"Only Draw in Your Countrymen": Akan Culture and Community in Colonial New York City (Essay‪)‬

Shortly after noon on March 18, 1741, fire alarms sounded at Fort George--headquarters of British royal government in New York. Beginning on the roof of the governor's residence, flames quickly spread to nearby buildings. The combination of high winds and wooden buildings perhaps explains the destructive power of the fire. Within two hours, the governor's house, the King's Chapel, the provisional secretary's office, and the troop barracks all collapsed into smoldering heaps. Whipped by high winds, the blaze moved northward towards Stone Street and lower Broadway. Given the fact that, at the time, New York City was a compact urban strip roughly one mile long and one-half mile wide, the fire threatened to wreak havoc on much of the settled portion of Manhattan Island. Only a concerted effort on the part of citizen volunteers and a timely rainfall saved the city from further destruction. (2) This would not be the last threat the residents of New York City faced over the next few months. No less than ten fires between March and April 1741 consumed both private homes and public buildings throughout the city. Perhaps because authorities were in the midst of investigating a criminal theft ring involving black criminal associations and their white accomplices who fenced stolen goods, attention almost immediately turned to the possibility of an elaborate slave conspiracy. Two specific events confirmed New York City authorities in their fears of an arson plot hatched by enslaved Africans and African Americans. The first took place on Sunday, April 5, when Abigail Earle overheard a conversation between three enslaved men walking up Broadway towards Trinity Church. One of the men named Quaco Walter, allegedly stated to the other two "Fire! fire! Scorch! scorch! A little damn it by and by!" (3)