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
pronounced the oath above mentioned, (something like a freemason's
oath and penalties,) and every negro severally repeated the oath after
him, and then Hughson's wife fed them with a draught out of the bowl."
This was "new matter," so to speak, and doubtless broke the monotony
of the daily recitals to which their honors had been listening all
summer. Kane was about to deprive Mary Burton of her honors; and, as
he could not write, he made his mark. A peddler named Coffin was
arrested and examined. He denied all knowledge of the plot, never saw
Hughson, never was at his place, saw him for the first time when he
was executed; had never seen Kane but once, and then at Eleanor
Waller's, where they drank beer together. But the court committed him.
Kane and Mary Burton accused Edward Murphy. Kane charged David
Johnson, a hatter, as one of the conspirators; while Mary Burton
accuses Andrew Ryase, "little Holt," the dancing-master, John Earl,
and seventeen soldiers,--all of whom were cast into prison.
On the 16th of July nine Negroes were arraigned: four plead guilty,
two were sentenced to be burnt, and the others to be hanged. On the
next day seven Negroes plead guilty. One John Schultz came forward,
and made a deposition that perhaps had some little influence on the
court and the community at large. He swore that a Negro man slave,
named Cambridge, belonging to Christopher Codwise, Esq., did on the
9th of June, 1741, confess to the deponent, in the presence of Codwise
and Richard Baker, that the confession he had made before Messrs.
Lodge and Nichols was entirely false; viz., that he had confessed
himself guilty of participating in the conspiracy; had accused a Negro
named Cajoe through fear; that he had heard some Negroes talking
together in the jail, and saying that if they did not confess they
would be hanged; that what he said about Horsefield Caesar was a lie;
that he had never known in what section of the town Hughson lived, nor
did he remember ever hearing his name, until it had become the town
talk that Hughson was concerned in a plot to burn the town and murder
the inhabitants.
This did not in the least abate the zeal of Mary Burton and William
Kane. They went on in their work of accusing white people and Negroes,
receiving the approving smiles of the magistrates. Mary Burton says
that John Earl, who lived in Broadway, used to come to Hughson's with
ten soldiers at a time; that these white men were to command the Negro
companies; that John Ury used to be present; and that a man near the
Mayor's Market, who kept a shop where she (Mary Burton) got rum from,
a doctor, by nationality a Scotchman, who lived by the Slip, and
another dancing-master, named Corry, used to meet with the
conspirators at Hughson's tavern.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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