Denmark Vesey's Garden: Slavery and Memory in the Cradle of the Confederacy

Denmark Vesey's Garden examines how slavery and its memory have been understood and contested in Charleston, South Carolina, from the era of abolition through recent debates over Confederate monuments and symbols. Charleston was the site where nearly half of enslaved people brought to the United States arrived, where the Civil War began at Fort Sumter, and where the 2015 shooting at Emanuel A.M.E. Church occurred—a church co-founded by Denmark Vesey, who organized a planned slave insurrection in 1822. The book traces competing interpretations of slavery's history through public rituals, monuments, and musical traditions. By analyzing these cultural expressions, the authors reveal connections between historical memory practices and present-day racial controversies. The work situates Charleston's particular history within broader American struggles to reckon with slavery's lasting impact on the nation.