engaged at any price, into which whole families were piled, and hurried
away to the farms beyond Chambers Street, in the neighborhood of Canal
Street. It was a strange spectacle, and the farmers could hardly believe
their senses, at this sudden inundation into their quiet houses of the
people of the city. The town authorities were also swept away in the
general excitement, and negroes of all ages and sexes were arrested by the
wholesale, and hurried to prison. The Supreme Court was to sit in the
latter part of April, and the interval of a few days was spent in efforts
to get at the guilty parties. But nothing definite could be ascertained,
as the conspirators, whoever they were, kept their own secret. At length,
despairing of getting at the truth in any other way, the authorities
offered a reward of a hundred pounds, and a full pardon to any one who
would turn State's evidence, and reveal the names of the ringleaders. This
was pretty sure to bring out the facts, if there were any to disclose, and
almost equally sure to obtain a fabricated story, if there was nothing to
tell. A poor, ignorant slave, shaking with terror in his cell, would
hardly be proof against such an inducement as a free pardon, and to him or
her an almost fabulous sum of money, if he had anything to reveal, while
the temptation to invent a tale that would secure both liberty and money
was equally strong.

On the 21st of April the court met, Judges Philips and Horsmander
presiding. A jury was impanelled, but although there was no lack of
prisoners, there was almost a total want of evidence sufficient to put a
single man on trial. The reward offered had not borne its legitimate
fruits, and no one offered to make any revelations.

Among the first brought up for examination was Mary Burton, a colored
servant girl, belonging to John Hughson, the keeper of a low, dirty negro
tavern over on the west side of the city, near the Hudson River. This was