An indented
servant-woman purchased her liberty and secured a reward of one hundred
pounds by pretending to give information of a plot formed by a low
tavern-keeper, her master, and three negroes, to burn the city and
murder the whites. This story was confirmed and amplified by an Irish
prostitute convicted of a robbery, who, to recommend herself to mercy,
reluctantly turned informer. Numerous arrests had been already made
among the slaves and free blacks. Many others followed. The eight
lawyers who then composed the bar of New York all assisted by turns in
behalf of the prosecution. The prisoners, who had no counsel, were tried
and convicted upon most insufficient evidence. Many confessed to save
their lives, and then accused others. Thirteen unhappy convicts were
burned at the stake, eighteen were hanged, and seventy-one transported."
Such are the panics of a slaveholding community!]
_Saturday, 13th._ At 5 A.M. weighed from the 2 Brothers and went to
York. At 7 anchored off the town. Saluted it with 7 guns. Ship't 7 hands
to proceed the voyage.
_Sunday, 14th._ Between 6 & 7 A.M. came in a brig from Aberdeen with 40
servants,[C] but brings no news.
[Footnote C: At this time much of the agricultural and domestic labor in
the colonies, especially south of New England, was performed by indented
servants brought from Great Britain, Ireland, and Germany.
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