Analysis Of The New York Conspiracy Daniel Horsmanden

The New York Conspiracy Trials was a supposed plot by the poor white people and the enslaved African Americans to revolt, burn down New York City and kill the rich white citizens of New York. After a string of fires that burned down several buildings in New York slaves were identified as the only possible suspects, which are depicted in “Reading and Writing Terror: The New York Conspiracy Trials of 1741” written by Andy Doolen and in “The New York Conspiracy, Or A History of the Negro Plot” written by Daniel Horsmanden. This period of panic and paranoia exposed how faulty New York’s legal system was and how unscrupulous society was. There was an increase number of enslaved African Americans, about twenty percent of New York’s population, living …show more content…
The white slaveowners believed that the slaves had arranged a plot to kill them, they believed the slaves were capable of a rebellion since the population of African Americans at the time was immense. As stated by Daniel Horsmanden in “The New York Conspiracy, Or A History of the Negro Plot,” Insurrections and conspiracies were, at this juncture, frequent in the West India Islands…these circumstances aggravated the horrors of a domestic plot to such a degree.” The New York were seeing that slaves were capable of a revolt as it was happening in other places. Slaves were not looked upon with the highest regard and were prohibited from social activities such as drinking in taverns without their masters present, or even being outside past sunset. Horsmanden states “…the white inhabitants, regarding every negro slave as an incendiary and an assassin, carried their apprehensions and resentments beyond all bounds,” (The New York Conspiracy, Preface To The Second Edition) Slaveowners knew that such laws and the treatment faced by the African Americans would be cause of revenge and