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 during the early 19th century, beginning with the death of Stephen Van Rensselaer III in 1839.
Van Rensselaer, who has been described as "[having] ... proved a lenient and benevolent landowner" was the patroon of the region at the time, and was a direct descendant of Kiliaen Van Rensselaer, the first patroon of Rensselaerwyck. 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.
Before the Revolutionary War, the patroons acted as feudal lords, with the right to make laws. The Anti-Rent War led to the creation of the Antirenter Party which had a strong influence on New York State politics from 1846 to 1851.
The first mass meeting of tenant farmers leading to the Anti-Rent War was held in Berne, New York on July 4th, 1839. In January, 1845 one hundred and fifty delegates from eleven counties assembled in St. Paul's Lutheran Church], Berne to call for political action to redress their grievances. Christman, Henry. Tin Horns and Calico, a Decisive Episode in the Emergence of Democracy. ISBN 0-685-61130-2.
Trials of leaders of the revolt for 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, personally conducted the accusation. 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 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, but after the election of John Young, who had the support of the Anti-Renters, Broughton was pardoned.
[edit] Further reading
- "New York's Anti-rent War 1845-1846," Contemporary Review, June 2002 by Eric Ford
- Henry Christman, Tin Horns and Calico, a Decisive Episode in the Emergence of Democracy (1978) ISBN 0-685-61130-2
- Dorothy Kubik, A Free Soil - A Free People: The Anti-Rent War in Delaware County, New York (1997) ISBN 0-935796-86-X
- Charles W. McCurdy, The Anti-Rent Era in New York Law and Politics, 1839-1865 (2001) ISBN 0-8078-2590-5
- Candace Christiansen, Calico and Tin Horns (1992) ISBN 0-8037-1179-4
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