"In this biography of the great abolitionist, Douglas R. Egerton employs a variety of historical sources - church records, court documents, travel accounts, and newspapers from America and Saint Domingue - to recreate the lost world of the mysterious Vesey. Although Vesey's 1822 conspiracy has attracted the attention of earlier scholars, Egerton recaptures the historical drama and significance of the failed exodus by examining the turbulent life that led up to it. If Vesey's plot was unique in the annals of slave rebellions in North America, it was because he was unique; his goals, as well as the methods he chose to achieve them, were the product of a hard life's experience."--BOOK JACKET.