I 
308 ' ■ ’ T'he Discoveries Settlements Book L 
this Example fet, might kindle a Zeal in fome other good 
People, to carry on this Work which they were unable 
to elfed:, and to ereht Schools for the Inftriidtion of the 
Negroes, and to employ Catechifts to teach them at ap- 
pointed Times •, and that the Legiflature of the Colonies 
would by al.aw oblige all Slaves to attend forlnftruclion. 
The Society found foon, it was not eafy to procure a 
Perfon proper to be a Catechift ; Mr. EliasNeau^ a Layman, 
then living in Ne^w York City as a Trader, was repre- 
fented to be the propereft Perfon for that Office. He 
was by Nation a Frenchman^ and made a Confeffion of 
the Proteftant Religion in France^ for which he had been 
confined many Years in Prifon, and feven Years in the 
Galleys : When he got releafed, he went to New TorF 
and traded there ; and had the Chara£ler, from People of 
all Perfuafions, of a Man of Piety, of fober Deport- 
ment and ferious Life. He accepted of the Offer of be- 
ing Catechift ; and his former Sufferings on Account of 
his Religion did, with great Advantage, recommend 
him to be a Teacher of the Chriftian Faith, and his Hu- 
mility enabled him to bear with the many Inconveniencies 
in teaching thefe poor People. 
He entered upon his Office in the Year 1704 with 
great Diligence. At firft he was obliged to go from 
Houfe to Houfe to inffruct the Negroes ; this was out of 
meafure laborious ; afterwards he got Leave that they 
fhould come to his Houfe ; this was a confiderable 
Relief. There were two Obftrudtions ftill ; the Time 
was much too fhort, and the Place inconvenient, for 
teaching the great Number of Negroes j a little Time in 
the Duff of the Evening, after hard Labour all Day, 
was the whole Time allowed them for Learning and for 
Relaxation, and to vifit their Wives and Children, which 
were generally in other Families, not in their Mafters. 
At this Time their Bodies were fo fatigued that their At- 
tention could not be great. They were dull and Heepy, 
and remembered they muff rife early the next Day to 
their Labour ; the Place alfo was incommodious, being 
the uppermoft Floor of Mr. NeaFs Houfe, and was not 
able to hold conveniently a fmall Part of the Slaves that 
might refort thither. Befides, the Negroes were much 
difcouraged from embracing the Chriftian Religion, upon 
account of the very little Regard fhewed them in any 
religious Refpeiff. Their Marriages were performed by 
mutual Confent only, without the Bleffing of the Church ; 
they were buried by thofe of their own Country, or 
Complexion, in the common Field, without any Chrif- 
tian Office, perhaps fome ridiculous Heathen Rites were 
performed at the Grave by fome of their own People. 
No Notice was given of their being fick that they might 
be vifited •, on the contrary, frequent Difcourfes were 
made in Converfation that they had no Souls, and pe- 
rifhed as Beafts. 
Mr. Neau contended with thefe Difficulties, and not- 
withftanding all proved an Inftrument of bringing many 
to the Knowledge of the Chriftian Faith : He took great 
Pains in reading to them, in making fliort Colleftions 
out of Books on the Catechifm, and in making an Ab- 
Ifraft of the hiftorical Part of the Scriptures ; fo that 
many who could not read, could yet, by Memory, re- 
peat the Hiftory of the Creation of the World, the 
Flood, the giving of the Law, the Birth, Miracles, and 
Crucifixion of our Lord, and the chief Articles and 
Dodrines of Chriftianity. This was a Work of great 
Pains and Flumanity. Mr. Neau performed it diligently, 
difcourfing familiarly with thofe poor People, and la- 
bouring e^rneftly to accommodate his Difcourfe to their 
Capacities. His Labours were very fuccefsful. A con- 
fiderable Number of the Slaves could give a fufficient 
Account of the Grounds of their Faith, as feveral of the 
Clergy, who examined them publickly, before they 
gave them Baptifm, have acquainted the Society. In 
the miean time, while the Society was thinking of farther 
Ways to advance this Work, a Calamity appeared, 
which mightily difcouraged this Country from promot- 
ing the Inftrudion of their Slaves. 
In the Year 1712 a confiderable Number of the Ne- 
groes of the Carmantee and Pap;pa Nations, formed a 
Plot to deftroy all the Englijh, in order to obtain their 
Liberty, and kept their Confpiracy fo fecret that there 
was no Sufpicion of it, ’till it came to the very Execu- 
tion : However, the Blow was, by God’s Affiftance^ 
happily defeated. The Plot was this : The Negroes 
fat Fire to a Floufe In Fork City, on a Sunday- 
ISlight in yfprz/, about the going down of the Moon : 
The Fire alarmed the Town, who from ail Parts 
run to it. The Confpirators planted themfelves ’ in 
Icveral Streets and Lanes leading to the Fire, and fhot 
or ftabbed the People as they were running to it. Some 
of the wounded efcaped and acquainted the Government, 
and prefently by the firing a great Gun from the Fort, 
the Inhabitants were called under Arms, and prevented 
from running to the Fire ; a Body of Men was foon 
raifed, which eafily fcattered the Negroes ■, they had 
killed about eight Perfons, and wounded twelve more. 
In their Flight fome of them fhot themfelves, others 
their Wives, and then themfelves ; fome abfconded a 
few Days, and then killed themfelves, for fear of being 
taken, but a great many were taken, and eighteen fuf- 
fered Death. This wicked Confpiracy was at firft ap- 
prehended to be general among all the Negroes, and 
opened the Mouths of many to fpeak againft giving the 
Negroes Inftrudfion. Mr. Neau durft hardly appear 
abroad for fome Days, his School was blamed, as the 
main Occafion of this barbarous Plot. But upon the 
Trial of the Wretches there were but two of all his 
School fo much as charged with the Plot, and only one 
was a baptized Man ; and in the Peoples Heat, upon 
flender Evidence, perhaps, too haftily condemned j for 
foon after he was acknowledged to be innocent by the 
common Voice; the other was not baptized. It appeared 
plain that he was in the Confpiracy, but guiltlefs of his 
Mafter^s Murder, who was Hooglands^ an eminent Mer- 
chant. Upon full Trial, the guilty Negroes w’ere found to 
be fuch as never came to Neau’s School ; and what is very 
obfervable, the Perfons whofe Negroes were found to 
be moft guilty, were fuch as were the declared Oppofers 
of making them Chriftians : However, a great Jealoufy 
was now raifed, and the common Cry was very loud 
againft inftrudfing the Negroes. 
The Common-Council of New York City made an 
Order, forbidding the Negroes to go about the Streets 
after Sun-fet without Lanthorns and Candles. ' This was 
in Effedt, forbidding them to go to Mr. Neau’s School ; 
for none of them could get Lanthorns, or come to him 
before Sun-fet ; but fome time after, the more ferious 
and moderate People abated of this Violence ; it appear- 
ing to be a Plot of a few only, not a general one of all 
tlie Negroes, no Confequence attended the Adtion, and 
the People grew more compofed. Robert Hunter^ Efq; 
the Governor of the Province, obferved their Fears were 
ill grounded, and that Mr. Neau\ Scholars were not the 
guilty Negroes ; and therefore, in order to fupport the 
Defign of inftrudfing them, he was pleafed to vifit his 
School, attended by the Society’s Miffionaries and feveral 
Perfons of Note, and publickly declared his Appro- 
bation of the Defign; and afterwards, by a Proclamation 
put out againft Immoralities and Vice, he recommended 
to the Clergy of the Country, to exhort their Congre- 
gations from the Pulpit, to promote the Inftrudlion of 
the Negroes. This gave new Life again to the Work, 
and the Negroes frequented Mr. Neaids. School as before; 
feveral were inftrudted, and afterwards examined publickly 
in the Church before the Congregation, by the Reverend 
Mr. Vefey ; and gave a very fadsfactory Account of their 
Faith, and received Baptifm. 
The Society had Accounts from time to time .of 
Mr. M£’!«zfs Diligence and Succefs, particularly one very 
ample Teftimonial, figned by the Governor (Robert 
Hunter^ Efq;) the Council, the Lord Mayor, and Re- 
corder of New York^ and the two chief Juftices, fet- 
ting forth. That Mr. Neau had demeaned himfelf in 
all things as a good Chriftian, and a good Subject : 
That in the Station of Catechift he had, to the great 
Advancement of Religion in, general, and the particular 
Benefit of the Free Indians, Negroe Slaves, and other 
Heathens in thofe Parts, with indefatigable Zeal and imp- 
lication; performed that Service three times a Week : 
And, that they did fincerely believe, that as a Catechift, 
he did in a very eminent Degree defer ve the Countenance, 
Favour, 
