Charleston, SC, Dec. 21, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- On July 2, 1822, a free Black pastor named Denmark Vesey was hanged in Charleston, South Carolina. Vesey had supposedly masterminded what would have been the largest slave revolt in American history, but he was betrayed by one of his co-conspirators. Though several of Vesey’s children were implicated in the plot, his twenty-two-year-old son, Robert, escaped punishment.
Two centuries later, Xavier Spencer, IMFT, CST discovered a familial connection to the Veseys while researching his lineage. In the midst of the Civil War, Robert married Spencer’s ancestor Hannah Nelson. Both the bride and groom were in their sixties and had been married before, but together they navigated the uncertain racial constraint of Reconstruction. A fierce and headstrong “well-to-do” free Black woman who bought her own family’s freedom. Hannah must have recognized that same fire in the Vesey lineage. She would transmit that resiliency to her descendants as they faced the emergence of Jim Crow.
A remarkable and original work of genealogical history, The Family Legacy of Denmark Vesey 1822–2022 follows seven generations of Spencer’s ancestors, from the transatlantic slave ships of the Caribbean to the plantations of South Carolina Lowcountry and finally to the hills of West Virginia and Ohio.
The Family Legacy of Denmark Vesey 1822–2022 is available for purchase online at Amazon.com. For more information on the book and Xavier Aubrey Spencer, please visit any of his social media platforms.
Twitter: @FamilyVesey
About the Author:
Xavier Aubrey Spencer, is a licensed independent marriage and family therapist (IMFT,) American Association of Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT) Clinical fellow and certified sex therapist (CST) by the American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors and Therapists (AASECT). He has a private practice based in Northeast Ohio.
He studied Human Development at Pacific Oaks College and went on to receive his Master of Science in Marital and Family Therapy from Northwestern University, Center for Psychological and Family Studies at The Family Institute. Along with extensive clinical training at The Family Institute’s, Bettie D. Harris Family and Child Clinic.
Xavier holds a post-graduate certificate in Sex Therapy from University of Michigan Sexual Health Program. In graduate school, he was the recipient of the Minority Fellowship Award from AAMFT for his commitment and dedication to the professional practice of marriage and family therapy.
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