Black Lives History Timeline: 1741 - The New York Slave Conspiracy

1741: The New York Slave Conspiracy

This event has several names, though Conspiracy is the least offensive of them all. New York City had several insurrections and racial riots in its history. In 1841, New York had one of the biggest enslaved populations in the thirteen colonies. Increasing tensions that year following revolts in South Carolina and St John in the Caribbean, compounded by war, a harsh winter, and an increasing population left the city easily susceptible to overreaction. When several fires ignited in lower Manhattan, one of which was at the governor's home, rumors of a conspiracy grew to a trial against poor white and Black people who were blamed for the fires, and for trying to overthrow the "proper" government so that they could take it over for themselves. The major suspects were the enslaved people, and 200 were arrested and charged with conspiracy. In the end, more than 100 people were exiled, hanged, or burned at the stake. The two suspected ringleaders of the plot, an enslaved man named Caesar, and John Hughson, a white cobbler and tavern keeper, were gibbeted and left to rot for public view. A white female indentured servant who had "informed" the city of the plot was rewarded £100, which she used to buy herself free of indentured servitude, and had money left over after.

Sources:

• Wikipedia: New York Conspiracy of 1741
• Britannica: New York Slave Rebellion of 1741
• PBS: Witchhunt in New York: The 1741 Rebellion
• Video: JSYK: The New York Slave Conspiracy of 1741
• "The New York Plot" Trials
• Terror in New York
• The Great New York Conspiracy of 1741: Slave Rebellion
• Trials Related to the New York Slave Insurrection
• The New York Conspiracy of 1741
• New York Slave Conspiracy

Understand, the proof of this "conspiracy" was as strong as that of the Salem Witch Trials. Enslaved people, indentured servants, and poor people, were easy targets of these accusations. To this day, the actual causes of the fires that were set is still uncertain. 70 enslaved men were "exiled" from the colony, and I can't be sure, but I assume that means they were sold off to other colonies. The Wikipedia article says they were sent north to Newfoundland, south to the West Indies, and also mentions islands in the east Atlantic called the Madeiras, which were owned by Portugal.