New York Conspiracy of 1741 75New York Conspiracy of 1741
Th e New York Conspiracy of 1741, also called the Great
Negro Plot, refers to the alleged plot by slaves, free blacks,
and poor whites to rebel and burn colonial New York City.
In a series of show trials and confessions, the New York Su-
preme Court elicited the details of the plot, with the fi nal
outcome being the execution of 34 people and the deporta-
tion of more than 70 others.
In the months before the string of fi res broke out, the
alleged conspirators, black and white, oft en met in Man-
hattan’s waterfront taverns, like the one owned by John
Hughson. Th ree frequent patrons of Hughson’s tavern were
the slaves Caesar, Prince, and Cuff ee, collectively called the
“Geneva Club.” Caesar, Prince, Cuff ee, and others regularly
stole goods and exchanged them for money or alcohol at
Hughson’s. Th e Irish prostitute Margaret Kerry had a room
at Hughson’s paid for by Caesar, who was the father of the
child Kerry was carrying. Mary Burton, also of Irish descent,
was the 16-year-old indentured servant of John Hughson,
who would become a critical witness in the later trials.
On March 2, 1741, more than two weeks before the
fi rst fi res broke out and a conspiracy was suspected, the
slaves Caesar and Prince were arrested for burglary. Shortly
thereaft er, on March 4, the servant Mary Burton was ques-
tioned by the undersheriff and confi rmed that Caesar and
Prince had stolen items and stored them at Hughson’s. She
also began to reveal details about the supposed plot by those
who frequented Hughson’s to rise up and destroy the city.
On March 18, 1741, several buildings within New
York’s Fort George were engulfed in fl ames. One of these
buildings was the mansion of Lieutenant Governor George
Clarke. From there the fi re moved to the chapel and bar-
racks within the fort. Th e fi re eventually jumped the walls of
Fort George, burning the adjacent Secretary’s Offi ce, where
many important city documents were held. Th e documents
were saved; the building was not.
Th e Fort George fi res were the most destructive, but sev-
eral other fi res occurred in the following weeks. On March
25, Captain Peter Warren’s house was ignited (but saved
with little damage). April 4 and April 6 saw six more fi res
between them. In total, there were at least 13 fi res of varying
destructiveness between March 18 and April 6, 1741.
Between April 11 and April 17, government offi cials
came to the conclusion that the fi res were the result of arsonwent to war. A number of slaves understood the irony,
and used it to advantage, pushing for freedom. One such
former slave was Prince Hall, who organized a chapter of
black masons in Boston, with a mission of amassing politi-
cal and social capital. Hall was contemporary with Crispus
Attucks, a runaway slave of African and Native American
background, who was the fi rst to shed blood for liberty and
independence in the incipient nation.
When the American Revolution began, more than
15,000 slaves lived in New England, with the highest per-
centage in Rhode Island and the greatest number in Mas-
sachusetts. In Boston, Africans constituted a 10th, but in
Connecticut and in Massachusetts generally, they repre-
sented roughly 4 percent, some of whom were free, even
though they did not necessarily fare better in freedom.
Aft er purchasing himself in 1760, Venture Smith continued
to save, eventually buying liberty for his sons, daughters,
and wife. Several decades before Smith documented his
experience in a narrative, there emerged among the slave
populations in Rhode Island, Connecticut, Massachusetts,
and New Hampshire a common cultural life expressed in
Black Election Day festivities.
Th is social holiday brought blacks from far and wide to
commune together with music, games, and spirits, assem-
bling for the purpose of choosing a leader, either a black
governor or king, who took on a governance role in the
community, sitting in judgment over disputes. Africans saw
themselves and were seen as a separate people, and they
rallied to create their own institutions, drawing sustenance
from the camaraderie of togetherness while they displayed
their cultural stamp and sense of communal standing in
their own eyes and in those of others.
See also: Attucks, Crispus; Election Day; Northern Slavery;
Tituba; Wheatley, Phillis
Barbara LewisBibliography
Farrow, Anne, Joel Lang, and Jennifer Frank. Complicity: How the
North Promoted, Prolonged, and Profi ted from Slavery. New
York: Ballantine Books, 2005.
Greene, Lorenzo Johnston. Th e Negro in Colonial New England,
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Piersen, William D. Black Yankees: Th e Development of an Afro-
American Subculture in 18 th Century New England. Amherst:
University of Massachusetts Press, 1988.
Temin, Peter, ed. Engines of Enterprise: An Economic History of
New England. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press,
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