Denmark Vesey's Garden

Slavery and Memory in the Cradle of the Confederacy

By: Ethan J. Kytle, Blain Roberts

Narrated by: Tom Perkins

A book that strikes at the heart of the recent flare-ups over Confederate symbols in Charlottesville, New Orleans, and elsewhere, Denmark Vesey's Garden reveals the deep roots of these controversies and traces them to the heart of slavery in the United States: Charleston, South Carolina, where almost half of the US slave population stepped onto our shores, where the first shot at Fort Sumter began the Civil War, and where Dylann Roof shot nine people at Emanuel A.M.E. Church, the congregation of Denmark Vesey, a black revolutionary who plotted a massive slave insurrection in 1822.

As early as 1865, former slaveholders and their descendants began working to preserve a romanticized memory of the antebellum South. In contrast, former slaves, their descendants, and some white allies have worked to preserve an honest, unvarnished account of slavery as the cruel system it was.

Examining public rituals, controversial monuments, and whitewashed historical tourism, Denmark Vesey's Garden tracks these two rival memories from the Civil War all the way to contemporary times, where two segregated tourism industries still reflect these opposing impressions of the past, exposing a hidden dimension of America's deep racial divide.

©2018 Ethan J. Kytle and Blain Roberts (P)2018 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

One city’s story of America’s Original Sin

Excellent research and storytelling. Well read. Good to read in light of the current (2023) erasure of Black History (notably in Florida, but throughout the land). Charleston—the city, the opulence—was built by slave labor. Slowly the city is telling this story, but as this book points out, progress is halting and sometimes it retreats. Everyone who claims to know Charleston’s history must read and digest this book.

Excellent history of slavery and reconstruction in Charleston, SC

the authors did a great job of providing a history of race- and whitewashing- in Charleston, SC. I’ve lived here almost 30 years, but I learned so many things from this book.

The narrator has a great voice, and performed it well. However, Charleston has so many unique pronunciations the narrator got wrong. It should really be edited to correctly pronounce Huger, Maczyk, Clementa, Gaillard, Simons, Legare…and a few others I can’t remember.

Not Just History - An Excellent Book!

This book should be required reading for all history students and those interested in history itself. Kytle and Roberts provide a comprehensive study of the historical roots for our modern understanding of slavery and the Civil War. The book’s structure is an excellent narrative in how we construct the history of specific events (like the slave trade) through our shared memory via individuals who publish on and promote certain ideologies. It is important for historians and everyday readers to consider this when looking at remnants of the past still present in our lives. Thoroughly enjoyed listening to this.

Timely, well-written and enlightening.

A thorough, eye-opening and carefully documented history of the alternative memories of slavery in Charleston. Given current events, it could not be more relevant!

Not What I Expected!

Expected history of Denmark Vesey more so than the history of south Carolina. 2 more words!