William Garner said he was engaged in it and had got twelve or thirteen
draymen to join.
Sandy Vesey told me he belonged to it too.
At Vesey’s house, Frank told Gullah Jack, to put one ball and three buck
shot in each cartridge.
Mingo Harth acknowledged to me that he had joined, and Peter Poyas told
me so too; he, Mingo, told me so several times; Mingo said he was to
have his master’s horse on the night of the 16th.
Lot Forrester told me frequently that he was one of the company, and I
know that he had joined in the business myself. Isaac Harth told me once
that he had joined, he knew I was in the business.
Morris Brown knew nothing of it, and we agreed not to let him, Harry
Drayton, or Charles Corr, know anything about it. —— —— told me in my
store that he was to get some powder from his master and give it to
Peter Poyas; he seemed to have been a long time engaged in it, and to
know a great deal. Joe Jore acknowledged to me once or twice that he had
joined, he said he knew some of the Frenchmen concerned; he knew I was
in it.
(L.)
_The Confession of JACK PURCELL._
If it had not been for the cunning of that old villain Vesey, I should
not now be in my present situation. He employed every stratagem to
induce me to join him. He was in the habit of reading to me all the
passages in the newspapers that related to St. Domingo, and apparently
every pamphlet he could lay his hands on, that had any connection with
slavery. He one day brought me a speech which he told me had been
delivered in Congress by a _Mr. King_ on the subject of slavery; he told
me this Mr. King was the black man’s friend, that he Mr. King had
declared he would continue to speak, write and publish pamphlets against
slavery the longest day he lived, until the Southern States consented to
emancipate their slaves, for that slavery was a great disgrace to the
country.
(M.)