On the 6th of June,
Robin, Caesar, Cook, Cuffee, and Jack, another Cuffee, and Jamaica were
arrested, and put upon trial on the 8th of June. It is a sad fact to
record, even at this distance, that these poor blacks, without
counsel, friends, or money, were tried and convicted upon the evidence
of a poor ignorant, hysterical girl, and the "dying confession" of
Quack and Cuffee, who "confessed" with the understanding that they
should be free! Tried and found guilty on the 8th, without clergy or
time to pray, they were burned at the stake the next day! Only Jack
found favor with the court, and that favor was purchased by perjury.
He was respited until it "was found how well he would deserve further
favor." It was next to impossible to understand him, so two white
gentlemen were secured to act as interpreters. Jack testified to
having seen Negroes at Hughson's tavern; that "when they were eating,
he said they began to talk about setting the houses on fire:" he was
so good as to give the names of about fourteen Negroes whom he heard
say that they would set their masters' houses on fire, and then rush
upon the whites and kill them; that at one of these meetings there
were five or six Spanish Negroes present, whose conversation he could
not understand; that they waited a month and a half for the Spaniards
and French to come, but when they came not, set fire to the fort. As
usual, more victims of these confessors swelled the number already in
the jail; which was, at this time, full to suffocation.

On the 19th of June the lieutenant-governor issued a proclamation of
freedom to all who would "confess and discover" before the 1st of
July. Several Indians were in the prison, charged with conspiracy. The
confessions and discoveries were numerous. Every Negro charged with
being an accomplice of the unfortunate wretches that had already
perished at the stake began to accuse some one else of complicity in
the plot. They all knew of many Negroes who were going to cut the
white people's throats with penknives; and when the town was in flames
they were to "meet at the end of Broadway, next to the fields!" And it
must be recorded, to the everlasting disgrace of the judiciary of New
York, that scores of ignorant, helpless, and innocent Negroes--and a
few white people too--were convicted upon the confessions of the
terror-stricken witnesses! There is not a court to-day in all
enlightened Christendom that would accept as evidence--not even