History of the Negro Race in America from 1619 to 1880. Vol 1: Negroes as Slaves, as Soldiers, and as CitizensWilliams, George Washington
History
History of the Negro Race in America from 1619 to 1880. Vol 1: Negroes as Slaves, as Soldiers, and as Citizens
Williams, George Washington
African Americans -- History; Liberia; Sierra Leone
On the 27th of June, one Adam confessed that he knew of the plot, but
said he was enticed into it by Hughson, three years before; that
Hughson told him that he knew a man who could forgive him all his
sins. So between John Hughson's warm rum, and John Ury's ability to
forgive sin, the virtuous Adam found all his scruples overcome; and he
took the oath. A Dr. Hamilton who lodged at Holt's, and the latter
also, are brought into court as accused of being connected with the
plot. It was charged that Holt directed his Negro Joe to set fire to
the play-house at the time he should indicate. At the beginning of the
trial only four white persons were mentioned; but now they began to
multiply, and barrels of powder to increase at a wonderful rate. The
confessions up to this time had been mere repetitions. The arrests
were numerous, and the jail crowded beyond its capacity. The poor
Negroes implicated were glad of an opportunity to "confess" against
some one else, and thereby save their own lives. Recorder Horsemanden
says, "Now many negroes began to squeak, in order to lay hold of the
benefit of the proclamation." He deserves the thanks of humanity for
his frankness! For before the proclamation there were not more than
seventy Negroes in jail; but, within eight days after it was issued,
thirty more frightened slaves were added to the number. And Judge
Horsemanden says, "'Twas difficult to find room for them, nor could we
see any likelihood of stopping the impeachments." The Negroes turned
to accusing white persons, and seven or eight were arrested. The
sanitary condition of the prison now became a subject of grave
concern. The judges and lawyers consulted together, and agreed to
pardon some of the prisoners to make room in the jail. They also
thought it prudent to lump the confessions, and thereby facilitate
their work; but the confessions went on, and the jail filled up again.
The Spanish Negroes taken by an English privateer, and adjudged to
slavery by the admiralty court, were now taken up, tried, convicted,
and sentenced to be hung. Five others received sentence the same day.
The bloody work went on. The poor Negroes in the jail, in a state of
morbid desperation, turned upon each other the blistering tongue of
accusation. They knew that they were accusing each other
innocently,--as many confessed afterwards,--but this was the last
straw that these sinking people could see to catch at, and this they
did involuntarily. "Victims were required; and those who brought them
to the altar of Moloch, purchased their own safety, or, at least,
their lives."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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