New York Conspiracy of 1741: Hughson's Tavern and Mary Burton's Accusers

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In 1741 New York City had about 10,000 people, one in five enslaved, the second largest enslaved population in the British colonies after Charleston, and enslavers hired out skilled enslaved coopers, blacksmiths and carpenters at prices that undercut white artisans. The Great Frost of 1740 to 1741 froze the Hudson so hard people walked to New Jersey, cutting off food and firewood, while memories of the 1712 revolt and the War of Jenkins' Ear fed fear of Spanish agents, since Spain offered freedom to enslaved people who fled British territory. On March 18 the governor's house in Fort George burned, more fires followed, and when a man named Cuffee was seen running from one, the cry the Negroes are rising led to about 100 arrests.

Investigators focused on John Hughson's waterfront tavern, where enslaved and free Black residents, poor whites and Peggy Kerry mixed and the Geneva Club fenced stolen Dutch gin. Justice Daniel Horsmanden pressed Hughson's 16-year-old indentured servant Mary Burton, who described a plot to burn the city and crown Hughson king, and the council offered 100 pounds to white informants and 20 pounds plus freedom to enslaved ones. Quack and Cuffee were convicted despite alibis from their enslavers and named others as the fires were lit, then burned anyway. Five Spanish sailors were hanged, and Latin tutor John Ury was executed as a supposed priest after a warning from Georgia's James Oglethorpe. When Burton began accusing elite families, the inquiry ended.

• In all, 161 Black people and 20 white people were arrested and 34 were executed.
• Thirteen Black men were burned at the stake, and 17 Black men, two white men and two white women were hanged.
• Another 84 people were transported into Caribbean slavery.
• At one point the jails held about half of the city's enslaved men over the age of 16.
• The nearby African Burial Ground, where up to 15,000 Africans were buried, was rediscovered in 1991 during federal construction.