Great Negro Plot of 1741
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The Great Negro Plot of 1741 is the name given to a supposed plot by Blacks and poor Whites in New York City to level it with fire and install one of their own as king. It is also known as The Great New York Conspiracy of 1741.
In March and April of 1741, a series of fires erupted in Lower Manhattan, the most significant one within the walls of Fort George. After one fire, a black man was arrested after having been seen fleeing it. Two other slaves, were also arrested at the time, one of whom was a 16-year old white indentured servant, Mary Burton. In exchange for her freedom, she testified against the others as participants in a supposedly growing conspiracy of poor Whites and Blacks to burn the city.
The two slaves were burned at the stake, and with "fire licking at their feet", confessed to burning the fort. They also named fifty others as co-conspirators.
News of the "conspiracy" set off a stampede of arrests. At the height of the hysteria, nearly half the city's male slaves over sixteen were in jail. The number of arrests totaled 152 Blacks and twenty Whites. They were tried and convicted in a show trial. A Catholic priest, John Ury, was suspected of instigating it. [link]
Most of the convicted were hanged or burnt- how many is uncertain. The bodies of two supposed ringleaders, one Black and one White, were gibbeted. Their corpses were left to rot in public. Seventy-two were deported from New York, sent to Newfoundland and to various islands in the West Indies and the Madeiras.
References
- Daniel Horsmanden, The New York conspiracy trials of 1741 : Daniel Horsmanden's Journal of the proceedings with related documents ISBN 0312402163
- Daniel Horsmanden, The trial of John Ury for being an ecclesiastical person, made by authority pretended from the See of Rome, and coming into and abiding in the province of New York, and with being one of the conspirators in the Negro plot to burn the city of New York, 1741
- Thomas J. Davis, A Rumor of Revolt: The “Great Negro Plot” in Colonial New York ISBN 0029077400
- Peter Charles Hoffer - The Great New York Conspiracy of 1741: Slavery, Crime and Colonial Law ISBN 0-7006-1246-7
- Edwin G. Burrows, Mike Wallace - ISBN 0195140494
- Jill Lepore - New York Burning; Liberty, Slavery, and Conspiracy in Eighteenth-Century Manhattan ISBN 1400040299
- George W. Williams - History of the Negro Race in America From 1619 to 1880. Vol 1. [Project Gutenberg EBook]
Sources
- [A Forgotten "Witch Trial" of Colonial Slaves]
- [The Power of Fear]
- [“Fire, Fire, Scorch, Scorch!”: Testimony from the Negro Plot Trials in New York, 1741]
- [The Hysteria Fire: New York, 1741] Whole Earth Review, Winter 1999 - John V. Morris
- [Legacy: A Panicked Response To the 'Great Negro Plot']
- [A List of White Persons taken into Custody on Account of the 1741 Conspiracy]
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