[47]
[Footnote 47: E.B. O'Callaghan ed., _Documents Relative to the Colonial
History of New York_, V, 341, 342, 346, 356, 357, 371; _New York
Genealogical and Biographical Record_, XXI, 162, 163; New Orleans _Daily
Delta_, April 1, 1849; J.A. Doyle, _English Colonies in America_ (New York,
1907), V, pp. 258, 259.]
The commotion of 1741 was a panic among the whites of high and low degree,
prompted in sequel to a robbery and a series of fires by the disclosures of
Mary Burton, a young white servant concerning her master John Hughson, and
the confessions of Margaret Kerry, a young white woman of many aliases but
most commonly called Peggy, who was an inmate of Hughson's disreputable
house and a prostitute to negro slaves. When Mary testified under duress
that Hughson was not only a habitual recipient of stolen goods from the
negroes but was the head of a conspiracy among them which had already
effected the burning of many houses and was planning a general revolt, the
supreme court of the colony began a labor of some six months' duration in
bringing the alleged plot to light and punishing the alleged plotters.[48]
Hughson and his wife and the infamous Peggy were promptly hanged, and
likewise John Ury who was convicted of being a Catholic priest as well as a
conspirator; and twenty-nine negroes were sent with similar speed either to
the gallows or the stake, while eighty others were deported.
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