The Commission for Detecting and Defeating Conspiracies was officially created on February 5, 1778, in response to the invasion of New York by the British army, and the fear of domestic foes, such as the Tories. The nine Commissioners, aided by armed forces, traveled throughout New York, where they sought out and arrested “enemies of the State.” This 3 volume work analyzes the laws passed for the repression of disaffection and disloyalty in the state of New York.
Volume I: 1778-1779 covers inquisitorial bodies of New York during the American Revolution and the origin of the Commissioners, operations of the Commissioners as revealed by Albany County Board proceeding, and minutes of Commissioners for Conspiracies meetings.
Volume II: 1780-1781 continues with the minutes of the Commissioners for Conspiracies meetings, followed by Appendix I: Laws, Appendix II: Financial Accounts, and Appendix III: Miscellanea.
Volume III: Analytical Index is “Closely analytical, by persons, places and subjects. The vagaries that occur in personal and place nomenclature, so common to the period, have been preserved in parentheses after the standard entry or are pointed out by cross-references, which have been used freely for this purpose, as well as for calling attention to correlated or synonymous topics.” This volume is a “magnet with which to extract the ore from a rich mine of operations of commissioners for conspiracies during the American Revolution.”
Victor Hugo Paltsits, editor
(1909, 1910), 2001, 5½x8½, paper, indices, 3 vols., 1104 pp.
ISBN: 9780788417184
101-P1718
