of the fellows already hanged, was to be an officer in
the Long Bridge Company, and the other, in the Fly Company."[249]

On the 25th of May a large number of Negroes were arrested. The boy
referred to above (whose name was Sawney, or Sandy) was called to the
stand again on the 26th, when he grew very talkative. He said that "at
a meeting of Negroes he was called in and frightened into undertaking
to burn the slip Market;" that he witnessed some of the Negroes in
their attempts to burn certain houses; that at the house of one
Comfort, he, with others, was sworn to secrecy and fidelity to each
other; said he was never at either tavern, Hughson's nor Romme's; and
ended his revelations by accusing a woman of setting fire to a house,
and of murdering her child. As usual, after such confessions, more
arrests followed. Quack and Cuffee were tried and convicted of felony,
"for wickedly and maliciously conspiring with others to burn the town
and murder the inhabitants." This was an occasion to draw forth the
eloquence of the attorney-general; and in fervid utterance he pictured
the Negroes as "monsters, devils, etc." A Mr. Rosevelt, the master of
Quack, swore that his slave was home when the fire took place in the
fort; and Mr. Phillipse, Cuffee's master, testified as much for his
servant. But this testimony was not what the magistrates wanted: so
they put a soldier on the stand who swore that Quack _did_ come to the
fort the day of the fire; that his wife lived there, and when he
insisted on going in he (the sentry) knocked him down, but the officer
of the guard passed him in. Lawyer Smith, "whose eloquence had
disfranchised the Jews," was called upon to sum up. He thought too
much favor had been shown the Negroes, in that they had been accorded
a trial as if they were freemen; that the wicked Negroes might have
been proceeded against in a most summary manner; that the Negro
witnesses had been treated with too much consideration; that "the law
requires no oath to be administered to them; and, indeed, it would be
a profanation of it to administer it to a heathen in a legal form;"
that "the monstrous ingratitude of this black tribe is what
exceedingly aggravates their guilt;" that their condition as slaves
was one of happiness and peace; that "they live without care; are
commonly better fed and clothed than the poor of most Christian
countries; they are indeed slaves," continued the eloquent and logical
attorney, "but under the