Slave revolt of 1741: burned at the stake
In the spring of 1741, a wave of paranoia swept through New York that would ultimately cost the lives of dozens of enslaved people, poor whites, Spaniards and Catholics.
The tragedy that became known as the Conspiracy of 1741 it was a conspiracy ghost – a deadly fiction born of fear, prejudice and political tensions that bears striking similarities to the Salem witch trials of the previous century.
At the time, New York was shaken by a series of fires that broke out in lower Manhattan, threatening Fort George itself, one of the city’s five defensive fortifications.
As was usual in these cases, rumors soon began to circulate of a conspiracy, hypothetical and unlikelyin which numerous black, Spanish and other Catholic slavessays .
The tragedy unfolded in a international conflict scenario and local anxieties. Great Britain, which then controlled New York as one of its Thirteen Colonies, had been at war with Spain since 1739, in what became known as the War of Jenkins’ Ear.
The conflict gained its peculiar name after a Spanish coast guard allegedly cut off the ear of an English smuggler called Jenkins, whom he told to convey a warning to his king.
The war was actually manufactured by the Tory opposition as a pretext to force the Prime Minister Robert Walpole to open hostilities, at a time when British interests were focused on breaking Spain’s commercial monopoly with the Indies and renewing the profitable Black Seat — the exclusive contract for the slave trade in the Americas.
New York had volatile conditions at the time. With a population of ten thousand inhabitants, Manhattan had the second largest enslaved population of the Thirteen Colonies, just behind Charleston, South Carolina. One in five New York residents was enslaved, which created a gunpowder keg of racial and economic tensions.
At the time, accusations of crime were emerging regularly, more or less every two years.slave aspirations — although most turned out to be unfounded. The notable exception was the revolt of 1712in which 23 slaves of Ghanaian origin, led by a man named Kofi, killed 9 white people, before being captured and executed.
The growing influence of the enslaved population in New York’s economy created additional friction. Some slave owners taught their trades to enslaved workers, harming competitors who employed free labor.
However, the freed slaves accepted any wages that were offered to them, lowering average incomes and generating resentment among poor whites.
O Brutal winter of 1740 exacerbated these tensionsdestroying crops and creating severe food and firewood shortages that hit the poorest residents — both free and enslaved — hardest.
There were still other factors at play. The withdrawal of British troops from New York for the planned invasion of Cuba left the residents feeling vulnerable and on the defensive. On the other hand, the Test Act 1691 required public servants rejected papal authority and, in 1700, Catholic priests were banned altogether.
This combination of factors created a climate of suspicion not only in relation to enslaved people, who were prohibited from meeting in groups larger than three, but also in relation to Catholics, Spaniards and even ProtestantsNonconformists, including Puritans, Baptists, and Quakers.
The spark that set off the tragedy came in February 1741, when John Hughsonan illiterate shoemaker who operated a tavern, was detained by city clerk and Supreme Court judge Daniel Horsmanden.
Hughson’s establishment served a diverse clientele of soldiers, freedmen, poor whites and enslaved people, and the tavern keeper was accused of receiving stolen goods.
The investigation focused on three enslaved men, Cuffee, Caesar and Prince, who allegedly formed the “Geneva Club“, so called because of the stolen Dutch liquor they allegedly supplied to Hughson.
The key witness was Mary BurtonHughson’s sixteen-year-old maid, who would become the catalyst for a cascade of accusations which reminded the Salem trials.
On March 18, as Horsmanden pressed Burton for information, a fire broke out at the home of Governor George Clarke, adjacent to Fort George in lower Manhattan. Although quickly contained, it was followed by a series of fires in the following weekswhich looked increasingly suspicious.
In fact, New York it was a city of wooden housesfull of fireplaces, which made fires a common occurrence. But in the charged atmosphere of 1741, rational explanations gave way to hysteria.
On April 6, when fires broke out simultaneously in four locationssomeone saw a black man running away; It was Cuffee, the alleged thief. The rumor quickly spread that a slave rebellion was underway and, within days, 100 enslaved people were imprisoned.
Under relentless pressure, Mary Burton finally gave inclaiming that there was a conspiracy that involved poor black and white slaves who met at Hughson’s tavern.
The young maid then identified the alleged members of the Geneva Club, and implicated Margaret “Peggy” Sorubiero in the conspiracyan Irish prostitute and Caesar’s girlfriend.
Despite the complete absence of evidenceauthorities offered substantial rewards at the time for any testimonies: 100 pounds for white people45 for free blacks or Indians, and 20 pounds plus freedom for enslaved informants.
The inevitable result was a avalanche of accusations. Caesar and Prince were Hanged on May 11th after conviction for robbery.
The next day, new fires destroyed 7 barnsleading to the burning of two black men at the stake, a punishment authorized by a law from 1713. With the flames at their feet, confessed and denounced 50 otherswho were immediately imprisoned.
Hughson and Margaret were convicted on May 6th and, facing execution, Margaret cbegan to accuse detained slaveswho in turn accused others in a absurd chain of reactions.
The hysteria reached staggering proportions: 152 blacks and 20 whites were detained. At its peak, almost half of male slaves of the city over sixteen years of age had been imprisoned.
Even when owners testified that accused slaves like Cuffee and his friend Quack were at home when the fires startedmade no difference — both were hanged on May 30th. Hughson and Margaret suffered the same fate on June 12th.
In summer, with the Space in prisons is exhaustedthe procedures were temporarily suspended. But the persecution expandedincluding Spanish and Catholics.
Five free black Spanish sailors were executed, and John Urya teacher and preceptor, was accused of being an undercover Catholic priest and Spanish spy, relying largely on his knowledge of Latin.
Despite being an unsworn Anglican vicar, and having testimonies that supported his innocenceUry was convicted based on new accusations from Mary Burton and Sarah Hughson, the publican’s pressured wife. He was hanged at the end of August, followed by Sarah herself.
Mary Burton received the promised 100 pounds and freedom of his servitude contract before disappearing without a trace. She was the only beneficiary of the entire case.
The madness ended abruptly when the accusations started ringing prominent citizensincluding family members of court members and even relatives of Horsmanden himself. Faced with potential social and political chaos, authorities suddenly rediscovered the reason and closed the case.
Those still imprisoned were released, but pardon arrived too late for the seventeen black and four white victims hanged, the thirteen black people burned at the stake, and the seventy-seven deported to Newfoundland and the West Indies.
