The 1712 New York Slave Revolt: Blood in the Streets

The Atlantic Slave Trade: Empire Built on Human Suffering — Fexingo History · May 9, 2026 · 6m · transcript

In the early hours of April 7, 1712, a group of enslaved Africans in New York City set fire to a building and ambushed white colonists who came to put it out, killing nine and wounding several others. This episode explores the revolt itself and its brutal aftermath, which saw over seventy people arrested, twenty executed, and some burned alive. Lucas and Luna unpack the conditions in colonial New York, where a growing enslaved population from diverse African backgrounds—Coromantee, Igbo, Malagasy, and others—clashed with a Dutch and English elite that passed increasingly harsh slave codes…