By reference to the Calendar marked (S) in the Appendix, the names of the prisoners committed will be found, and under a proper column, the mode in which they were disposed of, whether by death, transportation, or discharge, from the insufficiency of testimony. The extent of the evidence adduced, therefore, against each individual, may be inferred with accuracy, by observing the punishment awarded him; as the Court adhered with great and rigid fidelity to these rules, which were in unison both with justice and humanity.
Among the vast number of cases disposed of by the first Court; in a session of nearly six weeks, involving the most intense and unremitting labour, it would be impossible to overlook the case of Jack Pritchard, otherwise called GULLAH JACK. The testimony in the Appendix, of more than one of the witnesses, will establish fully his guilt, and prove the justice of the sentence, by which he was ushered into another world; but no description can accurately convey to others the impression which his trial, defence and appearance made on those who witnessed the workings of his cunning and rude address. Born a conjurer and a physician, in his own country (for in Angola they are matters of inheritance) he practised _these arts_ in this country for fifteen years, without its being generally known among the whites. Vesey, who left no engines of power unessayed, seems, in an early stage of his design, to have turned his eye on this Necromancer, aware of his influence with his own countrymen, who are distinguished both for their credulous superstition and clannish sympathies. It does not appear that Jack required much persuasion to induce him to join in a project, which afforded him the most ample opportunities of displaying his peculiar art, whilst it is very obvious that his willingness, to do all that Vesey might require, was in no little degree stimulated, by his bitterness and his gall against the whites. Altho’ he had been fifteen or twenty years in this country, yet he appeared to be untouched by the influences of civilized life.—If the part which he was to play in this drama, bespoke that the treacherous and vindictive artifices of war in his own country, existed in unimpaired vigour in his memory, his wildness and vehemence of gesture and the malignant glance with which he eyed the witnesses who appeared against him, all indicated the savage, who indeed had been _caught_, but not _tamed_. It would be both tedious and disgusting to relate the many artifices employed by this miscreant to deceive and cajole his deluded countrymen. Such was their belief in his invulnerability, that his charms and amulets were in request, and he was regarded as a man, who could _only_ be harmed but by the _treachery_ of his fellows. Even those negroes who were born in this country seem to have spoken of his charmed invincibility with a confidence which looked much like belief. When Jack was dragged forth to the scaffold he seemed conscious that his arts would stand him in little stead, and gave up his spirit without firmness or composure.
