Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019

The author quotes the rapper Kanye West’s remarks that “slavery was a choice” (187). West implied that Black people never resisted their capture and captivity. Jones Jr. provides the case of Denmark Vesey as a counter example.

Vesey planned an insurrection in 1822 in Charlestown. After winning the lottery, Vesey bought his freedom and worked as a carpenter. He organized Black people in his home and discussed plans for an uprising. They had strength in numbers: Charleston was over 77% Black. In all, Vesey recruited 9000 Black people.

Vesey’s plans were undermined by other Black people with white loyalties: “The possibility of Black liberation is often undermined by Black people who have been so successfully indoctrinated by white supremacist principles that the idea of mass Black freedom is threatening or, worse, unimaginable” (188). After the betrayal Vesey and 39 followers were hanged. Black people who were forced to attend the executions were not allowed to show sorrow, on penalty of flogging.

Newkirk teaches a course studying media portrayals of marginalized groups. She begins with Freedom’s Journal, America’s first Black-owned and operated newspaper.

The editors defined their mission as a desire to

plead our own cause. Too long have others spoken for us. Too long has the public been deceived by misrepresentations, in things which concern us dearly.