# From Denmark Vesey to Nat Turner  
While the 1789 French and the 1791 Saint-Domingue revolutions were the context into which the Pointe Coupée and Gabriel's conspiracies took shape, and Deslondes' insurrection was cast, Haitian independence was central to the largest and best conspiracy in the country. It was organized by Denmark Vesey, a carpenter who had been enslaved in Saint Thomas and in Saint-Domingue for a few months in 1781-82 before living in Virginia and then Charleston, South Carolina. He had bought his freedom in 1800 after winning the lottery. Vesey was said to have recruited widely among the enslaved population - from the city to the countryside -including some men who had been taken to Charleston by their owners who had fled the Haitian revolution. According to trial records, Vesey and his troops planned on taking refuge in Haiti after having burned the city down, killed white men and, in the turmoil, seized ships to sail to the island. Alternatively, they envisioned sailing to Africa. However, a slave divulged their plans. The revolt had been scheduled for 14 July and Vesey, aware of the betrayal, attempted to launch it on 16 June. He failed and, after a trial, he and 34 men were hanged while 30 were deported to the Caribbean (The Trial Record of Denmark Vesey, 1970; Walker and Silverman, 2000).