In 1741, New York City was thrown into an uproar when a
sixteen-year-old white woman, an indentured servant named
Mary Burton, testified that she was privy to a monstrous
conspiracy against the white people of Manhattan. Promised
her freedom by authorities if she would only uncover the
plot, Mary reported that the black men of the city were
planning to burn New York City to the ground. As the courts
ensnared more and more suspects and violence swept the city,
154 black New Yorkers were jailed, 14 were burned alive, 18
were hanged, and more than 100 simply “disappeared”; four
whites wound up being executed and 24 imprisoned. Even as
the madness escalated, however, officials started to realize
that Mary Burton might not be telling the truth.
Expertly written by the acclaimed author of Drop and Hunting
in Harlem, The Great Negro Plot is a brilliant
reconstruction of a little-known moment in American history
whose echoes still reverberate today.
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