The New York Plot Trials took place in New York during the year 1741. Before that year, countless other conspiracy revolts enslavement took place which made New Yorkers anxious and nervous about an uprising. . During the particularly cold winter of 1741, many whites feared that slave revolts would recur. In addition to this, New York had helped Britain against Spain. Untold numbers of these worried people believed that the slaves (along with a few poor whites) and the Spanish would work together to overthrow New York. The conspiracy trials proved that all New Yorkers understood hierarchies of status, race, and gender, even as they imagined overturning some of them. Originally, there were no allegations of conspiracy. At first it started as a simple theft. Three slaves (Prince, Cuffee and Caesar) robbed Rebecca Hogg's small store near the docks of the East River in New York. A little over two weeks after the flight; however, Fort George, the garrison that housed the governor's mansion, caught fire. Fires were common in the 18th century and many thought there was no cause for alarm. However, the pace of fires quickly accelerated. According to Sabrina Zabin, “the rumor that a slave had been seen running away from a burning building made one wonder if these fires were not due to arson rather than an accident. » Daniel Horsmanden, a Supreme Court justice who was to hear about the Hogg theft trials, speculated that there was a connection between the fires and the theft. Horsmanden was a very racist man and he and other white New Yorkers suspected a city-wide conspiracy. The destruction of the city fort made New Yorkers believe that a foreign attack was coming. Citizens asked if it was a... middle of paper... temporarily. As an indentured servant, Mary Burton was not a person of high status. She was sixteen years old, poor, dependent, without family and female. Why would anyone believe his testimony? Some people were suspicious of what she said because she was a servant, but others trusted her because they knew she was a witness. No one ever questioned what she said because she was a woman. She told people exactly what they wanted to hear. Burton probably felt dissatisfied with her current position and wanted to "get revenge" on those in power. At first, she only blamed slaves and poor whites, people hated by the rest of society. However, she soon began accusing prominent New Yorkers. This stopped people from believing her, but by then the government had already given her so much money that she paid off her debt and became a free woman, never to be heard from again..