User:Jakiahkeltino

SLAVERY IN COLONIAL NEW YORK

There are many who believe there was a distinct difference in the organized slavery of the Middle region, Northern Ivory Coast, and Ghana Africans in the 1700’s. There are also those who believe that the enslavement of Africans everywhere in the colonies as it existed was the same. More specifically we delve into the atmosphere that surrounded slavery in Colonial New York beginning in 1664 when England took over New York and there were approximately 700 mostly free African Americans living there. Some even owned their own land. Those who were not free were enslaved. The essence of slavery in the New World colonies piloted and became the springboard for liberty in the New World.

The forced bondage of African created the essence of the pursuit of liberty and the cry for fairness from their very oppressors. What many don’t know and even fewer are aware of is that the enslavement of Africans in New York rivaled that of the horror experienced by the enslaved Africans in Charleston, South Carolina. In particular and distinctively notable with regards to the slavery that occurred in colonial New York is the circumstance under which slaves were tried, sentenced and murdered for an apparent slave revolt against the ruling governor and top key political officials in New York. What makes this event so uniquely unforgettable to those who happen upon the information is the setting and the will power of a group of people to live outside of bondage by any means necessary.

The African who were enslaved were under siege within the very country that shouted for an end to tyranny. They were a people able to learn from their predecessors well beyond confines of their conditions. Within their learning and exposure to the reality of their life, and their humanity, came the outpouring ability to enhance upon what they observed and discovered further than the scope of anyone’s imagination, especially that of their evil oppressors. More dynamic of this occurrence was the character of those who sat in the seat of judgment over the accused, namely a New York Supreme Court appointee by the name of Daniel Horsmanden. He was a justice that displayed the inability to relay and or extend justice as noted in his publishing of his 'Journal of the proceedings in The Detection of the Conspiracy formed by Some White People in Conjunction with Negro and other Slaves, for Burning the City of New York in America, And Murdering the Inhabitants. '

THE Mishaps of Being Cornered and Accused
Horsmanden’s disdainful accounts and accusatory steamrolling trial procedures are his own evidence against the possible credibleness of his findings. Solely and with very little input from others Horsmanden delivers a chilling tale of mind turning, definable events that were supposed to have occurred amongst some of the more educated enslaved Africans during 1741. It is noticeable from historical accounts that Horsmanden instead of having done the job he was commissioned to complete, he went about gathering tons of evidence against the supposed conspirators in order to create a profitable selling tool chronicling the events. There is the possible slant to his side of details due to the obsolete and misconstruction and false architectural foundation of the notes taken by the clerk of the court at the time of the proceedings. There are some who concur with Horsmanden’s findings and research of events leading up to the        burnings that the enslaved Africans along with non- enslaved Europeans conspired to Much of what happened between March 25, 1741 and April 6, 1741 supposedly copycatted the fires that were set in 1712 on similar and in many instances the same dates. These too, were said to have destroyed the businesses, homes and in some cases the lives of the high ranking city officials. Where in that incidence enslaved Africans were accused, tried and found guilty. Their punishment was a slow burning-alive public execution.

Horsmanden’s philosophy in believing the enslaved Africans were the culprits carrying out the conspiracy to burn the homes and business in 1741 can be linked to his knowledge that many of the ‘named’ conspirators were the enslaved Africans of the households of those whose homes were targeted and subsequently burned down to the ground.

There is a connected chain between the events of 1712 and the fires of 1741. The connecting strand was the heirs. The son of the enslaved African that was tortuously slowly burned in 1712 as the result of being found guilty of murdering the son of one of his oppressors conveniently turned out to be one of the very enslaved Africans to be accused of partaking in the elaborate plan to destroy the white male factor in New York City and take over the lives of their wives. This element is undauntingly always an enraptured ingredient in the ideology of supposed enslaved Africans’ hatched and or botched plans.

In one telling example of an oxymoron in action are the eyewitness accounts of various members of the New York community. In one instance there is the belief that the enslaved Africans were so calculatingly clever as to synchronize carefully this major heartlessly criminal diabolical plan. They were given credit for joining with others to rid themselves of what they felt was the threat to their essence as men. The morning after one of the fires a neighbor is said to have spotted the very coals used to reportedly begin the rampage of a fire leaving a trail from the intended origin of assault to the living area of the enslaved Africans of a different household. This conflicting account accordingly does not match up with the stout attitude the oppressors had regarding the intellectual level of the enslaved Africans.

Initially it is reported that they [the conspirators] met unobtrusively in the bar owned by a new comer who hailed from another city. The Newcomer is portrayed as a free European befriending the enslaved Africans with the lure of independence and the possibility and hope of sovereignty. The tavern was the place where according to records elaborate plans were designed by the enslaved Africans {reportedly over 133; plans on what signal they would all agree to use to begin the fires; plans on what signal they would all agree to use to murder their oppressors. Every objective that led to the final goal was carefully considered by the enslaved Africans and their co-conspirators and just as carefully addressed. When summed together this documentation as to the scheme conflicted with the carelessness of the enslaved African of one household to leave glaring evidence of his involvement. Glaring evidence which would surely mean death for him if found out. In the end over 133 people were found guilty and sentenced to die via an array of methods meant to warn others not to attempt any such feat ever again. New York City’s Fort George was burned to the ground, along with the parts and sections of many other homes and businesses.

References: Kolchin, P. (2003). American slavery: 1619-1877. New York: Hill and Wang. Smallwood, S. E. (2007). Saltwater slavery: A Middle passage from Africa to American                                       	 diaspora. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. Lepore, J. (2006). New York burning: Liberty, slavery, and conspiracy in eighteenth-century                                                                                                                                                         manhattan. New York: Randon House Vintage Books