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The Conspiracy of 1741, also known as the Negro Plot of 1741 or the Slave Insurrection of 1741, was a supposed plot by slaves and poor whites in the British colony of New York in 1741 to revolt and level New York City with a series of fires. Historians disagree as to whether such a plot existed and, if there was one, its scale. During the court cases, the prosecution kept changing the grounds of accusation, ending with linking the insurrection to a Popish plot of Spanish and other Catholics.〔Ballard C. Campbell, ed. ''American Disasters: 201 Calamities That Shook the Nation'' (2008) p 24〕 In 1741 Manhattan had the second-largest slave population of any city in the Thirteen Colonies after Charleston, South Carolina. Rumors of a conspiracy arose against a background of economic competition between poor whites and slaves; a severe winter; war between Britain and Spain, with heightened anti-Catholic and anti-Spanish feelings; and recent slave revolts in South Carolina and Saint John in the Caribbean. In March and April 1741, a series of 13 fires erupted in Lower Manhattan, the most significant one within the walls of Fort George, then the home of the governor. After another fire at a warehouse, a slave was arrested after having been seen fleeing it. A 16-year-old Irish indentured servant, Mary Burton, arrested in a case of stolen goods, testified against the others as participants in a supposedly growing conspiracy of poor whites and blacks to burn the city, kill the white men, take the white women for themselves, and elect a new king and governor.〔 In the spring of 1741 fear gripped Manhattan as fires burned all across the island. The suspected culprits were New York's slaves, some 200 of which were arrested and tried for conspiracy to burn the town and murder its white inhabitants. As in the Salem witch trials and the Court examining the Denmark Vesey plot in Charleston, a few witnesses implicated many other suspects. In the end, over 100 people were hanged, exiled, or burned at the stake. Most of the convicted people were hanged or burnt – how many is uncertain. The bodies of two supposed ringleaders, Caesar, a slave, and John Hughson, a white cobbler and tavern keeper, were gibbeted. Their corpses were left to rot in public. Seventy-two men were deported from New York, sent to Newfoundland, various islands in the West Indies, and the Madeiras. ==Background== With the increase of enslaved Africans in New York during the early decades of the 18th century, there were both real revolts and periodic fears in the white community about revolts. Fears about slavery were used by different political factions to fan other tensions, as well. By 1741 slaves comprised one in five of New York's total population of 10,000; it was the second-largest slave population of any city in British North America after that of Charleston, South Carolina.〔(Daniel Kilbride, "Review: 'New York Burning: Liberty, Slavery, and Conspiracy in Eighteenth-Century Manhattan' by Jill Lepore" ), ''Pennsylvania History,'' Vol. 73, No. 2, SPRING 2006, accessed 13 November 2014 〕 Between 1687 and 1741, a slave plot was "discovered" on average every two and one half years.〔(John V. Morris, "The Hysteria Fire: New York, 1741" ), ''Whole Earth Review'', Winter 1999, accessed 9 Apr 2009〕 Some residents remembered the New York Slave Revolt of 1712, when more than 20 slaves met to destroy property and abusers in retaliation for the injustices they had suffered. One of the slaves, ''Kofi'', (called Cuffee by whites), set fire to his master’s outhouse. When townspeople gathered to put it out, the slaves attacked the crowd, killing nine whites and injuring six. The governor tried and executed 21 slaves. With the increase of slaves in New York, poor whites had to compete economically. Some slaveholders were artisans who taught their slaves their trade. They could subcontract their work and underbid other white artisans. This created racial and economic tension between the slaves and competing white craftsmen. The governor of New York in 1737 told the legislature, “the artificers complain and with too much reason of the pernicious custom of breeding slaves to trades whereby the honest industrious tradesmen are reduced to poverty for want of employ, and many of them forced to leave us to seek their living in other countries.”〔James Weldon Johnson, ''Black Manhattan'', New York: DaCapo Press, Inc., 1930; reprint, 1991 ISBN 0-306-80431-X, p. 27〕 Some whites went out of business because of this. The winter of 1740–1741 was a miserable period for the poor in the city. An economic depression contributed to declining food and fuel supply, aggravated by record low temperatures and snowfall. Many people were in danger of starving and freezing to death. These conditions caused many denizens, especially the poor whites and slaves, to grow resentful of the government.〔Hoey, Edwin. (June 1974). ("Terror in New York—1741" ), ''American Heritage Magazine'', June 1974, accessed 9 Apr 2009〕 The tension between the whites and the blacks was great, as slaves comprised the majority of the population. “A mere hint of restiveness among black New Yorkers could throw whites into a near panic”. In 1741, the fear of a slave revolt was high following slave revolts in South Carolina (1739) and in the Caribbean (1733/34 on St. John). In addition, Britain had recently gone to war with Spain (War of Jenkins' Ear), which added to the tensions in the seaport and increased anti-Catholic and anti-Spanish feelings by the authorities. At the time, Spain was frequently viewed by slaves in Anglophone colonies as a liberator due to the fact the Spanish had offered freedom to any slave who joined their cause. To attack Cuba, the British recruited soldiers from New York, and reduced the number of troops normally kept there. The upper classes were nervous and tensions during the winter reminded them of the times of the Slave Revolt of 1712. The government banned slave meetings on street corners. They limited slaves in groups to three, but allowed twelve at funerals. The government reduced other rights of assembly and movement. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「New York Conspiracy of 1741」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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