Whereas at a Generall Court held att James Citty Aprill the 26th 1688 Present the honourable his Majesties Councill of State It apeard that Sam a Negro Servant to Richard Metcalfe hath several times endeavoured to promote a Negro Insurreccon in this Colony, It is therefore ordered to deter him & others from the like evil practice for time to come, that he be by the Sheriff of James Citty County or his deputy severely whipt att a cart tayle from the prison round about the town & then to the Gallows, and from thence to the prison againe and that hee be conveyed by the sheriff of Westmoreland County to that county & hee is ordered to whip him severely at the next Court to be held for that County, & that hee have a halter about his necke during that time, & afterwards that hee have a strong Iron collar affixed about his neck with four spriggs which collar he is never to take or gett off nor to goe off his master or masters plantacon during all the time he shall live, and if he shall goe
SUMMARY
The Westmoreland slave plot of 1687 involved an alleged conspiracy uncovered by Nicholas Spencer, who claimed that the participants intended to kill whites and destroy property in the county and throughout Virginia. Preceded by the Gloucester County Conspiracy (1663) and Bacon’s Rebellion (1676–1677), the Westmoreland plot was the first conspiracy in British North America not involving white supporters or participants. As such, it heightened planters’ fear of their slaves, already expressed in a 1680 act that sought to prohibit slaves’ ability to carry weapons, meet in public, or travel without permission. After Spencer’s revelation, Virginia governor Francis Howard, baron Howard of Effingham, convened what perhaps was British America’s first oyer and terminer court, a criminal panel subsequently used to try slave rebels. Effingham also issued a proclamation reiterating the language of the 1680 act, something his successor felt compelled to do again, in 1690. Aft