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The Great New York Conspiracy Of 1741 Chapter 1 Summary

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In the introduction to The Great New York Conspiracy of 1741, the author, Peter Charles Hoffer, asks the reader to asks themselves if the government went too far in to analyzing a plot behind the commission of arson and burglary crimes by a coalition of slaves and white societal figures. He urged us to look deeper into the potentially doctored documentation of the conspiracy trials and play the devil's advocate against the court system. The trials centered around the arraignment of John Hughson, Margaret Kerry, Caesar, and Prince for the commission of arson and burglary, which constituted the destruction of warehouses and buildings in town. The idea of a possible conspiracy arose from the community that frequented Hughson's bar, many of whom …show more content…

The legislature and the courts worked together to inhibit slaves from being able to adequately represent themselves in court, likely as an effort to continue making a cautionary tale of deviant slaves. We observe a malpractice of the courts in the case of Mary Burton, a 16-year-old girl who claimed to have borne witness to the alleged conspiracies that took place at John Hughson's bar. She had claimed to know nothing of the crime and intended to keep her silence on matters regarding to the alleged conspiracy, until she was told by prosecutors that she would have to answer to God for her silence (Hoffer p. 77). They used a type of religious coercion on Burton in order to get information out of her. In a God-fearing society like many of the New England colonies were, this was enough to make her say anything and even risk perjuring herself on the stand. Uniformly in colonial courts at the time, "hearsay" and prejudicial remarks were admissible as evidence to the trial (Hoffer p. 26). This made the coerced testimonies of Burton and other alike individuals evidence of the court, which gave the court the ability to convict innocent people without presenting material evidence. The only advantage for the slaves in this situation is the absence of witness testimony. In the rare case that the prosecution fails to provide a witness to corroborate the charges of the defendant, the court has no choice but to acquit. If Mary Burton had not submitted her questionable testimony into evidence and if everyone involved had claimed ignorance to the conspiracy, then the lives of the alleged conspirators that were executed might have been

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