The Citadel began as a weapons store built to suppress a rising

Denmark Vesey worked as a carpenter in Charleston. He had been enslaved, but he won a lottery and used the money to buy his own freedom. By 1818, he helped found an independent African Methodist Episcopal church in the city, which grew to include more than 1,800 members. In 1822, at about sixty years old, Vesey faced accusations of organizing a revolt that involved setting fires across the city and seizing weapons to arm people for an escape to Haiti. A domestic servant betrayed the plan to his owner before it could begin.

The state responded with mass trials that summer. More than a hundred Black Charlestonians were prosecuted, and thirty-five were hanged. Denmark Vesey was executed on 2 July 1822. In the aftermath, the city expanded its police force and the legislature ordered the construction of an armed guard and a weapons storehouse. This building went up on this square in 1829 and later became The Citadel, the military college of South Carolina.

The state also passed new laws to restrict the lives of free Black residents. Sailors arriving in port were jailed for the duration of their stay to prevent the spread of ideas. It became harder for owners to free enslaved people, and the African church was ordered demolished. The congregation sold the materials of their building for lumber.

The church was eventually rebuilt after the Civil War under the leadership of Robert Vesey, the son of Denmark Vesey. This institution is the ancestor of Emanuel AME on Calhoun Street, where nine people were murdered in 2015. The earthwork visible on this square is a remnant of the Horn Work, which served as a colonial fortification long before the state weapons store was constructed.