36 pages • 1 hour read
Jill LeporeNew York Burning: Liberty, Slavery, and Conspiracy in Eighteenth-Century Manhattan
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2005A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
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Chapter 3 Summary: “Stone”
On April 21, 1741, New York’s Supreme Court convenes in City Hall to begin investigations into the fires and determine whether they are part of a larger slave plot. The Chief Justice James DeLancey is away from New York for several months, leaving the Second Justice Frederick Philipse in command. Daniel Horsmanden also serves as Third Justice on the court—a position which allows him to exert a large amount of influence over the court proceedings. During the 1730s, several scandals (including the controversial trial of publisher John Peter Zenger for libel) have damaged the court’s reputation, with many in New York believing the court is biased towards fulfilling the governor’s wishes, rather than being an impartial court of law.
The Supreme Court’s proceedings begin with the convening of the grand jury, composed primarily of wealthy New York merchants. Justice Philipse orders the grand jury to question witnesses for information and then decide whether any suspects should be charged with crimes. Suspecting that the prior robbery at Hogg’s shop is connected to the fires, the Court first calls Mary Burton, Hughson’s servant whose information led to the initial arrests of the Hughsons. In her deposition, Burton “describe[es] a vast plot” (78), testifying that slaves would meet at Hughson’s tavern and conspire to burn New York to the ground. The ultimate goal of the plot, according to Burton, is to declare the slave Caesar as Governor and Hughson as the slaves’ new King.
Alarmed at the extent of the conspiracy, the Supreme Court immediately calls New York’s most elite lawyers to decide on how to proceed. As slaves are not required by law to be tried in front of a jury or punished, the government could decide to speedily sentence them to execution. However, Horsmanden pushes for the trial to be held publicly at the Supreme Court, sensing an opportunity to transform the court’s reputation and “advance his own career” (82). The Court decides to forego a Grand Jury, instead having the Justices—especially Horsmanden—interrogate the witnesses in the case.
Following Burton’s testimony, the Court questions Peggy Kerry, Caesar’s pregnant lover. The Court offers her a full pardon for information on the conspiracy, but Kerry refuses to testify, claiming to have no knowledge of who caused the fires. While the Judges attempt to coerce Kerry into testifying, the Court moves forward with bringing Caesar, Prince, the Hughsons, and Kerry to trial for the robbery of Hogg’s shop. Caesar and Prince, as slaves, are tried first and are found guilty. Both are publicly hanged for robbery, with Caesar’s body left on display to rot—a symbol meant to frighten both Kerry and others into revealing any information about the conspiracy.
Meanwhile, Arthur Price, a fellow prisoner, testifies to the court that Kerry has told him of her knowledge of the conspiracy, as well as the Hughson’s involvement in the plot. The Court soon sends other prisoners into Price’s cell, with Price telling the court of any information these prisoners relay to him. Price testifies to the court that Sarah Hughson and Cuffee had both admitted to their involvement in the conspiracy, and he also names the slave Quack as the arsonist who started the fire at Fort George. Kerry eventually testifies to the Court of the existence of the slave plot, although claims that the men plotted the conspiracy at the house of John Romme instead of Hughson’s tavern. With the testimony of Price and Kerry, the Court charges the slaves Quack and Cuffee with “two indictments, for a Conspiracy to burn the Town, and murder the Inhabitants; and for two actual Burnings, the House in the Fort, and Mr. Philipse’s Storehouse” (92).
Chapter 4 Summary: “Paper”
In “Paper,” Lepore traces the events of Quack and Cuffee’s trial, as well as the ensuing investigations and trials that follow. One of the only surviving historical accounts of the trial is Justice Horsmanden’s Journal of the Proceedings in The Detection of the Conspiracy. The journal purports to be a collection of the various documents (court filings, witness testimony transcripts, etc.) that stem from the investigation into the slave conspiracy. While Horsmanden’s journal is a mostly accurate reprinting of these documents, Lepore notes that in some crucial cases, Horsmanden made slight changes to the documents to make the trial seem more legitimate.
Nine white witnesses—including Mary Burton and Arthur Price—as well as two black witnesses testify against Quack and Cuffee. Although slaves are not normally able to provide testimony in a court of law, New York makes exceptions, allowing the testimony “against other slaves,” and only “in cases of conspiracy, arson, and murder” (98). The witnesses testify to having seen Quack and Cuffee in relation to the fires and having heard them admit to partaking in the conspiracy. Quack and Cuffee attempt to mount their own defense, but the court finds both slaves guilty, sentencing them to be burned at the stake. The trial concludes with Horsmanden harshly reprimanding the two slaves, telling them they have committed “one of the most horrid and detestable Pieces of Villainy, that ever Satan instilled into the heart of human Creatures to put in Practice” (104).
On May 30, Quack and Cuffee are chained to stakes, with a “huge” (105) group of New Yorkers gathering to watch them burn. Both men confess to the crimes, naming many other slaves, as well as John Hughson, as co-conspirators, hoping that their confessions will earn them a pardon and save their lives. However, the Sheriff William Jamison decides to continue with the burning.
After the burnings, John Hughson, his wife and daughter, and Peggy Kerry are brought to trial for their role in the conspiracy. Quack and Cuffee’s confessions, combined with Arthur Price and Mary Burton, lead to quick convictions for all the defendants. Justice Philipse decides the sentence should be death by hanging. The accused are led to the gallows on June 12, with the prosecutors hoping that fear of dying will compel them to confess and name other co-conspirators. However, the accused “seem’d unconcerned at dying” (120) and refuse to confess to their role in the plot, leading to their hanging.
Quack and Cuffee’s confessions lead to the arrest of many other slaves, who are then set to be tried. One accused slave, Jack, fearful of being burned at the stake, agrees to confess to his crime and name other slaves. However, Jack speaks in a thick dialect, requiring translators to be brought in and explain to Horsmanden what Jack is saying. Horsmanden then summarizes Jack’s testimony in his own words, although he signs Jack’s name to it as if Jack had written the entire testimony himself. Jack’s testimony starts of a cycle in which numerous new slaves are arrested and brought to the prison to be tried, with many of the slaves then confessing to their crimes and naming more slaves to be brought in. The Supreme Court is so overwhelmed by the number of slaves to be tried that they offer a full pardon to any slave who confesses. However, the number of slaves seeking confessions is still so large that the Court has to set up a system to “expedite the extraction of confessions and the trying of criminals” (121), creating a columned list to keep track of the confessions.
Chapters 3-4 Analysis
A recurring theme throughout Chapters 3 and 4 is the impossibility for Lepore, as a historian, to uncover the full truth of the 1741 slave rebellion. The main piece of historical evidence recording the events and trial of the slave rebellion is Daniel Horsmanden’s publication, Journal of the Proceedings in The Detection of the Conspiracy. Many of the archival papers relating to the trial have since been lost to fires and other accidents. New York’s press, meanwhile, was not allowed to publish news of the trial, and no accounts from the slaves accused of conspiracy exist. While Horsmanden’s Journal faithfully collects a number of documents relating to the trial, it fails to acknowledge Horsmanden’s role in the trial as a Justice, as well as any potential bias he may have had in compiling the publication.
In several instances, Lepore compares Horsmanden’s versions of the court documents with the few copies of court documents that continue to exist. While Horsmanden’s Journal is predominantly the same as the authentic documents, Lepore argues that he occasionally edits the documents to make his own judgment against the slaves seem more correct. In the testimony of the slave Fortune, Horsmanden removes a line by Fortune about a “lodge of black Freemasons” (100)—a reference to a scandal several years prior that painted the Court Party, which counted Horsmanden as a member, in an unfavorable light. In Horsmanden’s printing of the confession of the slave Jack, he adds quotation marks around sentences that are purported to be direct quotations of Jack, which had not been included in the original document. The use of quotation marks in writing is less typically used in the 18th-century than it is today. Lepore argues that when such quotation marks are used in 18th-century publications, they suggest that the reader can understand the writing being marked as completely authentic and truthful: “In Jack’s ‘Examination & Confession,’ the double quotation marks along the margins of the page both credit the confession as genuine and shackle Jack in typographical handcuffs” (113).
Lepore also suggests that one must question the veracity of many of the slave’s supposed confessions. Nearly all of the slaves who confess to crime do so due to the fact that they are being threatened with death by burning. By contemporary standards, such a confession would be considered to have been coerced and would not be accepted as truthful evidence. However, in the 18th-century, such confessions are believed to be both truthful and voluntary, as Horsmanden and others “considered the threat of death a badge of truth” (106). As such, Lepore argues that the confessions may be less proof of the supposed slave conspiracy than stories invented by the slaves to save their lives. As a result, the version of the conspiracy described by Horsmanden in his Journal is perhaps best understood as semi-fictional, telling us most about Horsmanden’s views of society: “In an anxious empire, [Horsmanden] found monstrous black creatures. In a rebellious province, he spotted political plotters” (122).
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