New York Burning Book Report

Jill Lepore Letters
Based on
New York Burning

Brad Davis
US History, Tuesday and Thursday, 1:00-2:25PM
February 15, 2012
February 22, 1993

Dear Dr. James Thompson,

It has been entirely to long since we have had a chance to catch up. I hope that you and your wife are doing well. How is the new job with The New-York Historical Society going? I hope it brings you as much fulfillment as your teaching job did. I can’t explain in words what a massive influence you had when you were my professor. Anyways, I wanted to write you and talk about my book.. I am pleased to be writing you again to fill you in on how my research is going and to get your assistance as a sounding board for details that I think may shed some light on
I can’t fathom how destitute and depressed the slaves were. Can you imagine what the slaves must have heard at night while locked in the basement? Or how they must have felt when their fellow conspirators, who may have played a more minor role in the revolt, were sentenced and then burned or roasted alive? I have been doing some reading in the Minutes of the Common Council of the City of New York, 1675-1776 that you had been telling me about.. I read about how City Hall had only recently been “updated” with better security. What a joke that is! They didn’t have security in that jail. I read an account about the new measures which consisted of wood studs and plaster. The plaster could not stop whispers from echoing the rooms. Either their plaster was much stronger than that of modern society or these new “cells” were not secure at all. Or maybe this shows the swiftness that the courts had in those times. Maybe the walls did not need to be better because the people locked inside would not be in them long enough to bust through. I read through several court proceeding notes and the majority of those accused were sentenced within a week. There was even an account of a young slave boy who was arrested and charged with being a runaway slave. The unique story of this boy was that he was arrested in the morning, charged in the afternoon, then publicly whipped
I am curious how accurate of records were kept on size of fires, if any records were kept and have survived until now. I don’t think that I ever mentioned it, but several of my uncles are firefighters currently in Virginia. I once had the opportunity to visit the Fire Department Museum and you would not believe how many historical documents that they have there. Obviously most of these documents are off limits to the public but I was able to talk one of the clerks into letting me review their records. Obviously I am very excited to see what I may be able to find. Well I guess I will let you wrap up this correspondence so that I don’t monopolized your time. I am hoping to get some of my research down into the book format soon. I hope you don’t mind if I email you when I do so that you can review them for me. Until we speak