Conspiracy: The act of secretly planning something that is harmful or illegal (Merriam-Webster). In the winter of 1741, a robbery and a wave of fires broke out in New York City; they were the beginning of what would become known as "The New York Conspiracy Trials". The trials, presided over by three Supreme Court justices, Chief Justice James DeLancey, Second Justice Frederick Philipse, and Third Justice Daniel Horsmanden, who three years after the trials published his diaries of the court proceedings, so that, as he said, people would stop trying to convince themselves that there was no conspiracy (Zabin 5). New York City, in the first half of the eighteenth century, was a growing port city, with people from many walks of life coming together to create one of the most important trading cities in colonial America. With such a diverse representation of people living and working in relatively close proximity to each other, extenuating circumstances, fears, based on race, and prejudices against the lower classes, many of its citizens were manipulated into believing that a riot had been discovered and quashed .New York City in colonial America was a truly unique city, unlike the South, where large, lush plantations adorned the countryside and classes did not mix, New York City residents lived and worked relatively close to each other others, having many different breeds and breeds. classes of people frequent the same premises and interact with each other regularly. As in modern times, “taverns were ordinary and necessary features of every port city. Drinking establishments could be anything from decorated two-story houses, offering drinks in silver tankards to esteemed customers such as the governor and... middle of paper... em on the premises, one who was difficult to see and even more difficult to control. Unlike slavery in the South, New York slaves worked side by side with their masters in mixed-race shops. They had the opportunity to leave the house to run errands, to meet in local taverns to discuss current events, or to have fun. Like other cities in colonial America, the white elite controlled society through the use of fear, brute force, and economic superiority, although better off than slaves, indentured servants were still subject to the same treatment as slaves, even if only temporarily. Works Cited Merriam-Webster. Merriam-Webster Dictionary. nd Web. April 20, 2014. Zabin, Serena R. The New York Conspiracy Trials of 1741, Journal of the Proceedings of Daniel Horsmanden with related papers. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2004. Book.