New York Conspiracy of 1741

The Conspiracy of 1741, also known as the Negro Plot of 1741 or the Slave Insurrection of 1741, is a supposed plot by slaves and poor whites in the British colony of New York in 1741 to revolt and level New York City with a series of fires.

Historians disagree as to the existence of such a plot.Rumors of a conspiracy are against a background of economic competition between poor whites and slaves; a severe winter; war between Britain and Spain, with heightened anti-Catholic and anti-Spanish feelings; and recent slave revolts in South Carolina and the Caribbean.

In March and April 1741, a series of 13 fires erupts in Lower Manhattan, the most significant one within the walls of Fort George, the home of the governor.

After another fire at a warehouse, a slave is arrested after having been seen fleeing it.

A 16-year old Irish indentured servant, Mary Burton, arrested in a case of stolen goods, testifies against the others as participants in a supposedly growing conspiracy of poor whites and blacks to burn the city, kill the white men, take the white women for themselves, and elect a new king and governor.Two slaves are burned at the stake.

Before their executions, they confess to burning the fort and name dozens of others as co-conspirators.

News of the "conspiracy" sets off a stampede of arrests, although the fires had ended.

Trials and executions follow through the summer.

At the height of the hysteria, nearly half the city's male slaves over the age of 16 are in jail.

The number of arrests total 152 blacks and 20 whites.

They are tried and convicted in a show trial.

John Ury, a teacher and suspected Catholic priest, is charged with instigating the plot.

Most of the convicted people are hanged or burnt – how many is uncertain.

The bodies of two supposed ringleaders, Caesar, a slave, and John Hughson, a white cobbler and tavern keeper, are gibbeted.

Their corpses are left to rot in public.

Seventy-two men are deported from New York, sent to Newfoundland, various islands in the West Indies, and the Madeiras.

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