Kofi's Trial: A Digital Graphic History

FAIN: MN-284737-22

Historic Hudson Valley (Tarrytown, NY 10591-1203)
Elizabeth L. Bradley (Project Director: June 2021 to present)

Production of an interactive graphic history examining the trial of Kofi, the enslaved accused leader of the 1741 New York Conspiracy.

Historic Hudson Valley requests a grant to produce an interactive digital graphic history titled Kofi’s Trial. At this critical moment in history, when people are hungry for accurate, historical resources to help them understand the national conversation about racial inequality, Kofi’s Trial will be a powerful tool to tell the difficult, complex history of slavery in the colonial North. Kofi’s Trial will focus on the 1741 insurrection plot that became known as the New York Conspiracy. Users will be able to walk the streets that Kofi traveled, meet people in his community, see the injustices Kofi and others faced, consider the options the enslaved had for resistance and survival, and hear the actual courtroom testimony. They will have the resources to grapple with conflicting ideas of slavery and agency in colonial America, and to understand the uneasy relationship between justice and resistance.