Charleston, 1822

"Tell them," exclaims Denmark Vesey, the Emperor Jones in face of his imminent downfall, "tell them Denmark Vesey says 'the Day will come.'" Forty years later, the Day did come.

Dorothy Heyward has taken the "Emperor Jones" theme of a man who lets his lust for personal power overcome his honest conviction that he is sent from God to set his people free, and turned it into a more familiar setting, with interesting if not startling, results. Behind its exterior shell of the failure of a Negro uprising, "Charleston, 1822" stands as a probable explanation of why before 1863 the slaves were not ready for their freedom.

While ostensibly Denmark Vesey (the part taken over by Juano Hernandez after Mr. Ingram's unfortunate collision with the Mann Act) is the leading character, actually he and his large-scale plans for the overthrow of the Charleston Whites are only a set-up. The man to watch is George Wilson, head slave and loyal friend to Captain Wilson, Charleston's wealthiest planter. Played adequately by John Marriott, George Wilson stands out for his inability to choose between the call of his race and the family which has reared him from birth in slavery. Educated, responsible, George, like Faust, has everything he could wish for except his soul. Hearing of the prospective revolution, he is unwilling to lend his support until he can be assured that the blow will come after his Master has left the city for the summer. But when at the last minute the Captain decides to stay, George is compelled to betray the plot. The militia are called, and Denmark Vesey, forsaken by all his "disciples," is left to await his own doom.

All through the play is a constancy reference to the Bible, quoting passages which contradict each other in supporting and denouncing slavery. But in the end it is a misuse of Scripture that brings on Savior Vesy's end: "All these twelve years," he muses, "I give my people hope with the story of Moses. I never tell them Moses never reach the Promised Land. . ."