Episodes
Monday May 22, 2023
Look What Wonder by One Musical Enterprises Inc LLC
Monday May 22, 2023
Monday May 22, 2023
"Look What A Wonder" is a fictional account of the Denmark Vesey Slave Conspiracy of 1822 in Charleston, South Carolina. The gospel genre work dramatizes the struggle of Denmark Vesey and Pastor Morris Brown to establish the first independent Black Church during the time of slavery in 1818 in Charleston. Protagonist Denmark Vesey is one of about 900 free Blacks among 40,000 enslaved Africans in the city at that time. Both Slave and Free were taught that God ordained the enslavement of Africans and that God also ordained slavery in America. Denmark and Pastor Morris Brown understood that this false doctrine needed to be addressed to their people and that the only way to do that was to establish their own church where they could present to both enslaved Africans and free Negroes a Christianity of empowerment and a Christian freedom theology.Parallel to this arc of the story is the intimate circle of Denmark’s own family. Having won $1500 in the Charleston lottery, Denmark was able to buy his freedom from his master. However, his wife, 8-year-old daughter, and 13-year-old son were the slaves of another master. Denmark‘s life goal was to unite his family as one and he sought to earn enough money to buy their freedom as well. He was a skilled craftsman and ran a very successful carpentry shop, so his dream was not out of reach.Conflicts converged, however, when Vesey and Brown successfully established their first independent Black Church. White slaveholders quickly instituted the requirement that each church gathering be supervised by a White man. After Vesey and Brown rejected this requisite, the slaveholders shut down the church. Simultaneously, Denmark’s efforts to purchase his family's freedom also failed. The independent church under Vesey and Brown’s guidance had been in constant contact with the president of the new free black republic of Haiti, Pierre Boyer. With the sudden and violent closing of their church, congregants insisted that the only way forward was by armed insurrection and by secretly aligning themselves with Haiti. They looked to young Denmark to lead the slave rebellion. However, Rose, Denmark’s wife, wanted Denmark to escape with the family on a ship sailing north and not get involved in what she saw as an intractable and doomed situation. The dramatic flow of the story weaves back-and-forth between these two divergent objectives, building to a crescendo that forces Denmark to make difficult choices.
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