New York Burning: Liberty, Slavery, and Conspiracy in Eighteenth-Century Manhattan

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.