While still a boy, Denmark was captured, sold into slavery and brought to Charleston, South Carolina, where he was purchased in 1781 by Captain Joseph Vesey. The Capt. would enslave Denmark for nearly twenty years until, in 1799, a lottery win saw Denmark with enough money to purchase his own freedom.
Denmark went on to be relatively successful but was never fully content with his life knowing the horrible reality experienced by slaves everyday. In 1817, Vesey joined the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME). Through the church, Vesey found a political movement. He, along with other leaders of the church began plotting a slave revolt in 1822. July 14 was targeted as the date of the revolt, when both freed blacks and slaves would together seize the city arsenals, torch the city, and rise up against their white oppressors.
The plot would be thwarted because of several slaves leaking the plot to their white masters. Vesey was captured on June 22 and was executed on July 2, along with five other men involved in the plot. The summer would end with the executions of 29 more people.
Vesey would become an important figure for African Americans and a symbol of the militant resistance to slavery. While employing agency to get freedom for himself, he would find true liberation in his political plan to rebel against the institution of slavery.