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This Day In History: March 18, 1741
Enslaved blacks may have plotted to burn down the City of New York in the early 18th century.
Imagine the following scene: The date is March 18, 1741. The place is New York City, which has a population of approximately ten thousand people, the third largest city in the British colonies. The governor’s complex, located within Fort George, is burning. Within the next few weeks, nine more serious fires will break out, leading many to speculate that they are being deliberately set.
White New Yorkers begin to suspect the enslaved African-American within their midst. Enslaved black people have lived in the city since the Dutch imported enslaved Africans to the colony in the 1620s. At the start of the eighteenth century, a slave market was established at the present day intersection of Wall Street and Water Street. By 1741, a significant number of New York households hold people in bondage. These enslaved blacks work as domestics, artisans, tradespeople, or farm laborers.
Like many enslaved people, the enslaved blacks who live in the city resent their current circumstances. About thirty years ago, they revolted by setting fire to a building on Maiden Lane then attacking the whites who showed up to extinguish the fire. After the revolt was put down (seventy enslaved people were arrested and twenty-one ended up being put to death), the rest…
