New York Burning: Liberty, Slavery, and Conspiracy in Eighteenth-Century Manhattan
Instructions:-
This should be a critical commentary not a summary of the plot. The purpose of a review is to make an argument. This is an opportunity for you to have a conversation with the author and give your opinion on their work. An “argument” does not mean you have to disagree with the author’s conclusions. You may agree or disagree (or both) with the author’s style, structure, viewpoint, or use of
sources — but you need to explain why you agree or disagree (or both) with them and use specific examples from the book to bolster your argument.
As for the structure of the book review, the writing center at UNC-Chapel Hill recommends that a reviewer first give “a concise summary of the content. This includes a relevant description of the topic as well as its overall perspective, argument, or purpose. Second, and more importantly, a review offers a critical assessment of the content. This involves your reactions to the work under review: what strikes you as noteworthy, whether or not it was effective or persuasive, and how it enhanced your understanding of the issues at hand. Finally, in addition to analyzing the work, a review often suggests whether or not the audience would appreciate it.”
Solution
New York Burning: Liberty, Slavery, and Conspiracy in Eighteenth-Century Manhattan
Book Review Essay: New York Burning: Liberty, Slavery, and Conspiracy in Eighteenth-Century Manhattan
Summary
There has been less concern about the unproven conspiracy of slavery of 1741 in New York. It is alleged that approximately 34 persons, whom 30 of them were colored persons died. This essay transcends a review of Jill Lepore’s “New York Burning: Liberty, Slavery, and Conspiracy in Eighteenth-Century Manhattan.” First, the book is a revelatory investigation of the methodologies in which slavery subverted and fashioned the politics of America. As such, the author recounts these events. Furthermore, the author reveals the reasons behind the New Yorkers’ making of bonfires of the Black- American as she reconnoiters the socio-political climate between 1730-1740. She further examines the drift and nature of the master-slave interactions. Additionally, Lepore recreates the harsh past of a city that was built and almost destroyed by slavery. Notably, the book reveals the 1741 conspiracy that can only be understood in conjunction with a renowned episode from New York’s past: John Peter Zenger trial of 1735. Overall, incorporating the old and new evidence, Lepore makes a clear distinction of how the Black-American rebellion was a threat that made the whites’ political heterogeneity toothsome.
Review
The book is reminiscently composed and well-researched in that, Lepore depicts four discrete plots that are clear throughout the book. First, Lepore centers her first conspiracy on John Hughson, whom the author suspects to be a harmless freemason and playful. Although, the jokes and laughter took a turn when slaves had the plot to burn the city. This is what I can refer to as a “Negro Plot” that only highlighted blacks in America who practiced African rituals. Later, the author reveals the “Spanish Plot” whom she sees as the improbable schemers. Last, there is the “Catholic conspiracy.” This plot reveals itself when the New Yorkers who doubted the blacks as well as jokers such as Hughson coming up with a plan to burn the city focused their allegations on a Catholic priest. The Catholic priest’s religious identity made him an eminent suspect to being a ringleader of the conspiracy hence becoming a tragic victim.
Also, the author connects events in the book with the 1735 case of John Peter Zenger, in which the events took place six years before her writing about this book. As such, the colonists at that time had suspicions on factions such as Zenger. Furthermore, the author sees that the 1741 black rebellion as a “phantasm political movement” which was tantamount to white’s mind as a society of manslaughter and incendiarism. These assumptions made Zenger’s case innocuous. In a view to softening the political understanding of New Yorker’s, the author asserts that the 1741 trials resulted in fewer formations of political parties where the white society unified to antagonize a calamitous danger. She narrates as blacks run and retreated, the fear that whites had on black communities as well as embracing the opposition were running on the same phase as liberty and slavery(Lepore, 2006).
It is hard to understand the intentions of the author because the author asserts that the events that occurred in 1741 both drenched party flames as well as made factions extra palatable. Therefore, her intentions focus on the rise and fall of party activity. These trials took place in a town that had more parties, and as such it makes it clear on how the development of New York politics changed as per these events. She accords more on the Zenger’s Case, the prerogative of the prosecutor to this case as a victim of motivational bias from a black perspective of the country parties of 1730-1740. After the hurdles experienced from Zenger’s case, Daniel Horsmanden undoubtedly wanted to regain his reputation. As such he was predisposed to more authoritative and palpable motivators; the significant buildings in the city would be massively consumed by fire, the increasing severe slavery codes and arson had habitually gone hand-in-hand, and the Stono Rebellion was now on the news waves. Hence, I assert that the author would not focus on Zenger Case as an intrinsic motivator of Horsmanden acts of executions or fervor.
Conclusion
Conclusively,
disregarding the thesis of the author, she uses her skills as a guru writer to
take her readers to the New York of 1741 by allowing them to gait along with an accused individual who interlaces
his way through streets of New York. She reveals more on how the tasks and
activities of slaves enabled them to interact with other races and exchange
information and gossip. Through this book, a reader learns how the New York of
the 18th century conducted a trial, solved its drinking water
complications, and how they brawled a fire. She further reconstructs the daily
lives of the incarcerated populace in New York through laws and confessions, mapping
through geographic information system(GIS), records on tax, naming analysis,
and blockbusting ads. Evidently, Appendix A depicts how the author uses these
sources the digitally reveal her intentions
to her readers. Therefore, she can make the reader see, smell, and hear that
world of the 18th century. My perspectives towards this piece of
writing are that the book makes the
reader understand how the events in the
past happened the way they happened. Through this gripping drama presented by
the author, we can learn history.
Reference
Lepore, J. (2006). New York Burning: Liberty, Slavery, and Conspiracy in Eighteenth-century Manhattan. Vintage Books. Retrieved February 23, 2017 from https://books.google.co.ke/books?id=dIWuXz6Xr8oC
