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THE GREEN BAG
American metropolis. In a second edition of the book published in 1810, and in the pages of the historians generally, the cause of the six months Reign of Terror narrated therein is commonly called the Negro Plot; but the phenomenon is vari ously characterized as "senseless panic,' "bloody delusion," "disturbing occur rence," "phrenzied tragedy," and "popu lar madness." "The Recorder of the City of New York" appears in the second edition as "Daniel Horsmanden, Esq.," who, during its long and exciting session of inquiry and trial, sat as "third justice" of the Supreme Court together with Frederick Philipse "second justice" and James DeLancey "chief jus tice," to which latter distinction he him self was promoted a few years later, and long served the colony as an honored and trusted magistrate. "Negro and other slaves" cogently sug gests the low social status of the "indented" white servants in the colony, of which class Mary Burton, the "star witness" of the prosecution, was a sample. The popu lation of "the City of New York" at the date of "the conspiracy" was only ten or twelve thousand, of whom about two thousand were negroes, nearly all slaves, mostly recent importations. •The "notes, observations and reflec tions" suggest the coloring naturally given by a historian, who tho of judicial tempera ment and station, had been, virtute officii a leading actor in "the Proceedings," whose publication he thus justifies in his "Intro duction": "But 'there were two motives which weighed much; the one, that those who had not the opportunity of seeing and hearing, might judge of the justice of the proceedings, from the state of the case being laid • before them; for there had been some wanton, wrong-headed persons amongst us, who took the liberty to arraign the justice of the proceedings, and set up their private opinions in superiority to the
court and grand jury; though God knows (and all men of sense know; they could not be judges of such matters; but, neverthe less, they declared with no small assurance (notwithstanding what we saw with our eyes, and heard with our ears, and every one might have judged of by his intellects, that had any) that there was no plot at all! The other was that from thence, the people in general, might be persuaded of the necessity there is, for every one that has negroes, to keep a very watchful eye over them, and not to indulge them with too great liberties, which we find they make use of to the worst purposes." By the "additional evidence" the author hopes to withstand, if not convince, those "wrong-headed persons," the doubting Thomases of his day, men "from Mis souri" who must be shown everything, or they will not believe it. Suffice it to say it is merely cumulative and could serve only to confirm both sides in their existing opinions. There were fires and thefts in abundance, no doubt, of which negroes were guilty; but the "great conspiracy" of. hundreds of whites and negroes to bum the city and murder its inhabitants is not proven by reliable testimony. From the lists of names, it appears that the total number arrested was 174. Whites, 20; negroes, 154. Executed, 35: whites, 4; negroes, 31, at the dates and in the man ner shown in the following table. Pardoned, 5 whites. Transported under commu tation, 60 negroes, 3 to Newfoundland, the others to the West Indies and Mad eiras. Discharged, 43; whites, 10; negroes, 33. Of these indicted 10 were "not found,', whites, three; negroes, 7; while 74 negroes' and two whites are reported as having confessed connection with the conspiracy. AstonisTiment at the rise, course and. result of this Reign of Terror may be some what assuaged by recalling that in 1740 the population of New York was only about 10,000 of which, say 2,000 were negroes; that reports of recent plots of arson and.
