was insufficient for a capital conviction, although one was overheard,
through stratagem, by the intendant himself, and arrested on the spot.
This man was a Scotchman, another a Spaniard, a third a German, and the
fourth a Carolinian. The last had for thirty years kept a shop in the
neighborhood of Charleston; he was proved to have asserted that "the
negroes had as much right to fight for their liberty as the white
people," had offered to head them in the enterprise, and had said that in
three weeks he would have two thousand men. But in no case, it appears,
did these men obtain the confidence of the slaves; and the whole plot was
conceived and organized, so far as appears, without the slightest
co-operation from any white man.

The trial of the conspirators began on Wednesday, June 19. At the request
of the intendant, Justices Kennedy and Parker summoned five freeholders
(Messrs. Drayton, Heyward, Pringle, Legare, and Turnbull) to constitute a
court, under the provisions of the Act "for the better ordering and
governing negroes and other slaves." The intendant laid the case before
them, with a list of prisoners and witnesses. By a vote of the court, all
spectators were excluded, except the owners and counsel of the slaves
concerned. No other colored person was allowed to enter the jail, and a
strong guard of soldiers was kept always on duty around the building.
Under these general arrangements the trials proceeded with elaborate
formality, though with some variations from ordinary usage,--as was,
indeed, required by the statute.

For instance, the law provided that the testimony of any Indian or slave
could be received, without oath, against a slave or free colored person,
although it was not valid, even under oath, against a white. But it is
best to quote the official language in respect to the rules adopted: "As
the court had been organized under a statute of a peculiar and local