A01=Ben Hughes
Accra
African slave trade
Akan
Akwamu
Atlantic slave trade
Author_Ben Hughes
Category=JH
Category=NHB
Category=NHH
Category=NHK
Category=NHTS
Dutch West India Company
Elias Neau
eq_bestseller
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
Gold Coast
History of New York City
History of slavery in America
History of slavery in New York
Kieft's War
King William's War
Kwahu
Manhattan
Nat Turner's Rebellion
Native American slavery
New York Conspiracy of 1841
New York Slave Revolt 1712
Queen Anne's War
Richard Nicolls
Robert Hunter
Slave Acts
Slave Laws
Slave revolts
Stono Rebellion
Viscount Cornbury
Product details
- ISBN 9781594164163
- Weight: 399g
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 02 Feb 2024
- Publisher: Westholme Publishing, U.S.
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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The First Comprehensive Investigation into the First Uprising Against Slavery in British North America
At 2 a.m. on April 7, 1712, a fire broke out in New York City’s North Ward. Unbeknown to the residents who roused themselves to combat the flames, the blaze had been started with murderous intent. A group of at least twenty-four enslaved West African men and women, mostly Akan from modern-day Ghana, had long plotted this moment. Armed with guns, daggers, swords, axes, and clubs, they fell upon their enslavers. In the next few frantic moments, eight Europeans were killed and seven were wounded. The perpetrators were rounded up, jailed, and put on public trial. Twenty enslaved men and one woman were executed or transported for carrying out the plot. As the first event of its kind to take place in the North American colonies, this revolt was the progenitor of those that followed—it inspired, the Stono Rebellion of 1739, the New York Conspiracy of 1741, and Nat Turner’s 1831 insurrection.
The New York City Slave Revolt of 1712 is the first comprehensive investigation into this major event in the history of slavery in North America. Consulting court records, correspondence, and the minutes of the various colonial councils, as well as a wide range of sources related to eighteenth-century slavery, historian Ben Hughes vividly recreates early colonial New York, the lives of its enslaved inhabitants, the factionalism among the city’s Dutch and English elites, and their precarious hold on Manhattan Island in the face of French and Native American threats. Hughes traces the origins of the New York rebels, details how they came to be enslaved, and recreates the shadowy dealings that took place between African polities, European and American slavers, and New York merchants. The forerunners of a movement which continues to this day, the deeds of these original African American rebels have now been all but forgotten. Here, Hughes attempts to redress this imbalance by recovering their story.
At 2 a.m. on April 7, 1712, a fire broke out in New York City’s North Ward. Unbeknown to the residents who roused themselves to combat the flames, the blaze had been started with murderous intent. A group of at least twenty-four enslaved West African men and women, mostly Akan from modern-day Ghana, had long plotted this moment. Armed with guns, daggers, swords, axes, and clubs, they fell upon their enslavers. In the next few frantic moments, eight Europeans were killed and seven were wounded. The perpetrators were rounded up, jailed, and put on public trial. Twenty enslaved men and one woman were executed or transported for carrying out the plot. As the first event of its kind to take place in the North American colonies, this revolt was the progenitor of those that followed—it inspired, the Stono Rebellion of 1739, the New York Conspiracy of 1741, and Nat Turner’s 1831 insurrection.
The New York City Slave Revolt of 1712 is the first comprehensive investigation into this major event in the history of slavery in North America. Consulting court records, correspondence, and the minutes of the various colonial councils, as well as a wide range of sources related to eighteenth-century slavery, historian Ben Hughes vividly recreates early colonial New York, the lives of its enslaved inhabitants, the factionalism among the city’s Dutch and English elites, and their precarious hold on Manhattan Island in the face of French and Native American threats. Hughes traces the origins of the New York rebels, details how they came to be enslaved, and recreates the shadowy dealings that took place between African polities, European and American slavers, and New York merchants. The forerunners of a movement which continues to this day, the deeds of these original African American rebels have now been all but forgotten. Here, Hughes attempts to redress this imbalance by recovering their story.
BEN HUGHES is the author of a number of acclaimed books of history, including Apocalypse 1692: Empire, Slavery, and the Great Port Royal Earthquake (Westholme 2017) and The Siege of Fort William Henry: A Year on the Northeastern Frontier (Westholme 2011). He lives in England with his family.
