The Negro Plot in New York: Mary Burton and Caesar
On a hearing, Mary Burton charged a negro named Caesar with complicity in the robbery, and he and another slave, named Prince, were arrested and imprisoned. Shortly afterwards the governor's house at the fort took fire and burned to the ground. Other fires took place in rapid succession, and there spread among the alarmed inhabitants a rumor that the negroes had plotted to burn the city. This suspicion soon took the form of certainty. Some free negroes had recently been brought into the port, as the crew of a Spanish prize vessel, and had been sold as slaves. They were exasperated by this harsh usage, and indulged in murmurs and threats. One of them being questioned about a fire, his answers seemed evasive, and "Take up the Spanish negroes!" became the instant cry. They were at once arrested and thrown into prison.
The magistrates met the same afternoon to consult about the matter, and while they were still in session another fire broke out in the roof of Colonel Philipse's storehouse. The alarm became universal: the negroes were seized indiscriminately and thrown into prison,--among them many who had just helped to extinguish the fire. People and magistrates were alike panic-struck, and the rumor gained general credence that the negroes had plotted to burn the city, massacre the inhabitants, and effect a general revolution.
On the 11th of April, 1741, the Common Council assembled, and offered a reward of one hundred pounds and a full pardon to any conspirator who would reveal his knowledge of the plot, with the names of the incendiaries. Many of the terrified inhabitants removed with their household goods and valuables from what they began to deem a doomed city, paying exorbitant prices for vehicles and assistance. The city was searched for strangers and suspicious persons, but none were found, and the negroes were examined without effect. Cuff Philipse, (The negroes were familiarly called by the surnames of their masters.) who had been among those arrested, was proved to have been among the most active in extinguishing the fire at his master's house, yet he was held in prison to await further developments.
Before the grand jury, which soon after met, Mary Burton deposed that she had overheard a plot to burn the city and kill the whites. Hughson was then to be governor, and Cuff king. Peggy Carey, an Irishwoman who lived in Hughson's house, was charged with complicity in the plot. She was convicted of having received and secreted the stolen goods, and was sentenced to death along with Prince and Caesar.
Terrified at the prospect of a speedy death, the wretched Peggy endeavored to avert her fate by grasping the means of rescue which had before been offered her, and begged for a second examination, and, this being granted her, confessed that meetings of negroes had been held in the last December at the house of John Romme, a tavernkeeper near the new Battery, of the same stamp with Hughson, at which she had been present, and that Romme had told them that if they would set fire to the city, massacre the inhabitants, and bring the plunder to him, he would carry them to a strange country and give them all their liberty. This confession was so evidently vamped up to save herself from the gallows that even the magistrates hesitated to believe it. Yet Cuff Philipse, Brash Jay, Curacoa Dick, Caesar Pintard, Patrick English, Jack Beasted, and Cato Moore, all of whom she had named in her confession, were brought before her and indentified as conspirators. Romme absconded, but his wife was arrested and committed to prison, and the accused were locked up for further examination. Upon this, the terrified negroes began to criminate each other, hoping thereby to save themselves from the fate that awaited them. But these efforts availed them nothing, any more than did the confession of the miserable Peggy, who was executed at last, vainly denying with her dying breath her former accusations. In the mean time several fires had occurred at Hackensack, and two negroes, suspected of being the incendiaries, were condemned and burnt at the stake, though not a particle of evidence was found against them.
On Monday, the 11th of May, Caesar and Prince, the first victims of the negro plot, were hung on a gallows erected on the little island in the Fresh Water Pond, denying to the last all knowledge of the conspiracy, though they admitted that they had really stolen the goods.
Hughson and his wife were tried and found guilty, and with Peggy Carey, were hanged on a gibbet erected on the East River shore, near the corner of Cherry and Catharine Streets.. Cuff Philipse and Quack were next brought to trial, a negro boy named Sawney appearing as witness against them. This boy was at first arrested and brought before the magistrates, when he denied all knowledge of the conspiracy. He was told, in reply, that if he would tell the truth he would not be hanged. To tell the truth had now come to be generally understood to mean the confession of a plot for burning the town.
The frightened boy told a tissue of doubtful tales, on the strength of which the accused negroes were tried for their lives. All the lawyers of the city were on the side of the prosecution, leaving the prisoners without counsel.