New York Burning: Liberty, Slavery, and Conspiracy in Eighteenth-Century Manhattan - Jill Lepore

This book is terrifying.  Terrifying in the same way the Salem witch trials were, which, to my great amusement, was a parallel someone made JUST after the concluding events of this book!

In 1741 there were a series of suspicious fires in New York City.  At this time, it was a large town of 10k people and made entirely of wood, so fire was a serious fear.  After a good number of fires (like 6 -10) were started, all within a few weeks of each other, the New Yorkers started pointing fingers. And what better group to blame than newly enslaved Africans? New York was had slavery at that time and a few years previous there had been significant loss of life from slave revolts in some of the locations these slaves came from in the caribbean.  So some slaves get blamed for starting fires, and while there's 0 proof one way or the other, I suspect a small few, maybe 2-4 men did actually start the fires.  However, if that's all it amounted to, there would have been no story.  As we've seen before, hysteria took hold, and suddenly all 2,000 slaves in the city were in on it!

In a nearly surreal coincidence (maybe not?), one young, powerless, maid girl began the finger pointing, just as in Salem.  She was incensed at having to serve food and ale to black men, or so she claimed, and told the court that there was a plot to burn the whole city hatched at this gathering.  Some slave men are jailed, then some more, then the white tavern keeper where the gathering was held along with his entire family, some more black people, and MORE black people.  Despite having no evidence of any actual arson, nearly everyone was killed for treason.  The lucky ones were hanged. This continued until they had killed nearly any slave who even MIGHT have been acquainted with any of the slaves who had been killed for treason and slave owners started to complain that they were having to watch their money burn at the stake.

The really terrifying part about this book is the monumentally dumbass logic employed by the courts in this era.  If you are guilty and confess, then we will hang you, or maybe pardon you, but if you maintain your innocence, then we will torture you, assume you're guilty, and burn you instead.  Unless, that is, you want to confess, then we won't burn you. And if your confession brings to light a new name, then you'll likely be pardoned.  SO DUMB!  I mean, I'd be surprised if people WEREN'T tripping over themselves to point fingers.