Anti-rent war

Reform/Conflict: The Anti-Rent Movement: Brief Introduction

by Nancy S. Cannon

 "The purpose of our society is not for the few of maximum strength and ambition to lead lives of Byzantine glory, but for men to make the most of their common humanity.  We are pledged to a general diffusion of culture, of independence, and self-respect and the means to a good life."   - Dr. Smith Boughton, Anti-Rent leader (alias "Big Thunder")

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From about 1839 to 1852 farmers in parts of Delaware, Albany, Rensselaer, Schoharie, Columbia, Greene, Ulster, Sullivan, Otsego, Montgomery, and Washington Counties staged a massive revolt against what they considered an unjust system of land tenure. Modeling themselves after the patriots who instigated the Boston Tea Party, they disguised themselves as "Indians" and caused much grief to law enforcement officials and landlords.  The Anti-Renters communicated by blowing tin dinner horns, relaying the sound from farm to farm over the hills and valleys: at the sound of the horn, the "Indians" dropped  work and  rushed to a predetermined meeting place.  They disrupted sales of property, tarred and feathered their opponents, and in August 1845 shot Delaware County Undersheriff Osman Steele at a farm sale organized by the authorities to collect money to pay back rent.   This is their story.

The origin of the conflict was the leasing of lands, a carryover from a feudal system in Europe. Land grants to politically well-connected individuals  by the Dutch and English  governments in the 17th and 18th centuries totaled tens of millions of acres in New York State. Some landowners  leased  their land to farmers via perpetual leases rather than selling the land outright.  By the early 1800's, the leased lands comprised over 2,000,000 acres.

Fast forward to southeastern New York in the mid-nineteenth century. America had won its war for Independence from England. Aristocratic descendents of the original Dutch and English landowners still owned and leased the land. Times were hard and jobs were scarce. One large landowner, Stephen Van Rensselaer III ( the "Good Patroon") lured settlers to the stony hills by promising them homesteads without cost: they could occupy the land free for seven years at which point they would be given a "durable lease" with a moderate wheat rent. Unfortunately for the tenants, by the time seven years had passed a lease had been perfected that would permanently bind the settlers to the estate.  By calling the contract an "incomplete sale", Van Rensselaer sidestepped the issue of feudalism which had been outlawed in New York in 1782. Van Rensselaer's tenants were expected to pay 10 to 14 bushels of winter wheat, four fat hens, and one day of service with a team and wagon each year. Although the types of leases and specific terms of the leases varied with each landlord, in most instances the tenants had to clear the forest from the land, construct their barns and houses at their own expense, and pay the taxes. The landowner retained all mineral, lumber, and water rights. If the tenant left the land, he received little or nothing for the improvements he had made. Landlords earned tenant loyalty by not pressing for full rent payments  and contributing to civic causes.

The tenants had often been misled into believing the land could be turned into productive farms; unfortunately, the thin, stony soils of the mountain farms wore down after a few years so farmers had a difficult time growing sufficient produce to both provide for their families and pay the rent. The rents were so high and the value of the farms so low that the farmers sometimes paid the full value of the farm every 15 years. Robert Livingston, a Delaware, Greene, Ulster, and Sullivan County landowner who paid about four cents an acre for his half million acres of land in the original Hardenbergh Patent, set the value at three dollars an acre when he leased it to settlers (Christman, 77).  Through the sweat of their tenants, the landlords lived in luxury far removed from the hill farms. To further complicate matters, the tenants were expected to travel up to 75 miles to pay their rent in person. Munsell's History of Delaware County (1880) relates the following: "One who remembers the old times tells us he never seriously rebelled against the system under which he lived until its seeming injustice suddenly broke upon him after he had called to pay his rent to the representative of the Hardenbergh estate, and found him living near New York in what appeared to him to be extravagant splendor, on the proceeds of his tenants' toil among the mountains of Delaware" (Munsell, p. 65)  It was time for a change.

Although there had been a few skirmishes before, the first major Anti-Rent activity took place in the Helderbergs in Albany County in 1839 after Stephen Van Rensselaer III died leaving a large debt. His heirs decided to collect rents that hadn't been paid in years.  Farmers were unwilling to pay what they felt were unjust rents to Stephen Van Rensselaer  IV (who had lived off his father's wealth his entire life).  The farmers attempted to reach a compromise with Van Rensselaer IV, but could not agree on terms.  A Declaration of Independence written by a few farmers read in part, "We have counted the cost of such a contest, and we find nothing as dreadful as voluntary slavery...We will take up the ball of the Revolution where our fathers stopped it and roll it to the final consummation of freedom and independence of the masses." (Christman, 20).  Farmers and their supporters throughout the region joined forces and began the campaign to free themselves from the chains of the feudal system.  Many of the Anti-Renters were poor farmers; others were comparatively prosperous professionals. But they all shared a burning desire to change the system. The revolt began.

Position of the Anti-Renters (Down-Renters):

The farmers felt they had been deceived by the landowners when they originally settled the land; leases had different terms than were originally agreed upon. Although a few farmers were lucky to find good soil when they cleared the land, most hill farmers were stuck with thin, rocky soil. Farmers could be ejected from the land for failure to pay the rent even if they had enough personal property to pay said rent.  Evidence could be found in some parts of the Anti-Rent areas that the landlords did not have legal title to the land they were renting.  The farmer paid all taxes; the landowners paid nothing to support state and local government.   The Anti-Renters considered their cause an extension of the American Revolution; they (or their ancestors) had fought for a government of the people, by the people, and for the people.  Feudalism had been declared illegal in New York State in 1782.

 

Position of the Up-Renters:

The law is the law. The farmers (or their ancestors) should have read the fine print before they signed the original leases. The landowner gave the tenants the land for no payment for a few years so they would be able to prosper; once the farms became productive, it was only fair they pay the  back rents.  A perpetual lease can never be changed. Feudalistic land contracts perhaps should be abolished; however, disrupting the law by intimidation while disguised as calico Indians was not the way to proceed. On a philosophical level, some members of the landed gentry felt that land ownership and the governing of the citizens should be in the hands of the few who by wealth, education, and superior upbringing would be best suited to determine what was best for the common folks. (James Fenimore Cooper wrote three novels, including The Redskins,  published in 1846, that portrayed the Anti-Renters in a very unflattering light)

Members of the secret Anti-Rent associations paid dues which provided the funds for disguises and food at large gatherings. Their colorful hand-crafted calico "Indian" disguises, chosen as a symbol of the Boston Tea Party, were unique in embellishment and style.  Sheepskin masks with painted decorations and outlandish additions such as tails and horns completed the "look". Their makeshift arms consisted of whatever they could scrounge: knives, pistols, muskets, spears, and hatchets, as well as recycled farm tools such as pieces of scythes.  (See also photo enlargement: Disguises of the Anti-Renters). Anti-Renters organized into cells, independent of each other, which consisted of groups of ten to fifteen men. Only the Chief knew the identity of the men in his cell. When in disguise, the Anti-Renters used pseudonyms: Big Thunder, Big Lion, Black Hawk, Red Wing, Pompey, Thunderbolt.  Women were sworn in "not indeed that they might be permitted to wear calico and bear arms against the foe, but that they might be honored dressmakers and ornamenters  for their husbands, sons, or lovers--the brave heros" (Christman, 84, quoting the Albany Argus). The Anti-Rent disturbances usually involved resistance to a law enforcement officer serving papers on tenants delinquent in their rents or interference with forced sales of property staged to collect money for back rents.

The Anti-Rent conflict did more than pit landowners against tenants. Neighbors sometimes supported opposite sides of the issue. There were Anti-Rent taverns and Up-Rent taverns. In strong Anti-Rent districts, advertisers geared their ads to appeal to the Anti-Renter audience. Up-Renter Matthew Griffin (his diary is included on this website)  lived in an Anti-Rent district and was threatened with being tarred and feathered by his Anti-Rent neighbors; the business in his store dropped off and he eventually moved out of the area (but not before he joined a posse to round up Anti-Rent neighbors who were implicated, justly or not, in the shooting of Undersheriff Steele). Two young boys, Jason (Jay) Gould and John Burroughs lived on farms in Roxbury and attended the same school. John Gould (Jay's father), an Up-Renter, defied an Anti-Rent war order and blew his tin dinner horn to call his workers to meals.  A group of calico Indians threatened to tar and feather him. Jay Gould later wrote, "how bright a picture is still retained upon the memory, of the frightful appearance they presented as they surrounded that parent with fifteen guns poised within a few feet of his head, while the chief stood over him with fierce gesticulations, and sword drawn. 0, the agony of my youthful mind, as I expected every moment to behold him prostrated a lifeless corpse upon the ground" (Gould, p. 263). John Burroughs, whose father was an Anti-Renter, recalled, "I'd see the sheriff and his posse ride past--twenty or thirty or even fifty men galloping pell-mell--and I was scared.  They'd go rushing along on their horses, flourishing swords and muskets. It was a terrible sight for a youngster. My fears were the greater because the posse represented the law, and my sympathies, of course, were with my own people.  I was not so afraid of the down-rent Indians." (Johnson, 20-21).

In addition to their persistent fight for justice, tin horns, calico dresses and sheepskin masks, the Delaware County Anti-Renters were known for their songs and poetry, published in Anti-Rent newspapers such as the Voice of the People and the Albany Freeholder. The song below, from an Anti-Rent point of view, is a summary of the conflict in Delaware County from 1845-1846. (The broadside does not mention the tune it was sung to)