Vesey had forbidden his followers to trust a certain man, because he had
once been seen intoxicated. In another case it was shown that a slave
named George had made every effort to obtain their confidence, but was
constantly excluded from their meetings as a talkative fellow who could
not be trusted,--a policy which his levity of manner, when examined in
court, fully justified. They took no women into counsel,--not from any
distrust apparently, but in order that their children might not be left
uncared-for in case of defeat and destruction. House-servants were rarely
trusted, or only when they had been carefully sounded by the chief
leaders. Peter Poyas, in commissioning an agent to enlist men, gave him
excellent cautions: "Don't mention it to those waiting-men who receive
presents of old coats, etc., from their masters, or they'll betray us; I
will speak to them." When he did speak, if he did not convince them, he
at least frightened them. But the chief reliance was on those slaves who
were hired out, and therefore more uncontrolled,--and also upon the
country negroes.

The same far-sighted policy directed the conspirators to disarm suspicion
by peculiarly obedient and orderly conduct. And it shows the precaution
with which the thing was carried on, that, although Peter Poyas was
proved to have had a list of some six hundred persons, yet not one of his
particular company was ever brought to trial. As each leader kept to
himself the names of his proselytes, and as Monday Gell was the only one
of these leaders who turned traitor, any opinion as to the numbers
actually engaged must be altogether conjectural. One witness said nine
thousand; another, six thousand six hundred. These statements were
probably extravagant, though not more so than Gov. Bennett's assertion,
on the other side, that "all who were actually concerned had been brought
to justice,"--unless by this phrase he designates only the ringleaders.
The avowed aim of the governor's letter, indeed, is to smooth the thing