36 pages • 1 hour read
New York Burning: Liberty, Slavery, and Conspiracy in Eighteenth-Century Manhattan
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BetaChapter 7-EpilogueChapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 7 Summary: “Ink”
The conviction and hanging of John Ury concludes the investigations into the 1741 fires, with the Supreme Court concluding that Ury had been the mastermind behind the entire plot. Horsmanden, however, is dismayed to learn that many New Yorkers are critical of the entire investigation, with many believing the plot to be a fiction invented by Horsmanden and the rest of the Supreme Court. In particular, these critics of the investigation question the validity of the numerous slave confessions, as well as the truthfulness of Mary Burton’s testimony. Horsmanden dismisses these criticisms, believing that many New Yorkers are simply upset over their lost property of executed slaves.
An anonymous letter is penned and delivered to an associate of Governor Clarke’s, offering a criticism of the entire trial. The letter claims to be written by a Bostonian, who compares the 1741 slave trial to Massachusetts’s 1692 Salem Witch Trials, which many New Yorkers had criticized as the product of mass hysteria. The letter argues that the slaves’ confessions are likely to be false, as threat of death compels many people to invent confessions in hopes of avoiding execution. Clarke dismisses the letter’s criticisms, believing it to be secretly written by an unhappy political opponent.
In light of these continuing criticisms of the trial, Horsmanden begins work on his Journal, in hopes that publishing the court documents will vindicate his judgement. Horsmanden also continues to obtain depositions relating to the 1741 plot, as he hopes to prove that Mary Burton had not been lying on the stand. Burton, an indentured servant, had originally been promised her freedom and a £100 reward for her testimony. However, after the trial, Burton never receives the reward and becomes the indentured servant of the City government. Through Horsmanden’s campaigning, Burton is eventually granted her freedom and a reward.
Horsmanden completes and publishes his Journal in 1744, and has the journal printed by the publisher James Parker. Despite Parker’s attempts to stir up expectation around the publication, the Journal sells poorly, leaving Horsmanden in deep debt. Several years later, New York’s new governor, George Clinton, dismisses Horsmanden from his governmental appointments. Having lost his career, reputation, and money, Horsmanden begins writing newspaper columns arguing for “political liberty” and “opposing Clinton’s use of arbitrary authority” (217). However, James DeLancey eventually becomes governor, leading to Horsmanden rejoining the Supreme Court and being placed on the Governor’s Council.
Epilogue Summary: “Dust”
Lepore opens “Dust” with a description of Horsmanden’s final years. In 1748, Horsmanden marries the wealthy widow Mary Reade Vesey, whose substantial fortune allows Horsmanden to finally bring himself out of debt. After Vesey dies, Horsmanden marries the much younger Ann Jevon—an act which brings him mockery from many in New York. As the Revolution begins in the 1770s, Horsmanden is growing old and increasingly ill. However, he has outlived nearly all of his former colleagues in the New York government, with James Alexander, Frederick Philipse, George Clark, and numerous others dying more than a decade before.
Horsmanden grows increasingly alarmed by the revolutionary fervor sweeping New York and the American colonies, as Horsmanden remains a loyalist to the British Monarchy. Although staying in New York puts him in danger of being investigated “by the patriots’ Committee for the Detection of Conspiracies” (222), Horsmanden remains in New York. During these years, both the British and Revolutionary armies viciously fight for control of New York, with the city at one point burning down in the midst of the fighting. In 1777, Horsmanden writes a will, leaving much of his estate to charity, and passes away in September 1778.
Lepore draws a stark contrast between Horsmanden’s death and the deaths of New York’s numerous slaves. Unlike Horsmanden, slaves are unable to leave wills, as slaves are legally barred from owning any property. In many instances, slaves are separated from the rest of their families and have no way of contacting their children. When slaves do die, they are allowed to have a modest funeral at New York’s Negro Burial Ground, with no more than 12 mourners allowed in attendance. In 1795, the Negro Burial Ground ceases to be used, as developers wish to build on top of the centrally located property.
200 years later, in 1991, archaeologists rediscover the burial ground while preparing for a new construction on the property. The discovery of the hundreds of buried bodies becomes an important “archive of colonial African-American life” (228), and researchers are excited to study the bits of beads, pottery, and other artifacts included in the burials. African American activists are outraged by the willingness of the archaeologists to disturb the site. They demand that only black archaeologists study the bodies, which they contend must be reburied “as soon as possible” (229). In October 2003, a memorial and reburial is planned for the bodies, with numerous black New Yorkers joining to commemorate the anonymous slaves. For many of these New Yorkers, the corpses signify the continuing lack of acknowledgement of slavery in the US, with some chanting calls for “Reparations now!” (230).
Chapter 7-Epilogue Analysis
In the final section of the book, Lepore explores how Horsmanden’s insistence on vindicating his judgment leads him to deliberately ignore evidence that his trial had largely been a product of hysteria. Even as the trial is still ongoing, slaves begin to recant their confessions, claiming that they only confessed to save their lives. However, Horsmanden dismisses these retractions, believing that the slaves are only trying to distance themselves from their guilt.
Horsmanden also deliberately overlooks evidence that Mary Burton has embellished or outright lied during her testimony. Burton’s testimony against the white priest John Ury directly contradicts her initial deposition given several months prior, in which she had testified that no other white individuals had been involved in the plot besides the Hughsons and Peggy Kerry. Further, during the trial against Ury, Burton begins to testify that some of New York’s prominent political white men had also been involved in the plot. While Horsmanden recognizes this latest testimony as unquestionably untrue, he refuses to believe that the rest of Burton’s testimony could be similarly falsified. As Lepore notes, to do so would have dire consequences:
If Mary Burton was a liar, she had likely lied from the start, in which case Peggy Kerry, Sarah Hughson, John Hughson, and seventeen black men had been hanged for nothing, and thirteen innocent black men had been burned at the stake (201).
Amidst accusations from the public that Burton had lied and that no plot existed, Horsmanden begins to fiercely seek out evidence defending his investigation. After more fires break out in 1742, Horsmanden begins “stirring up fears of slave rebellion once again” (212), urging the government to prosecute slaves for the fire. He also takes numerous depositions to gather even more testimony backing the claims of Burton. Throughout these final chapters, Lepore shows how Horsmanden so desperately needs to maintain the fiction of a “phantom black political party” (219) for his purposes that he deliberately overlooks evidence that suggests there had never been a slave plot at all.
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