Anti-Rent War

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The Anti-Rent War (also known as the Helderberg War) was a tenants' revolt in upstate New York in the period 1839-1845. The Anti-Renters declared their independence from the manor system run by patroons, resisting tax collectors and successfully demanding land reform.

Video Anti-Rent War

Events

The incident began with the death of Stephen Van Rensselaer III in 1839. Van Rensselaer, who was described as having "...proved a lenient and benevolent landowner" was the patroon of the region at the time, and was a descendant of Kiliaen Van Rensselaer, the first patroon of the Manor of Rensselaerswyck. During his life, he preferred to allow rents to accumulate or to accept partial payment when tenants were in financial constraints. The patroons owned all the land on which the tenants in the Hudson Valley lived, and used feudal leases to maintain control of the region. When he died, Van Rensselaer's will directed his heirs to collect outstanding rents to apply to the estate debts. When his heirs attempted to collect the rents which he had long deferred, tenant farmers resisted. The tenants could not pay the amounts demanded, could not secure favorable terms from Van Rensselaer's heirs, and could not obtain relief in the courts, so they revolted.

The first mass meeting of tenant farmers leading to the Anti-Rent War was held at the top of the Helderberg mountains in Berne, New York on July 4, 1839. They issued a declaration of independence, promising: "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."

In December 1839 the Anti-Renters repulsed a 500-man posse led by Albany County sheriff Michael Artcher and including William Marcy and John Van Buren. Governor William Seward threatened the rebels with 700 militiamen and obtained their surrender. However, an insurrection continued to smolder. Disguised "Calico Indians" resisted tax collection and law enforcement, sometimes tarring and feathering their enemies.

In January 1845, one hundred and fifty delegates from eleven counties assembled at St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Berne to call for political action to redress their grievances.

Maps Anti-Rent War

Results

The Anti-Rent War led to the creation of the Antirenter Party, which had a strong influence on New York State politics from 1846-51.

Newly elected governor Silas Wright moved in 1845 to stamp out the Calico Indians, and pushed for a law which outlawed disguises.

Trials of leaders of the revolt, charged with riot, conspiracy and robbery, were held in 1845. Participants as counsel in the trials included Ambrose L. Jordan, as leading counsel for the defense, and John Van Buren, the state attorney general, who personally conducted the prosecution. At the first trial, the jury came to no conclusion.

During a re-trial in September 1845, the two leading counsels started a fist-fight in open court. Both were sentenced by the presiding judge, Justice John W. Edmonds, to "solitary confinement in the county jail for 24 hours." At the conclusion of the trial, one defendant, Smith A. Boughton, was sentenced to life imprisonment. After the election of John Young as governor, who had the support of the Anti-Renters, he pardoned Boughton.

The New York Constitution of 1846 added provisions for tenants' rights, abolishing feudal tenures and outlawing leases lasting longer than twelve years. The remaining manors dissolved quickly as the patroons sold off the lands.

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People involved

• Lawrence Van Deusen, president of the Anti-Rent Association of Albany County, New York.
• John I. Slingerland, state legislator and U.S. Congressman, was an advocate for the tenants during the Anti-Rent War.

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See also

• Anya Seton's novel Dragonwyck (1944) is set during the Anti-Rent War.
• List of incidents of civil unrest in the United States
• Manor of Rensselaerswyck#Anti-rent movement and downfall, for further information on how the following years convinced landed proprietors to sell out their interests
• Andes, New York

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References

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Further reading

• Christman, Henry (1961) [1945]. Tin Horns and Calico: A Decisive Episode in the Emergence of American Democracy. New York, NY: Collier Books - via HathiTrust. 
• Ford, Eric (June 2002), "New York's Anti-rent War 1845-1846", Contemporary Review .
• Kubik, Dorothy (1997), A Free Soil -- A Free People: The Anti-Rent War in Delaware County, New York, ISBN 0-935796-86-X .
• McCurdy, Charles W (2001), The Anti-Rent Era in New York Law and Politics, 1839-1865, ISBN 0-8078-2590-5 .
• Miller, Douglas T. (1967) Jacksonian Aristocracy: Class and Democracy in New York, 1830-1860. New York: Oxford University Press.
• Reeve, Huston (2004), "Popular Movements and Party Rule: The New York Anti-Rent Wars and the Jacksonian Political Order", in Pasley, Jeffrey L; Robertson, Andrew W; Waldstreicher, David, Beyond the founders: new approaches to the political history of the early American republic, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, pp. 355-86 .

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