The Negro Plot in New York: Mary Burton and John Ury
Ignorant of the forms of law, and terrified at the prospect of their impending danger, it is not strange that their bewildered and contradictory statements were construed by their learned adversaries into evidences of their guilt. Quack and Cuffee were found guilty, and sentenced to be burned at the stake on the 3d of June.
On the day appointed, the fagots were piled in a grassy valley in the neighborhood of the present Five Points, and the wretched victims led out to execution. The spot was thronged with impatient spectators, eager to witness the terrible tragedy. Terrified and trembling, the poor wretches gladly availed themselves of their last chance for life, and, on being questioned by their last chance for life, and, on being questioned by their masters, confessed that the plot had originated with Hughson, that Quack's wife was the person who had set fire to the fort, he having been chosen for the task by the confederated negroes, and that Mary Burton had spoken the truth and could name many more conspirators if she pleased. As a reward, they were reprieved until the further pleasure of the governor should be known. But the impatient populace, which had come out for a spectacle, would not so easily be balked of its prey. Ominous mutterings resounded round the pile, with threats of evil import, and the sheriff was ordered to proceed with his duty. Terrified by these menaces, he dared not attempt to take the prisoners back to the jail; and the execution went on. Despite their forced confessions, the terrible pile was lighted, and the wretched negroes perished in the flames, knowing that, with their last breath, they had doomed their fellows to share their fate in vain.
On the 6th of June, seven other negroes, named Jack, Cook, Robin, Caesar, Cuffee, Cuffee, and Jamaica, were tried and found guilty on the dying evidence of Quack and Cuffee, with the stories of Mary Burton and the negro boy Sawney. All were executed the next day, with the exception of Jack, who saved his life by promising further disclosures. These disclosures implicated fourteen others, one of whom, to save his life, confessed and accused still mor.
On the 11th of June, Francis, one of the Spanish negroes, Albany, and Curacoa Dick were sentenced to be burned at the stake. Ben and Quack were condemned to the same fate five days after. Three others were at the same time sentenced to be hanged, and five of the Spanish negroes were also convicted.
On June 19 the governor proclaimed pardon to all who should confess and reveal the names of their accomplices before July 1. The accusations at once multiplied. Mary Burton, who had declared that Hughson was the only white man in the plot, now accused John Ury, a schoolmaster and reputed Catholic priest. To the negro plot were now added rumors of a Popish plot. The evidence against Ury was of the most improbable character, yet he was condemned, and sentenced to be hanged.
The arrest of Ury was the signal for the implication of others of the whites. It was a true foreshadowing of the Reign of Terror. Every one feared his neighbor, and hastened to be the first to accuse, lest he himself should be accused and thrown into prison. Fresh victims were daily seized, and those with whom the jails were already full to overflowing were transported or hanged with scarcely the form of a trial in order to make room for the new-comers. So rapid was the increase that the judges feared that the numbers might breed an infection, and devised short methods of ridding themselves of the prisoners, sometimes by pardoning, but as often by hanging them. From the 11th of May to the 29th of August, one hundred and fifty-four negroes were committed to prison, fourteen of whom were burned at the stake, eighteen hanged, seventy-one transported, and the rest pardoned or discharged for the want of sufficient evidence. In the same time, twenty-four whites were committed to prison, four of whom were executed.
The tragedy would probably have continued much longer, had not Mary Burton, grown bolder by success, begun to implicate persons of consequence. This at once aroused the fears of the influential citizens, who had been the foremost when only the negroes were in question, and put a stop to all further proceedings. The fearful catalogue of victims closed on the 29th of August with the execution of John Ury. The 24th of September was set apart as a day of general thanksgiving for the escape of the citizens from destruction; Mary Burton received the hundred pounds that had been promised her as the price of blood, and the city fell back into a feeling of security.
Whether this plot ever had the shadow of an existence except in the disordered imaginations of the citizens can never with certainty be known.. The witnesses were persons of the vilest character, the evidence was contradictory, inconsistent, and extorted under the fear of death, and no real testimony was adduced that could satisfy any man in the possession of a clear head and a sound judgment. Terror was really the strongest evidence, and the fear of the Jesuits the conclusive proof. The law passed in 1700 for hanging every Catholic priest who voluntarily came within the province still disgraced the statute-book, while the feeling of intolerance which had prompted it remained as bitter and unyielding as ever.