The New York Slave Conspiracy Trials: A Deadly Hoax By Russell Neufeld Retired Criminal Defense Attorney and History Buff
New York State Commission on Prosecutorial Conduct Re: John Chambers and Joseph Murray To The Commission: This is a complaint about the legal lynchings that form the basis of the misconduct of former Manhattan prosecutors John Chambers and Joseph Murray, after whom both Chambers and Murray streets in Manhattan are named1. Chambers and Murray were two of the principal prosecutors in the 1741 trials in a fabricated slave conspiracy case, resulting in the greatest mass killing under color of law in New York history, prior to the 1971 Attica prison massacre. The 1741 prosecutions resulted in the burning at the stake of 13 Black men, the hanging of 17 Black men, the conviction and resulting sentence of “transportation”, (which meant their sale to Caribbean or other slave owners), of 84 Black men and women, the hanging of 2 white men and 2 white women, the pardon and banishment of 7 white men and the arrest and detention of 152 free and enslaved Black people. The executions were carried out on a small island in the Collect Pond, in an area that is directly behind the current criminal courts. These cases help to provide a context to understand the continuing history of racist prosecutions in New York during the following 282 years. This complaint is submitted in the hope it will be a starting point for the new Commission on Prosecutorial Conduct, as it begins its work examining more current racist misconduct such as Batson violation complaints of racial discrimination in jury selection or Brady violation complaints of exculpatory evidence withheld because prosecutors didn’t credit the source, as well as a myriad of other violations. 2 The complaint includes recommendations for posthumous pardons, reparations, street name changes and correcting the historical record. The 1741 convictions were obtained based on 80 coerced false confessions, made in fear of torture and death, and the testimony and statements of one teen aged, white indentured servant, Mary Burton and one white indentured servant, petty thief and jail house snitch, Arthur Price. The indentured servants said what was asked of them, not only to escape their own punishment but to obtain the promised pardons, freedom from their
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remaining indenture and a substantial cash reward. 3 The socalled slave revolt conspiracy of 1741 never existed, though it certainly would have been more than justified if it had.
Background
In 1741 New York City had a population estimated at 10,538, living at the southern end of Manhattan. Of these, 8, 709 were white and 1,829 were Black and overwhelmingly enslaved. The enslaved human beings were owned by the wealthiest of the white population. The enslaved of New York constantly struggled to assert the humanity that slavery denied them. They fought to create spaces where they could live and love despite being held as chattel. New York’s slave code prohibited slaves from going about town except on their owner’s business, from frequenting taverns, from possessing their own money, among numerous other restrictions. But, since the strict police enforcement of such laws was
Atticus | Volume 35 Number 1 | Winter 2024 | New York State Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers