THE NEGRO PLOTS 211

to expect at the hands of the enraged whites.
Twenty-one were put to death, one being broken
on the wheel and several burned at the stake, while
the rest were hanged.

After this experience of the danger attending the
holding of slaves, the restrictions upon the negroes
grew even more irksome and the treatment they
received more that of outcasts. For instance, a
slave must be buried by daylight, without pall-
bearers and with not more than a dozen negroes
present as mourners.

In spite of bright spots in the picture the outlook
grew constantly darker; a mistrust ready to de-
velop on slight provocation into terror perturbed
the whites; and every rumor was magnified till
there reigned a panic as widespread as that caused
by the reports of witchcraft in New England. At
length in 1741 the storm burst. One March night,
while a gale was sweeping the city, a fire was dis-
covered on the roof of the Governor's house in the
fort. Church bells sounded the alarm and firemen
and engines hurried to the spot; but it was hope-
less to try to extinguish the flames, which spread to
the chapel and to the office of the secretary over
the fort gate, where the records of the colony were
stored. The barracks then caught fire, and in a