The New York Conspiracy Trials took place in New York during the year 1741. Prior to this year, countless other slave revolts occurred which made New Yorkers anxious and nervous about a riot. During the particularly cold winter of 1741, many whites feared that there would be repeated slave revolts. Besides that, New York had helped Britain against Spain. Countless of these concerned people thought that slaves (along with some poor whites) and the Spanish would work together to overthrow New York. The conspiracy trials demonstrated that all New Yorkers understood hierarchies of status, race, and gender, even when they imagined upending some of them. There were originally no conspiracy charges. At first it all started as a simple robbery. Three slaves (Prince, Cuffee, and Caesar) robbed Rebecca Hogg's small store near the East River dock in New York City. Just over two weeks after the theft; however, Fort George, the garrison containing the governor's mansion, caught fire. Fires were a common occurrence in the 18th century, and many thought there was no cause for alarm. However, the pace of fires soon accelerated. According to Sabrina Zabin, "The rumor, furthermore, that a slave had been seen running away from a burning building caused some to wonder whether these fires were due to arson rather than an accident." Daniel Horsmanden, a Supreme Court justice who heard about the Hogg robbery trials, speculated that there was a connection between the fires and the theft. Horsmanden was a very racist man, and he and other white New Yorkers suspected a citywide conspiracy. The destruction of the city's fort made New Yorkers believe that a foreign attack was about to occur. Citizens wondered if this was a... medium of paper... temporarily. As an indentured servant, Mary Burton was not a person of consequence. She was sixteen years old, poor, dependent, without family and a woman. Why would anyone believe his testimony? Some distrusted what she said because she was a servant, but others trusted her because they knew she was a witness. No one ever questioned what she said because she was a woman. He told people exactly what they wanted to hear. Burton probably felt dissatisfied with her current position and wanted to “get even” against the people in power. At first he only blamed slaves and poor whites, people hated by the rest of society. However, he soon began accusing prominent New Yorkers. This caused people to stop believing her, but by then the government had already given her so much money that she paid off her debt and became a free woman, never to be heard from again...