The Great Negro Plot

by Mat Johnson

  The oldest of the bunch, and the least frozen of the men, looked to his fellow prisoners before offering explanation.

  "Well, sir, we was just walking about, marveling at how that Admiral Vernon was showing the Papists what's what. That this was but a small feat to what this brave officer would do by and by and . . ."

  The court looked on, impressed with the testimony. It could mean only this one thing, and they all knew it.

  "Enough," the judge silenced him. Turning to Quack, who for the moment was daring to believe himself cleared of the evidence, the judge continued. "Do you really expect this court to believe that your overheard comments are mere coincidence? Coming as they do, a mere eighteen days after the fort was burned to the ground? This alone is enough to damn you, but your hands give more. As Mrs. Earle has described, you lifted them up in the air and swept them in a circle around your head as you made this pronouncement. It is obvious that you were talking about our fair colony, and the fires that would engulf us. The fact that you said 'by and by' gives testament that there would be more to follow. Your laughter then comes back to haunt you now, does it not? You have shown the blackness of your heart for all to witness. The gall, that you would not just talk of the white destruction, but rejoice in it! That your stories match proves that this is an organized plot indeed. And a higher intelligence must be behind your actions."

  The lieutenant governor ordered a watch kept that evening, and that watch would stay on guard through the spring and into the summer. No precaution could be spared with the threat of revolt and rebellion so near.

  ENEMIES OF THEIR OWN HOUSEHOLD

  ASLAVE IN ITSELF is not a person, not a human being. Slaves are simply beasts, commodities. Even the way we brand them with the stigmatizing noun slave as opposed to the literal adjective enslaved removes room for context and humanity.

  The enslaved Africans of eighteenth-century New York left behind few records of their history, because, of course, that's what their captors intended. To reach back to them, to identify their stories and herald their sorrow is an act of rebellion in itself. To understand the Great Negro Plot, to discover the truth behind the innuendo of the time, we must move past the European arrogance that defined the period, in order to view the Africans of New York themselves.

  The single most important text in regard to the the Great Negro Plot is a book called The New York Conspiracy, written in 1744, only three years after the incident's conclusion. The book is an exhaustive, detailed account of the events, offered in chronological order, and using actual trial proceedings, complete with depositions, confessions, and the notes of the magistrates and lawyers. By itself, it is a fascinating and thorough look at a peculiar event in history. If The New York Conspiracy hadn't been compiled by colonist Daniel Horsmanden, the plot might have faded completely into historical footnote.

  Horsmanden was the perfect person for the task. He was one of the main judges/prosecutors involved in the events, and the court recorder. It would be difficult to find a more biased filter for information on the event at hand, yet because Daniel Horsmanden was so confident that his full accounting of the facts would prove to the world the just nature of the court, he delivered the text without any self-editing. Read carefully, the self-righteous Horsmanden often unwittingly incriminates what he is trying to defend. His interpretation and choice of relayed events is shaped by his bias, and is usually self-serving and transparent. That said, Horsmanden is generally honest, and the man does not shrink away from giving information that exposes his position. Still, while central to understanding the events of the Great Negro Plot, Horsmanden's narrative is heavily filtered through the white racial imagination of the period. It centers on dates and the orders of events, but doesn't offer us the opportunity to ask questions beyond the interest of the prosecution. Nor does it offer us the chance to hear the Africans' stories, only the ones they offered to a hostile court. To successfully skip beyond that court, to go directly to the source of the African community of the period, we must speak directly to the dead themselves.

  In 1991, two hundred and fifty years after the Great Negro Plot took place, construction began on a new federal office building in lower Manhattan. Beneath the site of the proposed three-hundred-million-dollar project was discovered the three-hundred-year-old African Burial Ground, which once provided a resting place for New York's enslaved community. While the burial ground's existence was not a complete surprise—scholars of the city had never forgotten it was there—the exact location was enough of a mystery that the federal agency proved unprepared for the discovery. This place of rest, which sat on what was once the northernmost outskirts of the city, was in use from the late 1600s to 1796, although the African dead, much like the African living, were never given much of a "rest" by their European neighbors. In fact, in the middle of the eighteenth century while the cemetery was still in active use, whites built up pottery and tanning industries directly abutting it, using the site to dump their toxic refuse. Worse, medical students at New York Hospital were known to regularly steal black corpses for use as cadavers. After the cemetery was ordered closed, Dutch Americans built homes around the six-acre site and drilled outhouse ditches directly into the African Burial Ground so that for generations they were, literally, defecating on the dead.

  But things had changed in Manhattan since those bad old days. While the white majority still could not be counted on to treat the African dead with reverence, the descendants of Africa were now strong enough to demand better. Initially, the federal government was hoping to quickly abide by the rules of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 and have their own archeologists swiftly excavate the site so that they could begin construction overtop the cemetery—thus completely destroying it. What they did not count on was a politically powerful, radicalized, astute black community that insisted, instead, that the government comply with another part of the 1966 law that required basic preservation of the historic site, along with public commentary and decision on how the landmark would be dealt. For once, the buried Africans had a stroke of good fortune, and it didn't hurt their cause that the city of New York at the time was under the administration of its first black mayor.

  What the old African Burial Ground provided to contemporary black New York City was a lost connection to its history, a chance to grieve for the atrocities of the past and mourn for the nameless who came before them. With numerous blessing ceremonies, candlelight vigils, and readings, it was an opportunity to reaffirm the dignity of the disrespected. For a community whose culture and history were systematically stripped from them—particular their connection to Africa—it served as the missing link to a forgotten past.

  For historians, once the site was treated with the complete respect it deserved, the burial ground offered an immense bounty: the chance to see firsthand the physical evidence of lives once denied their stories. The skeletal remains speak volumes. For enslaved blacks, an American childhood was extremely harsh, with mortality rates twice that of whites in the colony. Half of the skeletal children showed evidence of metabolic disease, indicating anemia, and growth retardation as well as defects in dental enamel because of starvation and disease. Based on the research done on other African burial grounds, including sites in Philadelphia, Maryland, Virginia, and South Carolina, historians have already concluded that African-American slaves during this period had the highest frequency of developmental defects of any observed human population, owing to malnutrition and disease. A comparison study of the teeth from the site conducted by the official research team at Howard University, however, found that the people at New York's African Burial Ground had less than half the adult instances of tooth defects as did the slaves of other colonies. What this discovery suggests is that a large portion of the Africans living in Manhattan were not native born, instead spending their childhood in Africa before being enslaved and shipped to the Americas. This is backed up by the shipping records of the period, which show many direct importations from West Africa to New
York, particularly of those the Europeans called "Koromantines" or "Coromantees," slaves shipped from Fort Coromantee, off the coast of modern-day Ghana. The other group identified in the 1712 revolt, the Pawpaw, were, more than likely, Africans taken from another large slave port further east at Grand Popo, in modern-day Benin. Slave forts such as these served as way stations for people kidnapped from a variety of different regions and ethnicities further inland, marched for weeks to be brought to the coast for sale. While many enslaved shared larger ethnic affiliation (such as the widespread Akan people of the area), Coromantee and Pawpaw were not ethnic groups, but corporate designations, referencing the people they had been kidnapped by. They were brand names for the colonial buyers, like Sunkist or Chicken of the Sea.

  The presence of Africa in colonial New York can also be seen in the names of its captives: Cuffee, Quash, Quack, and Quaco. The syllables were deformed by the contemporary European tongue, yet still they remain decipherable. Despite the habit among the Europeans of destroying the cultural vestiges of these African people, traditional names were often indulged and encouraged. This was largely practical: How embarrassing would it be to name your bestial slave "Phillip" only to receive a letter the next month that your brother had named his first son the same? Many of these slave names, like Quack, for instance, were actively encouraged because the Europeans found them utterly comic. (The duck says: Quack, quack, quack.) However, these names are actually the simply misunderstood derivations of Akan day names. In the Fanti dialect: Monday is Kwadjo; Tuesday, Kwabena; Wednesday, Kwaku; Thursday, Yao; Friday, Kofi; Saturday, Kwame; and Sunday, Kwasi. Or, in the even more familiar Ashanti dialect of Akan: Kojo, Kobina, Kwaku, Yao, Kofi, Kwame, and Kwesi. So, through the untrained ears of the Europeans, the names became distorted: Kofi became Cuffee; Kwadjo became Quash; Kojo became Cato, Cajoe, or Cudjo; Kwaku became Quaco and Quack.

  Further physical evidence was found at the African Burial Ground. Etched into the coffin lid of a particular statuesque colonial African (who measured in at a whopping five foot nine) was the Sankofa, an Akan symbol literally meaning "Go and fetch," and figuratively, "You must look to the past to understand the future." Other bodies were found to have been buried with great care, along with quartz crystal beads and shells, that point to various African burial traditions.

  Beyond the rotten, malformed teeth, the enslaved bodies unearthed at the African Burial Ground showed a multitude of signs of hard use. The majority of the skeletons unearthed revealed evidence of muscle enlargements around the legs, arms, and neck: a direct result of frequent strains due to heavy lifting, particularly the lifting of large weights balanced atop the skull in traditional African style. These slaves were not simply being forced into an active physical lifestyle by their captors, providing the foundation of domestic labor that built the colony, these Africans had been pushed to the limit of the human capacity. The deep bone lesions evident in most of the unearthed skeletons are typically caused by muscle tears from overstraining the human body. While the African technique of carrying objects on the head is an efficient, ancient practice, it seems that in the colony it was pushed beyond any reasonable limits, evidenced by the frequent examples of arthritis in the neck. Six of the remains uncovered at the African Burial Ground showed ring-shaped fractures at the base of the skull, resulting from the spine shooting through and breaking a hole in the skull base, presumably from carrying staggering weights. This injury would have resulted in death, these slaves crushed under the burden of their bondage.

  This harsh physical treatment was in no way limited to the adult men in bondage. Both men's and women's bones evidenced large muscle attachments as a result of harsh labor. While digging up the site, it was common for the Howard University technicians to uncover bones so thick that they would have been wrongly identified as male if other evidence of gender hadn't been present. Nor was the life of a slave any easier for young children. In fact, 50 percent of slave children died before the age of twelve, and 35 percent of that group didn't even make it out of infancy. Rickets and porotic-hyperostosis caused by vitamin D deficiency and anemia were common, as well as premature cranial closing. One child's body showed severe dental deformities probably caused by its mother's sick pregnancy, as well as anemia and lesions on the bones from infections. The top bones in the skeleton's neck were fused solid from carrying repeated heavy loads. Despite its harsh use in life, the corpse was interred gently in a pinned shroud by the people of his community.

  But what of the flesh that once stuck to these bones? Or the clothes that kept that flesh warm? Bones are well and good for facts of life, but they don't offer a vision of the living people in question. For that, an excellent source of information is again, ironically, the group who most actively ignored and obscured the Africans' humanity during their lifetimes: the slave owners. Looking at the advertised notices for runaway slaves found in the newspapers of the day, we find detailed descriptions of the slaves, their physical appearances, and habits.

  For example, from August 26, 1734, in the New-York Weekly Journal:

  Run away from Johanna Kelsall of the City of New York, a Negroe Man known by the Name of Johnsey here in Town, but he writes his Name Jonathan Stow, about 25 Years of Age, of short Stature, bandy Legs, blubber Lips, yellow Complexion, his Hair is neither right Negro nor Indian, but between both, and pretty long, he had on when he went away a homespun jacket, a pair of Trowsers, and a speckled Shirt.

  Whoever takes up the said Negro and secures him, or brings him to his Mistress, shall have 40 Shillings Reward and all Reasonable Charges paid by me.

  So here we have a man who refuses to be named by those who enslave him, insisting instead on his own identity separate from the one imposed on him. This is a man who displays a mix of ethnic features, most notably African. If his hair was neither fully African nor Indian, did that mean he was a mix between the two? Considering his light skin color and New York's history, it was more likely that Jonathan Stow was ethnically mixed with European blood as well. So was such a common mixture too shameful to mention in the advert, or was this racial reality not even considered in lieu of the hypocrisy of the moment?

  From December 19,1737, the New-York Gazette:

  Ran away from John Bell, of New York City, carpenter, one Negro woman Jenney, 14-15 years, born in New York, speaks English and some Dutch. She has a flat Nose, thick Lips, and full faced; had on when she went away, a Birds eyed Waistcoat and Pettycoat of a darkish colour, and a Callico Waistcoat with a large red flower, and a broad stripe, a Callico Pettycoat with small stripes and small red flowers. Whoever shall take up said Negro Wench and bring her to said John Bell, or secure her and give Notice, so that he can have her again, shall have Three Pounds as a Reward, and all reasonable charges.

  At the beginning of womanhood, Jenney would be just old enough to make running away a practical idea. So then you must ask, had she planned to run away when she reached the first stage of adulthood, or had her entry into adulthood made running away a necessity? From the descriptions of her clothes, flowers and all, her lot was not as harsh as most of her caste, so she may have received some favor. It is possible, of course, that her enslaver John Bell might have been looking at Jenney with too favorable an eye as her body blossomed, a position many a young female slave found herself in.

  This slave notice appeared on August 18, 1746, in the New-York Weekly:

  Run away on Sunday the 10th instant from Captain George Hall, of this city, a tall likely young Negroe man named Quaw; he is a cunning artful fellow, Jamaica born, stutters very much and has one of his ears cropt; stole away £5, 12s, and £3 Johannes Pieces and was seen going towards Knight-bridge. Whoever takes up said Negro and brings him to his master, shall have fifty shillings reward and all reasonable charges paid by George Hall.

  At a time when European colonists assume the intellectual inferiority of the African, we get a description of Quaw as "cunning artful." The name "Quaw" implies an African origin, another derivative of "Kwaku" perha
ps. Quaw's ear had been cropped. It is possible this was the result of an accident, or some slaver's plantation brand. Ear clipping was also the sort of punishment appropriate for a failed runaway attempt in the past. At least Quaw was smart enough to steal back some of his nonexistent wages before hitting the road this time.

  Viewed individually, these markers of the past are fascinating glimpses into elusive stories. In a life of abuse, what was the incident that made each run? How far did they get, and how did they meet their conclusion? In a larger sense, looking over the multitude of notices posted in and about the New York and New Jersey settlements in the 1730s, '40s, and '50s, a larger picture reveals itself through the overlaying descriptions left behind. A smallpox epidemic during the lifetime of these slaves is evident in the numerous descriptions of the "pock-broken" skin on the runaways. Incidents of branding are evident, as two slaves in 1730 both had the letters RNburned into their shoulders. Scarring from the whip seems a common occurrence, as well as signs of the kind of excessive labor their bones would show centuries later, with descriptions of disjointed limbs occurring frequently. There are also similarities among the runaways that might be exemplary of the type who could indulge in that form of resistance: most runaways, not surprisingly, are young and male. Many are described as native born, which would give them an advantage in navigating the region. Along this line, several are described as mulatto, with repeated mentions of Indian hair or Indian mix, which might be the literal truth, but again, was probably a way of pointing at the mixed race of a slave without acknowledging the European blood that was part of the equation.

  Their clothes—so important for identification considering that new garments were difficult to come by during the era—were mostly of coarse, cheap, homespun cloth, with variety being the exception. Brass buttons were a common part of the runaway slave ensemble. For men, felt hats are featured frequently in their descriptions, as well as breeches, stockings, and buckled shoes. For women, calico (then meaning white cotton) waists and petticoats appear as frequently. Another item that many slaves took along with them on their freedom runs were their violins—the boom boxes of the era. Testaments are often given of escaped Africans' musical abilities with these instruments. The violin was a beloved source of entertainment, but it could also serve as a possible source for income as well, particularly for people who might have to beg for survival. Well acclimated into New York life, several of the runaway slaves spoke Dutch in addition to English, reflecting the languages used in the fine households in which they were held in bondage.