French Invasion.
11. In 1696 New York was invaded by the French. But they were soon driven back by the English and Iroquois. Before a second invasion could be undertaken, King William's War was ended. In 1697 the Irish earl of Bellomont became governor. His administration was the happiest in the history of the colony. Massachusetts and New Hampshire were under his jurisdiction, but Connecticut and Rhode Island remained independent.
12. To Bellomont's administration belongs the story of Captain William Kidd, the pirate. A vessel was fitted out by a company of distinguished Englishmen to protect the commerce of Great Britain and to punish piracy. Governor Bellomont was one of the proprietors, and Kidd received a commission as captain. The ship sailed from England before Bellomont's departure for New York. Soon the news came that Kidd himself had turned pirate and become the terror of the seas. For two years he continued his career, then appeared publicly in the streets of Boston, was seized, sent to England, tried, convicted, and hanged.
New York and New Jersey United.
13. In May of 1702 Bellomont was superseded by Lord Cornbury. A month previously the proprietors of New Jersey had surrendered their province to the English Crown. All obstacles being thus removed, the two colonies were formally united in one government under Cornbury. For thirty-six years the two provinces continued under the jurisdiction of a single governor.
14. In 1732, New York was troubled with a dispute about the freedom of the press. The liberal party of the province held that a public journal might criticise the acts of the administration. The aristocratic party opposed such liberty as dangerous to good government. Zenger, an editor who published criticisms on the governor, was seized and put in prison. Great excitement ensued. The people praised their champion. Andrew Hamilton, a lawyer of Philadelphia, went to New York to defend Zenger, who was brought to trial in July of 1735. The cause was heard, and the jury brought in a verdict of acquittal. The aldermen of New York, in order to testify their appreciation of Hamilton's services, made him a present of an elegant gold box, and the people were enthusiastic over their victory.
The Negro Plot.
15. In the year 1741 occurred what is known as the Negro Plot. Negroes constituted a large fraction of the people. Several fires occurred, and the slaves were suspected of having kindled them; now they became feared and hated. A rumor was started that the negroes had made a plot to burn the city, and set up one of their own number as governor. The reward of freedom was offered to any slave who would reveal the plot. Many witnesses rushed forward; the jails were filled with the accused; and more than thirty of the miserable creatures, with hardly the form of a trial, were convicted and then hanged or burned to death. Others were transported and sold as slaves in foreign lands. As soon as the excitement had subsided, it came to be doubted whether the whole affair had not been the result of terror and fanaticism. The verdict of after times has been that there was no plot at all.
16. Such is the history of the little colony planted on Manhattan Island. A hundred and thirty years had passed since the first feeble settlements were made; the valley of the Hudson was filled with farms and villages. The Walloons of Flanders and the Puritans of New England had blended into one people. Discord and contention had only resulted in colonial liberty. There were other struggles through which the sons of New York had to pass before they gained their freedom. But the oldest and greatest of the Middle Colonies had entered upon a glorious career, and the foundations of an Empire State were laid.