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1822, by Archibald H. Grimke

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Title: Right on the Scaffold, or The Martyrs of 1822
The American Negro Academy. Occasional Papers No. 7

Author: Archibald H. Grimke

Release Date: February 16, 2010 [EBook #31290]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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The American Negro Academy.

OCCASIONAL PAPERS No 7.

Right on the Scaffold, or
The Martyrs of 1822.

BY MR. ARCHIBALD H. GRIMKE.

PRICE FIFTEEN CENTS.

WASHINGTON, D. C.
Published by the Academy,
1901.

The Martyrs of 1822.

He was black but comely. Nature gave him a royal body, nobly planned and
proportioned, and noted for its great strength. There was that in his
countenance, which bespoke a mind within to match that body, a mind of
uncommon native intelligence, force of will, and capacity to dominate
others. His manners were at once abrupt and crafty, his temper was
imperious, his passions and impulses were those of a primitive ruler,
and his heart was the heart of a lion. He was often referred to as an
old man, but he was not an old man, when he died on a gallows at
Charleston, S. C., July 2, 1822. No, he was by no means an old man,
whether judged by length of years or strength of body, for he was on
that memorable July day, seventy-eight years ago, not more than
fifty-six years old, although the hair on his head and face was then
probably white. This circumstance and the pre-eminence accorded him by
his race neighbors, might account for the references to him, as to that
of an old man.

All things considered, he was truly an extraordinary man. It is
impossible to say where he was born, or who were his parents. He was,
alas! as far as my knowledge of his personal history goes, a man without
a past. He might have been born of slave parentage in the West Indies,
or of royal ones in Africa, where, in that case, he was kidnapped and
sold subsequently into slavery in America. I had a