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Why Is The Conspiracy Trial Of 1741 Guilty

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Mariam Saif History of the United States Professor Zachary Bennett October 6, 2015 Paper 1 Final Draft Blame it on the Guilt It was once said that “a guilty conscience does not need an accuser”, that a man who has wronged someone does not need to be told so and no matter how much he consciously denies it, his mind knows. This is exactly the case when it comes to the New York Conspiracy Trials of 1741. There has been much speculation through the years on these trials and whether or not there ever was a conspiracy to overthrow the white supremacists, but sadly, there hasn’t been a single strand of evidence. In fact, the only facts that we have when it comes to this case is that there is no facts; everything is speculation. Some might consider …show more content…

The Conspiracy Trial of 1741 never existed; it was all nothing but fiction made up by a guilty conscience. The whites realized how badly they were treating others, and the fact that these “slaves” didn’t do anything …show more content…

They treated them as workhorses rather than humans beings, and didn’t find any fault in it, or so they tried to believe. This elite population tried to convince themselves, as well as each other, that the way they treated the African Slaves was reasonable and justifiable. However, when it came down to it, they knew they were wrong, and this is how the idea of the Conspiracy Trials came to be. The whites realized how horrible they were and subconsciously created something that they expected should happen; a slave rebellion. However, the idea of a slave rebellion existing in New York during this time made no sense. After all, the slave count was very minimal in comparison to the total population, so it wouldn’t make sense for a small percentage of people to plan an uprising when they knew that they are outnumbered and overpowered. According to the Historical Society of the New York Courts, “In 1741, New York had a population of around 10,000 people, some 2,000 of whom were slaves”. This means that the slave population only came out to about twenty percent of the total population, and if they and the poor British lead a revolt, they would still be facing a lot more than they could handle. According to this reason alone, the chances of a rebellion are very minimal, but this reason is not the only

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He challenged this assumption by arguing that historians and South Carolina officials had written the result of the Stono Rebellion in reverse. Many of the historians and officials had assumed that there was a competent conspiracy theory to rebel before the violence even erupted. Hoffer again disagreed with this assumption. After analyzing the many causes that could’ve started the rebellion, the author came across many shortcomings and deficiencies of the traditional conspiracy theories that many individuals believe caused the rebellion.

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The killing of the one white man was made into a justification for the beginning of an indiscriminant killed of Native Americans. The governor of Virginia, Berkeley, wanted

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The Conspiracy Trails of 1741, Daniel Horsmanden’s Journal of the Proceedings by Serena R. Zabin is a very interesting read when learning about what happened in New York in 1741. The journal conveys the true story of what happened according to the author. The journal does an excellent job in showing the traits of people in that time period. The people of New York had paranoia circling around the ideal of a secret catholic government takeover, the integration of races and most importantly slaves rising to power.

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In the 18th century America, a great division existed between the majority of blacks whom many were slaves, whites; men and women; and the upper and lower classes. New York City in 1741 had an economic decline intensified conflict between slaves involved in marketable activity and working-class white colonists who felt as if their jobs were threatened. These two types of people were competing against each which caused a chaos. To make things worse Britain had gone to was with Spain, and Spain promised the slaves for their freedom which made them turn their backs on Britain. This trial is similar to the Salem witch trial where they persecuted, many of who were slaves and a few poor white men.

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In 1741 a series of thirteen fires broke out in the streets of New York as part of a conspiracy plot for slaves to gain their freedom back. An investigation by the supreme court looked into the matter, what resulted in over one hundred slaves being captured and interrogated and in fear for their lives they used scapegoats to try and save themselves what only fuelled the fire of the witch hunt for those who were actually responsible. The Negro plot of 1741 was an example of a witch hunt because it caused mass hysteria within the white community and also because the slaves convicted of being a part of the conspiracy used scapegoats to try and save their own lives. One of the reasons The Negro Plot of 1741 is considered a witch hunt is because during the investigation of the fires, white people in the community were afraid that the slaves were trying to fight back in order to gain their freedom back, which caused a lot of negative emotions to stir within the community causing vigilantes to take the law into their own hands. Soon A discontented Spanish Negro came under strong suspicion on April 6, when four new fires broke out and the cry of “ Take up the Spanish Negros “( Linder ) echoed the streets of New York.

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In reality, there was no threat to slavery so there could be no motivation to defend it. Considering that there were still thousands of slaves in the North and Northern merchants were still amassing large fortunes from the Atlantic Slave Trade at appears obvious that the most citizens of New England and New York had little objection to slavery where it existed. The institution of slavery played a major economic roll in both the North and the South. Congress was so opposed to abolition that it imposed a “Gag Rule’ preventing any legislation concerning slavery from even being introduced. Money, power and particularly the right of sovereignty were clearly the driving forces in the Nullification

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The majority of people would never imagine they could be convicted of a crime which they did not commit, but all too often, this is the startling reality. Through the history of the United States and the world, excessively many decisions have been made rashly as a result of fear and bias. Two specific cases in the United States are those of the Red Scare and the West Memphis Three. While both situations did not lead to prosecution and conviction of individuals, both did involve harsh accusations which seemed reasonably based but may not have been. By comparing and contrasting these two events, one can see specific recurring patterns not only in the history of the United States, but in the history of the whole world; by seeing this, hopefully

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Most people however, were not attacked because they didn't collect taxes or did t walk around to late at night. Document 3, The Continental Congress Explains the Need to Fight addresses why the colonist felt the need to revolt. However they over exaggerated the outcome of the war if it did not favor their side. Slavery was not as popular at that time unless on owned a large plantation in the country. Most slaves were African or African American.

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Returning to George Burroughs “Ringleader of the Witches” In June of 1692, the first Salem witch trials began. A group of girls, ranging from eleven years old to nineteen years old, accused Tituba of practicing witchcraft. Tituba was an old Indian slave, which made her an obvious choice for a witch accusation. She later plead guilty to the charges of being a witch. She was housed in the Salem jailhouse to repent for her sins.

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The article “An Attack on the Salem Witch Trials”, written by Thomas Brattle who is a Harvard graduate and a Boston merchant, states a view against the Salem Witch Trials and what they are doing (Dudley 29). On the other side Cotton Mather, a leading minister in Boston, wrote “A Defense of the Salem Witch Trials” which is favored on continuing the trials (Dudley 26). The Salem Witch Trials are a very absurd way to get rid of the so called witches, and should be put to a stop. The article “An Attack on the Salem Witch Trials” stated, “The justices order the apprehended to look upon the said children, which accordingly they do; and at the time of that look, … the afflicted are cast into a fit.”

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Have you ever seen a government accuse a person of a crime he or she did not commit? Well, one of the best examples of this is in the town of Salem, Massachusetts. In this town in 1692, the courts not only wrongfully accused one person with sufficient evidence, but wrongfully accused 150 people of witchcraft. Furthermore, these people were accused without any scientific evidence. Even more terrible, though, is that 19 of these people were executed for this reason.

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Introduction The period of the trial was the 1910, more specifically the trial started on May 13, 1910 (pg.1). During the 1910 America was still developing into a world power, and many immigrants from other countries where attracted to t he prosperity that was available in America (Baily, S. L., 1983, pg.281). New York State specifically was one of the fastest growing states in the country with one of the best economical prosperity for native workers, and immigrants (Baily, S. L., 1983, pg.281). What is the crime in the trial?

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The overwhelming growing population of free, black slaves was starting to concern the government of the United States. They feared that those who are still slaves would be motivated to impose for their freedom; therefore, revolt against the government. It was a problem they wished would never arise. In 1817, the American Colonization Society was formed. Their aim was to send free African-Americans in Africa, which they bought land in Liberia for the immigrants to settle in.

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