resolute,
true to his engagements, and cautious in observing secrecy where it was
necessary; he was not to be daunted nor impeded by difficulties, and
though confident of success, was careful against any obstacles or
casualties which might arise, and intent upon discovering every means
which might be in their favor if thought of beforehand. Gullah Jack was
regarded as a sorcerer, and as such feared by the natives of Africa, who
believe in witchcraft. He was not only considered invulnerable, but that
he could make others so by his charms; and that he could and certainly
would provide all his followers with arms. He was artful, cruel, bloody;
his disposition in short was diabolical. His influence among the
Africans was inconceivable. Monday was firm, resolute, discreet and
intelligent."

From this picture, painted by bitter enemies, who were also their
executioners, could any person, ignorant of the circumstances and the
history of those men, possibly guess, with the exception of Gullah Jack,
to what race the originals belonged, or think you, that such a person
would so much as dream that they were in fact, as they were in the eye
of the law under which they lived, nothing more than so many human
chattels, subject like cattle to the caprice and the cruelty of their
owners?

Such nevertheless was the remarkable group of blacks on whom had fallen
Vesey's choice. And did they not present an assemblage of high and
striking qualities? Here were coolness in action, calculation, foresight,
plausibility in address, fidelity to engagements, secretiveness, intrepid
courage, nerves of iron in the presence of danger, inflexible purpose,
unbending will, and last though not least in its relations to the whole,
superstition incarnate in the character of the Negro conjurer. Masterly
was indeed the combination, and he had no ordinary gift for leadership,
who was able to hit it off at one surprising stroke.

As the work of organized preparation for the uprising advanced, Vesey
added presently to his staff two principal and several minor recruiting
agents, who operated in Charleston and in the country to the North of
the city as far as the Santee, the Combahee, and Georgetown. Their
exploitation in the interest of the plot extended to the South into the
two large islands of James and John's, as well as to plantations across
the Ashley River. Vesey himself, it was said, traveled southwardly from
Charleston between seventy and eighty mile