entire people more thoroughly alarmed than were the people of Charleston at that time....  During the excitement and the trial of the supposed conspirators, rumor proclaimed all, and doubtless more than all, the horrors of the plot.  The city was to be fired in every quarter, the arsenal in the immediate vicinity was to be broken open and the arms distributed to the insurgents, and an universal massacre of the white inhabitants to take place.  Nor did there seem to be any doubt in the mind of the people that such would actually have been the result, had not the plot fortunately been detected before the time appointed for the outbreak.  It was believed, as a matter of course, that every black in the city would join in the insurrection, and that, if the original design had been attempted, and the city taken by surprise, the negroes would have achieved a complete and easy victory.  Nor does it seem at all impossible that such might have been or yet may be the case, if any well-arranged and resolute rising should take place.”

Indeed, this universal admission, that all the slaves were ready to take part in any desperate enterprise, was one of the most startling aspects of the affair.  The authorities say that the two principal State’s evidence declared that “they never spoke to any person of color on the subject, or knew of any one who had been spoken to by the other leaders, who had withheld his assent.”  And the conspirators seem to have been perfectly satisfied that all the remaining slaves would enter their ranks upon the slightest success.  “Let us assemble a sufficient number to commence the work with spirit, and we’ll not want men; they’ll fall in behind us fast enough.”  And as an illustration of this readiness, the official report mentions a slave who had belonged to one master for sixteen years, sustaining a high character for fidelity and affection, who had twice travelled with him through the Northern States, resisting every solicitation to escape, and who yet was very deeply concerned in the insurrection, though knowing it to involve the probable destruction of the whole family with whom he lived.

One singular circumstance followed the first rumors of the plot.  Several white men, said to be of low and unprincipled character, at once began to make interest with the supposed leaders among the slaves, either from genuine sympathy, or with the intention of betraying them for money, or of profiting by the insurrection, should it succeed.  Four of these were brought to trial; but the official report expresses the opinion that many more might have been discovered but for the inadmissibility of slave-testimony against whites.  Indeed, the evidence against even these four was insufficient for a capital conviction, although one was overheard, through stratagem, by the Intendant himself, and arrested on the spot.  This man was a Scotchman, another a Spaniard, a third a German, and the fourth a Carolinian.  The last had for thirty years kept a shop in the neighborhood of Charleston;