SETTLEMENT OF NEW YORK BY THE DUTCH IN 1609.--NEGROES INTRODUCED INTO THE COLONY, 1628.--THE TRADE IN NEGROES INCREASED.--TOBACCO EXCHANGED FOR SLAVES AND MERCHANDISE. GOVERNMENT OF THE COLONY.--NEW NETHERLAND FALLS INTO THE HANDS OF THE ENGLISH, AUG. 27, 1664.--VARIOUS CHANGES.--NEW LAWS ADOPTED.--LEGISLATION.--FIRST REPRESENTATIVES ELECTED IN 1683.--IN 1702 QUEEN ANNE INSTRUCTS THE ROYAL GOVERNOR IN REGARD TO THE IMPORTATION OF SLAVES.--SLAVERY RESTRICTIONS.--EXPEDITION TO EFFECT THE CONQUEST OF CANADA UNSUCCESSFUL.--NEGRO RIOT.--SUPPRESSED BY THE EFFICIENT AID OF TROOPS.--FEARS OF THE COLONISTS.--NEGRO PLOT OF 1741.--THE ROBBERY OF HOGG'S HOUSE.--DISCOVERY OF A PORTION OF THE GOODS.--THE ARREST OF HUGHSON, HIS WIFE, AND IRISH PEGGY.--CRIMINATION AND RECRIMINATION.--THE BREAKING-OUT OF NUMEROUS FIRES.--THE ARREST OF SPANISH NEGROES.--THE TRIAL OF HUGHSON.--TESTIMONY OF MARY BURTON.--HUGHSON HANGED.--THE ARREST OF MANY OTHERS IMPLICATED IN THE PLOT.--THE HANGING OF CAESAR AND PRINCE.--QUACK AND CUFFEE BURNED AT THE STAKE.--THE LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR'S PROCLAMATION.--MANY WHITE PERSONS ACCUSED OF BEING CONSPIRATORS.--DESCRIPTION OF HUGHSON'S MANNER OF SWEARING THOSE HAVING KNOWLEDGE OF THE PLOT.--CONVICTION AND HANGING OF THE CATHOLIC PRIEST URY.--THE SUDDEN AND UNEXPECTED TERMINATION OF THE TRIAL.--NEW LAWS MORE STRINGENT TOWARD SLAVES ADOPTED. From the settlement of New York by the Dutch in 1609, down to its conquest by the English in 1664, there is no reliable record of slavery in that colony. That the institution was coeval with the Holland government, there can be no historical doubt. During the half-century that the Holland flag waved over the New Netherlands, slavery grew to such proportions as to be regarded as a necessary evil. As early as 1628 the irascible slaves from Angola,[215] Africa, were the fruitful source of wide-spread public alarm. A newly settled country demanded a hardy and energetic laboring class. Money was scarce, the colonists poor, and servants few. The numerous physical obstructions across the path of material civilization suggested cheap but efficient labor. White servants were few, and the cost of securing them from abroad was a great hinderance to their increase. The Dutch had possessions on the coast of Guinea and in Brazil, and hence they found it cheap and convenient to import slaves to perform the labor of the colony.[216] The early slaves went into the pastoral communities, worked on the public highways, and served as valets in private families. Their increase was stealthy, their conduct insubordinate, and their presence a distressing nightmare to the apprehensive and conscientious.