New York Slave Revolt of 1712

By: Graham Russell Gao Hodges

Source:

 Encyclopedia of African American History, 1619-1895: From the Colonial Period to the Age of Frederick Douglass

New York Slave Revolt of 1712

One of the first such uprisings on the North American continent, the New York slave revolt of 1712 shows how Africans and African Americans responded to marginalized freedom and deepened servitude in New York. Planning for the attacks occurred on 25 March 1712, which was New Year's Day on the Old Style calendar still in use in Britain and its colonies. During the night of 1 April, blacks set fire to a house on the outskirts of the city; when whites answered the alarm, the rebels “stood in the streets and shot down and stabbed as many as they could,” killing about eight and wounding perhaps twelve more. The Reverend John Sharpe of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (SPG) in New York provided an apt description: “Some Negro slaves of the Nations of the Carmantee and Pappa, plotted to destroy all the whites, in order to obtain their freedom, and kept their conspiracy secret that there was not the least suspicion of it.” Plotters used African rituals: “a free Negro who pretends sorcery gave them a powder to rub on their clothes which made them confident.” Fealty was secured when the conspirators bound themselves to secrecy by sucking the blood out of each others' hands.

Despite the Africanisms explicit in these descriptions, a principal instigating factor for the revolt was acculturation to European religion. For nearly a decade Elias Neau of the SPG had offered catechism classes to free and enslaved blacks. The slaves had arrived at a “creative misunderstanding”: they believed that baptism mandated freedom for those who received it from the church. Neau had supported the passage of laws in New Jersey and New York aimed at dispelling this rumor in 1704 and 1706, but belief in the emancipatory power of baptism persisted. Debate among Anglicans had raged for years over Neau's methods and the utility of his classes; finally, shortly before the revolt, the chief local Anglican cleric William Vesey declared that he would no longer support the classes, a move that greatly angered local slaves.

Repression of the revolt was fierce and swift. After the initial uprising was put down, authorities captured the remaining participants, put them on trial, and performed a series of grisly executions that included burning at the stake, breaking on the wheel, and hanging in chains. In all, eighteen blacks were put to death. Owners of the convicted and executed slaves came from all ranks of society; among them were merchants, butchers, a boatman, a barber, and a widow. As the punishments continued, the Board of Trade in London—the King's governing body in the colonies—sought through the governor Robert Hunter to curtail the bloodletting. Angry colonists railed against imperial interference.

Eventually the colonial legislature passed a series of laws that made enslavement virtually the sole status of African Americans in the colony. This Code Noir fully institutionalized slavery in New York and made the presence of free blacks nearly impossible. Manumission became more difficult, whether through religious means or by personal decision. Any master who wished to free a slave was required to post a £200 bond as security that the freed person would not become a public charge. The initial laws were so vindictive that the Board of Trade disallowed them until compromises were made. Regardless, African Americans would become more discontented with their lot in New York, as worsening conditions set the stage for the next great slave revolt in 1741.

See also Africanisms; Baptism; Black Codes and Slave Codes; Neau, Elias; New York City; New York Conspiracy of 1741; Resistance; Riots and Rebellions; Slavery: Northeast; and Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts.

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