Denmark Vesey Rebellion Timelines: Setting the Stage for Catto’s Life

The Denmark Vesey “Rebellion” in Charleston, South Carolina. Following this, no independent black churches operated in Charleston again until after the Civil War. Restrictions were placed on free blacks, including not permitting their return into the city, if they left. The restriction compounded the impact of the legislature’s passage of the
Negro Seaman’s Act of 1822, requiring free black sailors on ships that docked in Charleston to be imprisoned in the city jail for the period that their ships were in port. These actions sought to limit influences on the state’s enslaved population.