rather fearful of coming into town; and it was found, that, even then,
there were more than five hundred visitors on a single Sunday. This fact,
then, was the essential point in the plan of insurrection. Whole
plantations were found to have been enlisted among the "candidates," as
they were termed; and it was proved that the city negroes, who lived
nearest the place of meeting, had agreed to conceal these confederates in
their houses to a large extent, on the night of the proposed outbreak.

The details of the plan, however, were not rashly committed to the mass
of the confederates; they were known only to a few, and were finally to
be announced only after the evening prayer-meetings on the appointed
Sunday. But each leader had his own company enlisted, and his own work
marked out. When the clock struck twelve, all were to move. Peter Poyas
was to lead a party ordered to assemble at South Bay, and to be joined by
a force from James's Island; he was then to march up and seize the
arsenal and guard-house opposite St. Michael's Church, and detach a
sufficient number to cut off all white citizens who should appear at the
alarm-posts. A second body of negroes, from the country and the Neck,
headed by Ned Bennett, was to assemble on the Neck, and seize the arsenal
there. A third was to meet at Gov. Bennett's Mills, under command of
Rolla, and, after putting the governor and intendant to death, to march
through the city, or be posted at Cannon's Bridge, thus preventing the
inhabitants of Cannonsborough from entering the city. A fourth, partly
from the country, and partly from the neighboring localities in the city,
was to rendezvous on Gadsden's Wharf, and attack the upper guard-house. A
fifth, composed of country and Neck negroes, was to assemble at Bulkley's
Farm, two miles and a half from the city, seize the upper
powder-magazine, and then march down; and a sixth was to assemble at
Denmark Vesey's, and obey his orders. A seventh detachment, under Gullah
Jack, was to assemble in Boundary Street, at the head of King Street, to