they take place amid a mixed population. Popular excitements are never
characterized by reason and common-sense, and never will be. In this case,
there was more reason for a panic than at first sight seems to be.

In the first place, the proportion of slaves to the whites was large. In
the second place, they were a turbulent set, and had shown such a
dangerous spirit, that the authorities became afraid to let them assemble
together in meetings. This restriction they felt sorely, and it made them
more restive. All were aware of this hostile state of feeling, and were
constantly anticipating some outbreak or act of violence. Besides, it was
but a few years since the thing they now feared did actually take place.
And then, too, the point first aimed at was significant, and showed a
boldness founded on conscious strength. Right inside the fort itself, and
to the Governor's house, the torch was applied. It certainly looked
ominous. Besides, the very wholesale manner in which the authorities
thought it best to go to work increased the panic. In a very short time
over a hundred persons were thrown into prison. The same proportion to the
population to-day would be over ten thousand. Such a wholesale arrest
would, of itself, throw New York into the wildest excitement, and conjure
up all sorts of horrible shapes. Add to this, an average of two hundred
burned at the stake, and two hundred hung every week, or more than fifty a
day, and nearly three times that number sentenced to transportation, and
one can faintly imagine what a frightful state of things would exist in
the city. The very atmosphere grew stifling from the smoke of burning men
and women, while the gallows groaned under its weight of humanity. Had
this been the wild work of a mob it would have been terrible enough, but
when it was the result of a deliberate judicial tribunal, which was
supposed to do nothing except on the most conclusive evidence, the sense
of danger was increased tenfold. The conclusion was inevitable, that the
conspiracy embraced every black man in the city, and was thoroughly