THE NEGRO PLOTS

The Common Council offered pardon and a
reward of one hundred pounds to any conspirator
who would reveal the story of the plot and the
names of the criminals involved. Under the in-
fluence of this offer one Mary Burton, a servant
in the employ of Hughson, the tavern-keeper,
accused her master, her mistress, their daughter,
and a woman of evil reputation known as Peggy
Carey, or Kerry, as well as a number of negroes,
of being implicated in the plot. She said that the
negroes brought stolen goods to the tavern and
were protected by Hughson, who had planned with
them the burning and plundering of the city and
the liberation of the slaves. On this unsupported
evidence Peggy Carey and a number of negroes
were condemned to execution, and under terror of
death, or encouraged by the hope of pardon, these
prisoners made numerous confessions implicating
one another, until by the end of August twenty-
four whites and one hundred and fifty-four negroes
had been imprisoned. Four whites, including
Hughson and Peggy Carey, were executed; four-
teen negroes were burned at the stake; eighteen
were hanged, seventy-one transported, and the
remainder pardoned or discharged.

Accusations were also made that the Roman