Colonial New York General Assembly Responds to Slave Rebellion of 1712

Printed Document, Acts passed by the General Assembly of the Colony of New-York, in December 1712, in the Eleventh Year of her Majesties Reign. New York: William Bradford, 1712. 16 pp. (155-167), 7 1/4 x 11 3/4 in. This rare eighth supplement to the Colony of New York'sLaws of 1710 includes laws passed at the December 1712 session of the General Assembly. Those acts included "An Act for preventing Suppressing and punishing the Conspiracy and Insurrection of Negroes and other Slaves," passed on December 10 in response to the slave uprising eight months earlier. The strict statute included provisions prohibiting slaves from buying or selling anything; permitting any punishment a slaveholder saw fit to give, short of killing the slave; prohibiting gatherings of more than three slaves; substantially discouraging manumissions by requiring bonds for the future support of the freed person; prohibiting any future freed person from owning real property in the colony; and prohibiting slaves from having or using firearms. Excerpts"That no person or persons hereafter throughout this Colony, do presume to Trade with any Slave, either in buying or Selling, without leave and consent of the Master of Mistress of such Slave, on penalty of fforfeiting triple the Value of the thing traded for, and the Sum of ffive pounds Current Money of New York to the Master or Mistress.""That hereafter it shall and may be lawful for any Master or Mistress of such Slaves to punish their Slaves for their Crimes and Offences at Discretion, not extending to Life or Member.""That it shall not hereafter be lawful for above Three Slaves to meet together at any other Time nor at any other place than when it shall happen they meet in some servile Employment for their Masters or Mistresses profit, or by their Masters or Mistresses Consent, upon penalty of being whipt upon the naked back, at the Discretion of any Justice of the Peace, not exceeding forty lashes.""AND Whereas it is found by Experience, that the free Negroes of this Colony are an Idle slothfull people and prove very often a charge on the place where they are, BE IT therefore further Enacted by the Authority aforesaid, That any Master of Mistress, manumitting and setting at Liberty any Negro, Indian or Malatto Slave, shall enter into sufficient Security unto her Majesty her heires and Successors with two Sureties not less than the Sum of Two hundred pounds, to pay Yearly and every Year to such Negro Indian or Mallatto Slave during their Lives the Sum of Twenty Pounds lawfull money of this Colony.""AND BE IT further Enacted by the Authority aforesaid, that it shall not be lawfull for any Negroe, Indian or Mallatto Slave to have or use any Gun or Pistoll but in his Master's or Mistresse's presence or by their direction on penalty of being whipt for the same at the Discretion of the Justice of the peace before whom such Complaint shall come not exceeding twenty lashes on the bare back for every such Offence."Historical BackgroundBy the early eighteenth century, New York City had a substantial enslaved population (perhaps 15 percent of the total population), as well as many free black people. Since the Dutch New Netherland became the British Province of New York in 1667, the rights of both slaves and free blacks had gradually eroded. In 1702, New York passed its first slave codes, denying slaves the right to own land or marry.On the night of April 6, 1712, a group of 23 enslaved Africans from the Gold Coast region of West Africa gathered in New York City and set fire to a building near Broadway. While white colonists attempted to extinguish the fire, the enslaved blacks, armed with guns, hatchets, and swords attacked them, killing nine and wounding another six. The slaves were almost immediately captured by militia units and soldiers from a fort in the city and returned to their owners.Authorities arrested and jailed more than seventy slaves and free blacks. Six were. (See website for full description).…