THE NEGRO PLOTS £17

against them; and I am told it has had in a great measure
its intended effect; I am sorry for it, for I do not think
we are yet got near the bottom of it, where I doubt the
principal conspirators lie concealed.

With the collapse of the excitement through its
own excess, ends the history of the great negro
" plot." Whether it had any shadow of reality has
never been determined. Judge Horsmanden, who
sat as one of the justices during the trials growing
out of the so-called plots, compiled later a record
of examinations and alleged confessions whereby
he sought to justify the course of both judges and
juries; but the impression left by his report is that
panic had paralyzed the judgment of even the
most honest white men, while among the negroes
a still greater terror, combined with a wave of
hysteria, led to boundless falsification and to num-
berless unjustified accusations.