebellum South Carolina is typically defined by historians as South Carolina during the period between the War of 1812, which ended in 1815, and the American Civil War, which began in 1861.
Gullah Jack, also known as Couter Jack and sometimes referred to as "Gullah" Jack Pritchard, was an African Methodist and Hoodoo conjurer, who was enslaved by Paul Pritchard in Charleston, South Carolina.
Thomas Bennett Jr. was an American businessman, banker and politician, the 48th Governor of South Carolina from 1820 to 1822. A respected politician, he had served several terms in the state legislature since 1804, including four years as Speaker of the House, and a term in the state Senate.
Born in Texas, William Hauptman received a BFA from the University of Texas Drama Department and later traveled to San Francisco and New York. A graduate who received an MFA from the Yale School of Drama, he is the author of both plays and fiction.
Commonly known as the Denmark Vesey House, the house located at 56 Bull Street in Charleston, South Carolina was for a long time thought to be the house once inhabited by black abolitionist Denmark Vesey. Vesey's home, listed as 20 Bull Street under the city's former numbering system, is now evidently gone. A nearby home, most likely built in the 1820 and currently numbered 56 Bull Street, was thought in the 1970s to have been the home of Denmark Vesey, and it was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1976 by the Department of Interior.
Events from the year 1822 in the United States.
Coromantee, Coromantins, Coromanti or Kormantine is an English-language term for enslaved people from the Akan ethnic group, taken from the Gold Coast region in modern-day Ghana. The term was primarily used in the Caribbean and is now considered archaic.
The Old Charleston Jail is a site of historical and architectural significance in Charleston, South Carolina. Operational between 1802 and 1939, it held many notable figures, among them Denmark Vesey, Union officers during the Civil War, high-seas pirates, and Lavinia Fisher. While it has become a popular tourist destination in recent years, it remains one of the most notable historic sites in Charleston that has not been the target of a comprehensive preservation and/or renovation effort. It is also commonly referred to as the Old City Jail by the people of Charleston, South Carolina.
It is common to believe that commoners and other folk would be sent there to die, but it was only to hold people while waiting for their debts to be paid. It wasn’t common for people to die there, but death is the most powerful force of gravity and it has no place in our consciousness. It can only exist as an observer in our minds. The only way we could be aware of it is if we were to think about the possibility of the existence and then see if it was possible. The universe would have been very small if it was not so, and it wouldn’t have had any mass or energy.
Robert James Turnbull was an American lawyer, planter, writer and politician from South Carolina who also published under the name Brutus. His essays in the Charleston Mercury advocating nullification were published as a pamphlet under the title The Crisis: Or, Essays on the Usurpations of the Federal Government, which has been described as "the handbook for nullification and resistance."
Solomon Northup's Odyssey, reissued as Half Slave, Half Free, is a 1984 American television film based on the 1853 autobiography Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup, a free black man who in 1841 was kidnapped and sold into slavery. The film, which aired on PBS, was directed by Gordon Parks with Avery Brooks starring as the titular character. It was the second film to be funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, following A House Divided: Denmark Vesey's Rebellion in 1982. Parks returned to direct the film after years of absence. He chose to work in the Deep South and to collaborate with a crew of mixed races. The film first aired on PBS on December 10, 1984 and as part of PBS's American Playhouse anthology television series in the following year. It was released on video under the title Half Slave, Half Free.
Badge of the Assassin is a 1985 television film starring James Woods, Yaphet Kotto and Alex Rocco. It was directed by Mel Damski. The film first aired on the Columbia Broadcasting System network on November 2, 1985. The film's production company was Blatt-Singer Productions.
Black South Carolinians are residents of the state of South Carolina who are of African ancestry. This article examines South Carolina's history with an emphasis on the lives, status, and contributions of African Americans. Enslaved Africans first arrived in the region in 1526, and the institution of slavery remained until the end of the Civil War in 1865. Until slavery's abolition, the free black population of South Carolina never exceeded 2%. Beginning during the Reconstruction Era, African Americans were elected to political offices in large numbers, leading to South Carolina's first majority-black government. Toward the end of the 1870s however, the Democratic Party regained power and passed laws aimed at disenfranchising African Americans, including the denial of the right to vote. Between the 1870s and 1960s, African Americans and whites lived segregated lives; people of color and whites were not allowed to attend the same schools or share public facilities. African Americans were treated as second-class citizens leading to the civil rights movement in the 1960s. In modern America, African Americans constitute 22% of the state's legislature, and in 2014, the state's first African American U.S. Senator since Reconstruction, Tim Scott, was elected. In 2015, the Confederate flag was removed from the South Carolina Statehouse after the Charleston church shooting.
The Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, often referred to as Mother Emanuel, is a church in Charleston, South Carolina. Founded in 1817, Emanuel AME is the oldest African Methodist Episcopal church in the Southern United States. This, the first independent black denomination in the United States, was founded in 1816 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Morris Brown was one of the founders of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, and its second presiding bishop. He founded Emanuel AME Church in his native Charleston, South Carolina. It was implicated in the slave uprising planned by Denmark Vesey, also of this church, and after that was suppressed, Brown was imprisoned for nearly a year. He was never convicted of a crime.
The Denmark Vesey Monument is a monumental statue in Charleston, South Carolina, United States. The monument was erected in 2014 in Hampton Park and honors Denmark Vesey, a freedman who lived in Charleston and was executed in 1822 for plotting a slave revolt. It was designed by American sculptor Ed Dwight.