g of shot, and a barrel of gunpowder at
Hughson's house; that the prisoner told her he would kill her if she
ever revealed any thing she knew or saw; wanted her to swear like the
rest, offered her silk gowns, and gold rings,--but none of those
tempting things moved the virtuous Mary. Five other witnesses
testified that they heard Quack and Cuffee say to Hughson while in
jail, "This is what you have brought us to." The Hughsons had no
counsel, and but three witnesses. One of them testified that he had
lived in Hughson's tavern about three months during the past winter,
and had never seen Negroes furnished entertainment there. The two
others said that they had never seen any evil in the man nor in his
house, etc.

"William Smith, Esq." now took the floor to sum up. He told the jury
that it was "black and hellish" to burn the town, and then kill them
all; that John Hughson, by his complicity in this crime, had made
himself blacker than the Negroes; that the credit of the witnesses was
good, and that there was nothing left for them to do but to find the
prisoners guilty, as charged in the indictment. The judge charged the
jury, that the evidence against the prisoners "is ample, full, clear,
and satisfactory. They were found guilty in twenty minutes, and on the
8th of June were brought into court to receive sentence. The judge
told them that they were guilty of a terrible crime; that they had not
only made Negroes their equals, but superiors, by waiting upon,
keeping company with, entertaining them with meat, drink, and lodging;
that the most amazing part of their conduct was their part in a plot
to burn the town, and murder the inhabitants,--to have consulted with,
aided, and abetted the "black seed of Cain," was an unheard of
crime,--that although "with uncommon assurance they deny the fact, and
call on God, as a witness of their innocence, He, out of his goodness
and mercy, has confounded them, and proved their guilt, to the
satisfaction of the court and jury." After a further display of
forensic eloquence, the judge sentenced them "to be hanged by the neck
'till dead," on Friday, the 12th of June, 1741.

The Negro girl Sarah, referred to above, who was before the jury on
the 1st of June in such a terrified state of body and mind, was
re-called on the 5th of June. She implicated twenty Negroes, whom she
declared were present at the house of Comfort, whetting their knives,
and avowing that "they would kill white people."