It started at a bar. At a dive bar,
as we would know it today; the kind of bar that looks, from the outside, like a
great place to get in a fight on a Friday night and feels, on the inside, also
like a great place to get in a fight on a Friday night. But it didn't stay in the bar. It grew incendiary and mean and by the time
it was done over thirty people would be dead.
Fourteen of them burned at the stake.
Questions remain about the plan engineered that spring at Hughson's
Tavern: Was it really conceived at
Hughson's? Were all those people really
involved? What was the point? The answers remain, and probably always
will be, lost to history. But the events
of the Great Negro Uprising of 1741, now called the New York Conspiracy of 1741
because the casual use of the word “negro” is now frowned upon, are a
fascinating part of American history most don't know and some would rather
forget.
Let's take a look at what the hell I'm talking about now.
New York City in 1741
is not the quaint colonial outpost that many for some reason picture. I
don't know if it's because we just assume that anywhere pre-1900 was rural,
agricultural and Puritan, but a lot of people don't realize that even as early
as the 1730s New York was a pretty bustling city compared to its
contemporaries. In 1741 there were
12,000 people in New York City, three-thousand of which were slaves, another
two-thousand were indentured servants (predominantly Irish). If you're keeping track and are good at math,
this means that just over half of the city's population were free whites (Irish
weren't white in the 1700s, I'll post a link at the bottom if you want to
explore this further). The main roads
were lined with shops and taverns, the docks were always busy and Fort George
occupied much of what is now lower Manhattan.
New York was a turbulent mix of slaves, servants, the rich and powerful,
soldiers, sailors and criminals. The
more things change, the more they stay the same, huh?
But, perhaps more
importantly for this story, New York was also an English colony on a continent
not ruled entirely by the English. There
would eventually be a war fought about this in the 1750s (The French and Indian
War), but at this point the English shared us with the French, Dutch and
Spanish. And while the French were
usually the biggest pains in the fattest part of our collective ass, in the
1740s the Spanish had seriously stepped up their game. The War of Jenkin's Ear, fought in Georgia
and Florida over English shipping rights in Spanish territory, had started in 1739
after Robert Jenkins displayed his severed ear to Parliament (he kept it
pickled and in a jar) and demanded retribution.
Jenkin’s display of grossness and the war that it started (seriously) would
eventually be consumed by the War of Austrian Succession and rage until 1748. At this time, though, the war was being
fought in North America and Spanish merchant ships were being raided by the
English, the Spanish were returning the favor, and the English were raiding St
Augustine and various other forts.
Furthermore, the Spanish were offering amnesty (read: freedom) for
English slaves that made it to what is now Georgia/Florida. Many of the indigenous populations from
Spanish colonies, often referred to as "Spanish Negroes" (I know, I
know), were being taken as slaves by the English that were raiding the Spanish
ships, most of whom eventually made their way to New York.
**NOTE: Please do not take this
whole Florida thing as the Spanish being the morally superior of these two
powers. The Spanish still held MANY
slaves at this time, most of which were the indigenous peoples of the nations
they were colonizing. This was a tactic
of war and a way to tell the English to fuck off in extra loud terms. **
But these weren't the
only things causing problems in New York in 1741. Exacerbating all of these problems with the
Spanish was God. The Spanish were
Catholic and the English were Anglican Protestants. Each assumed the their god was manlier, more
bad ass, prettier, and a much better kisser and to prove this war often
ensued. Catholics in New York were the
enemy. Remember what I said up there
about the Irish? Nearly all of the Irish
in New York at this time were Catholic, making them doubly bad. Tensions between the often rich or middle
class (by 18th century standards) English and the Spanish, blacks, and Irish
Catholic poor population were heightened by the constant threat of Indian
attacks since so many of the able-bodied white men in the colony had been sent
to fight the War of Jenkin's Ear (I swear I'm not making this up). Just to add more fuel to a fire that was
already beginning to smolder, the winter of 1740-1741 had been the Lindsay
Lohan of winters-- it was a total mess.
Most in the colony talked of it as the worst in their memory. It had hit hard and hit early, leading some
crops to freeze over before they could be taken in. Bread was scarce and fuel (coal) prices were
on the rise, meaning the urban poor were struggling to survive. There was talk of slave revolts, of Spanish
espionage in the city, of the Irish taking up arms. It wouldn't have been the first time, there
had been a slave revolt in New York just thirty years before and the Stono
Rebellion in South Carolina had just taken place in 1739. The white people were scared. And if there is one thing that history
teaches us, it's that if white people are scared a whole bunch of people are
about to die.
Wednesday, March 18,
1741-- fire breaks out at the home of Lieutenant Governor Clarke, located
inside the walls of Fort George. The
fire is at first assumed to be accidental, but even so, the blaze rages out of
control. Surrounding buildings begin to
smolder and the wooden houses right outside the walls are in danger of being
burnt as well. Finally, a very timely
rain falls putting out the conflagration.
The danger passed, the townspeople went back to life as usual until
another fire started one week later.
And then yet another fire started the Wednesday after that.
Now not everyone in
New York at this time had a firm grasp on logic, however, three fires on three
consecutive Wednesdays made people talk.
The fires were exactly what was needed to send the colony hurtling into
chaos. Those able-bodied men that were
left were instructed to patrol the town, to confiscate and search every package
or bundle they saw. Strict curfews were
placed on the slave and servant populations and anyone even smelling like
Spanish descent or Communion wine was taken into custody. But to no avail. The following Monday, April 6, five fires
broke out across the city. Arrests were
made of nearly every "Spanish Negro" in the city, as well as many
slaves and indentured servants. And it
is here that possibly one of the quirkiest casts of characters history has to
offer takes center stage.
Hughson's Tavern And Those That Got Drunk There
Hughson's Tavern was
on the waterfront in New York in 1741.
It was a shitty little dive bar that had a reputation among the seedy
underbelly of society for being the best place in town to fence stolen goods. The patrons were like something out of a bad
play-- black slaves, Irish indentureds, prostitutes, petty criminals, sailors,
and dock workers. John Hughson, the
owner and proprietor along with his wife and daughter (both named Sarah because
that's not confusing at all), often laid out weekly feasts for his guests, rumored
to be a mockery of Masonic rituals.
There are accounts of credit extended to some of the lowliest of society
so that they could eat and drink for free so long as they eventually paid,
often in stolen goods.
When the grand jury
convened on April 21 to investigate those arrested in connection to the fires
one of those called to testify was sixteen year old Mary Burton, indentured
servant of John Hughson. Mary initially
claimed to know nothing of the fires but as she was being dragged to the jailhouse
dungeon in shackles as a conspirator she suddenly remembered that she knew
EVERYTHING about the fires and the plot that caused them. Now safely back on the stand Mary began to
talk. And I'm pretty sure she never
actually shut up. She claimed that the
plot to start the fires was conceived of and planned in Hughson's tavern by
John Hughson and a large group of black guys.
Also heading up this plot was the notorious prostitute Peggy Kerry and
two slaves, Price and Caesar. Peggy was
in an intense relationship with Caesar (real name: John Gwin) and had born him
a child who was being hidden due to its skin tone. The plan, according to Mary Burton, was to
set the fires and then kill the white people that came to put them out. Eventually, so the story went, they would
wipe out the highest orders of colonial society and make Caesar governor and
John Hughson king. I can't think of a
better plan to take over New York City, can you?
Caesar and Price,
along with the Hughson's and Peggy Kerry, were due to stand trial in May for
theft charges unrelated to the fires.
Before the second of the trials was due to take place (for the white
people, as they could not, by law, be tried with blacks) an imprisoned
indentured servant, Arthur Price (not the Price mentioned above) came forward
stating that Peggy Kerry had confessed to plotting the fires to him. Arthur stated that Kerry had told him that
herself, the Hughson's, and the two imprisoned slaves had planned the fires and
that two other slaves, Cuffee and Quack had carried them out. The judge then placed Arthur in the same cell
as Cuffee, who had been arrested earlier after being seen fleeing one of the
fires, who eventually confessed as well to setting the fires with Quack. For the record, that's the dude's actual
name. I'm not making this up. The guy that helped bring New York City to
its knees was actually known as Quack.
Quack and Cuffee stood
trial and were found guilty. They were
burned at the stake on May 30, 1741.
Before they were burned they offered a confession and named others
involved in the plot as a plea for mercy.
None was shown. But those named
were readily arrested. Five days later
the Hughsons and Peggy Kerry stood trial for their part in the plot. They were considered conspirators and
ringleaders. Racism being as it was in
1741, none of the magistrates believed that a couple of black guys could have
plotted and carried out any plan, let alone this one. Cuffee and Quack's dying confessions were
admissible and the jury took only fifteen minutes to convict all four and
sentence them to hang. For some unknown
reason, the Hughson's daughter's execution was postponed and she was eventually
pardoned, but the other three were executed on June 12.
This should be the end
of the story, but it's not. The hysteria
following the fires in New York is often compared the hysteria that consumed
Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. Following
the executions scores more were arrested.
At the end of the day conservative estimates place the number of arrests
at around 200 people.
And here is where the story gets even more interesting.
Jack and The Negroes (Their Words)
As more people were
arrested, put on trial and executed those already in jail became increasingly
nervous as their trial dates approached.
One arrested slave, known to history only as Jack, offered up the
"real story" of the plot in exchange for his life. Jack was a slave to Gerardus Comfort and,
according to his testimony, it was Mr Comfort's house (ironically, next door to
Hughson's) within which the plot to take New York was hatched. Jack would host large groups of black men
there beginning in February 1741. Jack
told the court who was there and what they had agreed to do as part of the plot. The motive was simple: freedom.
There was no white ringleader, no plan to become king, no Spanish
involvement. Just a bunch of slaves
ready to kill for their freedom. The
story earned Jack a pardon and those he named were arrested as quickly as possible. But when a significant number of them were
executed without confessing, people started to get nervous that the justice
system had been had. The last of the
slave trials took place on July 15, but the story doesn't end there,
either.
And here is where the story takes a turn for the bizarre.
Confession and Conflagration: John
Ury
There were parts of
the slaves' testimonies that stuck in the craw of the justices. Many made mention of a short white guy that
would forgive their sins that was at the center of the plot they were
confessing to involvement in. John
Hughson was really the only white dude known and he was far from short. So who was the white guy? And what's all this forgiving of sins
business?
And here we go back to
Hughson's Tavern. Mary Burton (remember
her?) had testified that an Irish sailor named William Kane had also been
hanging around Hughson's during the time the plot was being conceived of. Kane was eventually arrested and immediately
confessed, much to the surprise of, well, everyone. But Kane's confession set the entire
unfolding saga on its head because Kane confessed that there was indeed a plot,
but it had nothing to do with slaves.
Kane identified John Ury, a teacher of Latin and Greek in New York, as a
disguised Catholic Priest that had hatched a plot to burn New York in the name
of Catholic Spain.
Being a Catholic
priest was punishable by death in New York at this time, and this is not me
being hyperbolic, it was literally a crime punishable by death. Kane stated that, due to this, Ury was hiding
as a teacher. At the news of this,
Hughson's daughter, Sarah, was brought from the jail and offered a pardon in
exchange for her testimony against Ury.
She gave it, stating that Ury had promised forgiveness for sins in
exchange for the slaves' help in the plot, and then she eventually left New
York, rumor has it with the child of Peggy and Caesar, to parts unknown. Ury was found guilty and hanged in August of
that year.
For his part, the main
judge in the cases, John Horsmanden claimed that the plot was now over. He wrote that the main plot was that of
Catholic vs God fearing Protestant and that Ury was the person to blame. So what of the other 29 people executed? Members of sub-plots born of the
original. Yeah, okay.
So, What's The Real Story?
Quite honestly, we
don't know. What actually happened in
1741 is lost to history at this point.
Most, though certainly not all, are convinced at this point that there
was a plot. And we are pretty certain
that slaves were probably involved.
There's compelling quirks that could be everything or nothing. The fire at Fort George was set on St
Patrick's Day, the day set aside to celebrate the man that had eliminated
slavery in Ireland. Hughson's Tavern was
a place where blacks and non-blacks drank together illegally and sold illegal
goods, it's not a huge stretch to think that something more sinister and
dangerous could have been plotted there.
Jack was supposedly Ghanese (from Ghana, in Africa, seriously you guys,
read a book), while members of this community, called the Akan, only made up
around 4% of the population in New York at this time, they made up 40% of those
arrested in connection with the plot. Intriguing. But there's no concrete answers. Everything is left to conjecture and
interpretation.
I'd like to think that
it was the folks at Hughson's. There's
something romantic about the place for me.
I'd like to think that I would have gone drinking there had I been in 1741
New York, against the advice of my betters.
Check out the links below for some further reading.
The main sources that I found helpful here are as follows:
The Great Courses has a great lecture (available on Audible) that touches on this subject: America Before 1776.
For more info on the Irish and their racial identity in the US check out
Noel Ignatiev's "How the Irish Became White".
For further info on The War of Jenkins’ Ear:
