WEBVTT NOTE 7. New York Land Monopoly 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.240 Volume 2, Chapter 7, New York Land Monopoly 2 00:00:05.240 --> 00:00:11.960 As early as the turn of the 18th century, New York, in its large Hudson River manors, 3 00:00:11.960 --> 00:00:18.680 was the only colony where feudal landholding retained an important foothold. In this colony, 4 00:00:18.680 --> 00:00:25.980 the few receivers of huge land grants persisted in renting instead of selling their domains, 5 00:00:25.980 --> 00:00:32.860 And thus they formed, along with the royal bureaucracy, a ruling oligarchy of the colony. 6 00:00:32.860 --> 00:00:38.500 Robert Hunter, the relatively liberal governor of New York during the second decade of the 7 00:00:38.500 --> 00:00:44.980 seventeenth century, solved the problem and warned of the oppression of the tenants and 8 00:00:44.980 --> 00:00:47.940 the crippling of growth in the colony. 9 00:00:47.940 --> 00:00:53.900 The problem grew acute again with an accession to the governorship of John Montgomery in 10 00:00:53.900 --> 00:01:01.220 1728. Montgomery renewed the old policy of granting huge tracts of land in return for 11 00:01:01.220 --> 00:01:08.940 monetary reward, the main sale of such privilege being a grant of 50,000 acres in eastern 12 00:01:08.940 --> 00:01:18.500 Dutchess County to Thomas Hawley in 1731 in return for 750 pounds sterling. The new rash 13 00:01:18.500 --> 00:01:33.500 The rush of land grants reached full flower in the regime of William Cosby, 1732-36, who took the precaution of giving himself one-third of the total amount of his grants. 14 00:01:33.500 --> 00:01:41.500 This orgy of special privilege even moved two of the leading officials of the colony to protest to England. 15 00:01:41.500 --> 00:01:55.500 Planet Governor Cadwallader Calden noted in 1732 that enterprising youth were leaving New York in large numbers, driven by the land monopoly to seek land of their own elsewhere. 16 00:01:55.500 --> 00:02:09.500 While much better in every way more convenient lands lie useless to the king and country, the reason for this is that the grantees themselves are not in a capacity to improve such large tracks 17 00:02:09.500 --> 00:02:31.500 Cold and eloquently pointed out that a leading reason that so many people had left Europe for the New World was to avoid the dependence on landlords and to enjoy a fee simple to descend to their posterity that their children may reap the benefit of their labor and industry. 18 00:02:31.500 --> 00:02:42.500 Chief Justice Louis Morris deplored the engrossing of great tracts of land into few hands, making it very difficult and expensive to settle these lands. 19 00:02:42.500 --> 00:02:51.500 In contrast, better and far cheaper lands were available in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, which were thus attracting far more immigrants. 20 00:02:51.500 --> 00:02:57.500 Despite these warnings, the venal policy of land engrossment continued to pace. 21 00:02:57.500 --> 00:03:06.540 Governor George Clark, 1736-43, for example, evaded the maximum limit of 2,000 acres per 22 00:03:06.540 --> 00:03:11.460 grant by giving himself land through dummy associates. 23 00:03:11.460 --> 00:03:18.780 Thus, Clark granted William Corey 100,000 acres in the Mohawk Valley, which Corey promptly 24 00:03:18.780 --> 00:03:22.660 transferred back to Clark's personal ownership. 25 00:03:22.660 --> 00:03:29.060 In this way, Clark was able to amass a fortune of 100,000 pounds worth of land during his 26 00:03:29.060 --> 00:03:38.060 term of office. Clark's successor in the lucrative post, George Clinton, 1743-53, also granted 27 00:03:38.060 --> 00:03:45.180 much land to himself through numerous dummy intermediaries. For grants to others, Clinton 28 00:03:45.180 --> 00:03:52.220 charged the high fee of 13 pounds for each 1,000 acres given away. Through such means, 29 00:03:52.220 --> 00:03:59.220 was able to amass a fortune of £100,000 in his decade of rule. 30 00:03:59.360 --> 00:04:05.740 As the 18th century wore on, the discontent of the tenants increased, along with the extent 31 00:04:05.740 --> 00:04:12.300 of manorial land holdings. The farmers, significantly generally referred to by the European name 32 00:04:12.300 --> 00:04:19.300 peasants, were subjected not only to rent payments, but also to juries constituted by 33 00:04:19.300 --> 00:04:26.300 by the Manor Lord, as well as to various feudal fees and privileges. Unable to purchase their 34 00:04:26.300 --> 00:04:33.300 land, the farmers also faced insecurity of renewal of lease, and the increasing rents 35 00:04:33.340 --> 00:04:40.340 of any new lease ate into any farm prosperity they might have enjoyed. The farmers had therefore 36 00:04:40.980 --> 00:04:45.940 little incentive to improve the land, since they would only in the end have to pay more 37 00:04:45.940 --> 00:04:51.580 more rent to the manor lord. Furthermore, the large feudal manors enjoyed their own 38 00:04:51.580 --> 00:04:58.580 direct representation in the provincial assembly with their own private rotten boroughs. 39 00:04:58.580 --> 00:05:03.700 In addition to these numerous privileges, the New York government propped up the feudal 40 00:05:03.700 --> 00:05:10.220 manors in other significant ways. For one thing, New York did not adopt the significant 41 00:05:10.220 --> 00:05:17.180 English Common Law realization that the mortgager is the true owner of the land. Failure to 42 00:05:17.180 --> 00:05:23.180 do this preserved New York landlords from any compulsion to yield property to their 43 00:05:23.180 --> 00:05:29.460 creditors in case they could not pay. Also, New York established an elaborate system of 44 00:05:29.460 --> 00:05:35.860 registry of land titles, which being costly, favored the large and wealthy landlords who 45 00:05:35.860 --> 00:05:41.860 who could pay the expenses of registry and of hiring lawyers to do the job. 46 00:05:41.860 --> 00:05:48.660 And finally, feudal entail and promogenitor were imposed to keep the huge manors intact 47 00:05:48.660 --> 00:05:51.140 and to prevent them from being divided. 48 00:05:51.140 --> 00:05:57.060 Thus, Frederic Phillips, one of the great manorial lords of New York, made a will in 49 00:05:57.060 --> 00:06:04.060 1751 compulsorily entailing all his land to his firstborn and then to the latter's firstborn. 50 00:06:05.860 --> 00:06:16.980 The dominant manors of New York in the 18th century were those of Livingston, Phillips, 51 00:06:16.980 --> 00:06:20.380 Van Rensselaer and Van Cortlandt. 52 00:06:20.380 --> 00:06:26.540 The Phillips Manor, the Highland Patent, began with a grant by Governor Benjamin Fletcher 53 00:06:26.540 --> 00:06:28.840 in 1697. 54 00:06:28.840 --> 00:06:35.840 The grant soon amounted to over 200,000 acres, covering some of Dutchess County and almost 55 00:06:35.840 --> 00:07:05.840 The Phillips Manorial System was highly oppressive. Leases lasted only for the life of the tenant. At which point the land, along with its improvements, reverted to the manor lord. If any tenant wished to transfer his tenancy to another, he was forced to pay a one-third alienation fee. In addition, all property of mines and minerals were reserved for the Phillips. 56 00:07:05.840 --> 00:07:12.220 The Van Rensselaer manor of Rensselaerwijk was, of course, the pioneer manor in the colony, 57 00:07:12.220 --> 00:07:18.700 having been the only holdover from the Dutch policy of creating feudal patron ships. Amassing 58 00:07:18.700 --> 00:07:25.680 one million acres and covering most of Albany County by the turn of the century, Rensselaer 59 00:07:25.680 --> 00:07:33.440 leases were even shorter term than Phillips's. Amounting to a 13-year term, rents were exacted 60 00:07:33.440 --> 00:07:41.040 in kind and in service, as in the Middle Ages, as well as in money. The Manorial Lord also 61 00:07:41.040 --> 00:07:46.640 reserved all rights of milling and mining and timber, and the tenants were liable for 62 00:07:46.640 --> 00:07:54.280 all taxes on the manor. But while the tenants paid the taxes, the Lord, Van Rensselaer, 63 00:07:54.280 --> 00:08:01.660 virtually had the right to pick his own assemblymen by the 1680s. The tenants who voted in this 64 00:08:01.660 --> 00:08:07.660 and other manorial elections had, it should be noted, no such protection from landlord 65 00:08:07.660 --> 00:08:15.660 wrath as the secret ballot. Livingston Manor began with a grant in the 1680s and was stretched, 66 00:08:15.660 --> 00:08:24.140 like the other grants, through dubious legality from Indian purchases to include 160,000 acres 67 00:08:24.140 --> 00:08:31.060 in Columbia County. Robert Livingston, the original grantee, was fortunate enough to 68 00:08:31.060 --> 00:08:37.540 to marry the widow of his former employer, the Van Rensselaer Patroon, and later rose 69 00:08:37.540 --> 00:08:56.360 to become Speaker of the New York Assembly and Mayor 70 00:08:56.360 --> 00:09:06.360 In contrast to the other large manors, some subdivisions were actually sales of property, in fee simple, to the farmers. 71 00:09:06.360 --> 00:09:11.360 As in the other cases, tenants were responsible for payment of taxes. 72 00:09:11.360 --> 00:09:20.360 Van Courtland Manor, which began with 86,000 acres of Westchester County, granted in 1697, 73 00:09:20.360 --> 00:09:28.440 1777 was the most liberal of the large banners, especially after the 1750s. For one thing, 74 00:09:28.440 --> 00:09:34.600 the Van Cortlands were the most willing to sell their land in fee simple, for a high 75 00:09:34.600 --> 00:09:41.280 price of course, but at least they were willing. In addition, the lot of the tenant was greatly 76 00:09:41.280 --> 00:09:48.560 eased by permitting transfer of leases with almost no alienation fees. Furthermore, the 77 00:09:48.560 --> 00:09:55.160 The Van Cortlands allowed their own assemblymen after 1717, permitted their freeholders on 78 00:09:55.160 --> 00:09:59.080 the manor to select an additional representative. 79 00:09:59.080 --> 00:10:05.120 Most important, the process of subdividing the ownership of Van Cortland lands was greatly 80 00:10:05.120 --> 00:10:09.720 accelerated by equal division among their heirs. 81 00:10:09.720 --> 00:10:17.480 Alone of the large manors, the Van Cortlands eschewed the privileges of entail in promogenitor. 82 00:10:17.480 --> 00:10:23.120 With the combined pressure of subdividing inheritance and sales in fee simple, the Van 83 00:10:23.120 --> 00:10:30.800 Cortland Manor very gradually disintegrated into legitimate settler ownership. 84 00:10:30.800 --> 00:10:33.200 But this was to take time. 85 00:10:33.200 --> 00:10:40.520 In the meanwhile, in 1769, five-sixths of the inhabitants of Westchester were the subjects 86 00:10:40.520 --> 00:10:47.760 of Six Manorial Lords, with one-third of them on Van Courtland in Phillips Manors. Other 87 00:10:47.760 --> 00:10:58.760 leading Manorial Lords of the province were the Schuylers, whose leases were long, covering 88 00:10:58.760 --> 00:11:05.540 three lives, and who were willing to sell land in fee simple, the Dwaynes, the Beekmans 89 00:11:05.540 --> 00:11:08.680 and the Heathcoats. 90 00:11:08.680 --> 00:11:14.120 With the renewal of arbitrary land grants in the 18th century, domination of the entire 91 00:11:14.120 --> 00:11:20.880 governing machinery of New York by the landed oligarchs was far stronger than in the previous 92 00:11:20.880 --> 00:11:27.400 century. The leading lawyers of the colony, and hence the main politicians, were connected 93 00:11:27.400 --> 00:11:35.280 by intimate family ties with the great manorial lords. Of the 33 lawyers licensed to practice 94 00:11:35.280 --> 00:11:44.760 In New York, from 1730 to 1776, the remarkable number of thirty were connected with the great 95 00:11:44.760 --> 00:11:51.480 landlord families and two of the remaining three were smaller landlords. 96 00:11:51.480 --> 00:11:57.680 This also meant that almost all the judges and attorneys general of the colony were closely 97 00:11:57.680 --> 00:12:04.960 tied to the big landlords and such landlord connected judges as Robert R. Livingston and 98 00:12:04.960 --> 00:12:13.160 William Smith never hesitated to decide cases in which they or their relations were involved. 99 00:12:13.160 --> 00:12:22.400 Of the eight governors of New York from 1750 to 1776, six were large landlords. As we might 100 00:12:22.400 --> 00:12:28.560 expect, the council, the upper house of the New York legislature, was an iron-clad stronghold 101 00:12:28.560 --> 00:12:37.320 of the Big Landlords. Of 28 councillors from 1750 to 1776, fully 25 were connected with 102 00:12:37.320 --> 00:12:44.020 large landlord families. On the other hand, domination of the assembly, the lower house 103 00:12:44.020 --> 00:12:51.000 was less overwhelming. Of 70 assemblymen during this period, 52 came from the great landed 104 00:12:51.000 --> 00:12:57.940 families. One-third of the representatives outside New York City came from pocket boroughs, 105 00:12:57.940 --> 00:13:05.380 from the Manners, and a £40 sterling property qualification for voting added to the factors 106 00:13:05.380 --> 00:13:08.380 making for landlord domination. 107 00:13:08.380 --> 00:13:16.540 Of a total of 137 executive, legislative, and judicial officers of New York from 1750 108 00:13:16.540 --> 00:13:26.940 To 1776, 80 percent or 110 were connected to large landed families, while 5 percent 109 00:13:26.940 --> 00:13:35.300 or 6 were small landholders. By the middle of the 18th century, rising resentment against 110 00:13:35.300 --> 00:13:43.940 the manorial lords set off tenant uprisings against their masters. In 1750, a tenant-settler 111 00:13:43.940 --> 00:13:50.220 Similar revolt occurred in Dutchess County, and in the 1760s similar revolts occurred 112 00:13:50.220 --> 00:13:54.180 in the manors of Albany and Westchester. 113 00:13:54.180 --> 00:13:59.860 Discontent centered in the largest manors of the Big Four Landlords and the movement 114 00:13:59.860 --> 00:14:07.400 of the New York peasantry was to culminate in the General Hudson River Uprising, or Leveller's 115 00:14:07.400 --> 00:14:11.940 Uprising of 1766. 116 00:14:11.940 --> 00:14:18.660 Apart from such eruptions, from below, politics in New York reflected the aristocratic feudalism 117 00:14:18.660 --> 00:14:24.580 of the social structure. Parties vying for control were largely personal factions within 118 00:14:24.580 --> 00:14:31.140 the landed oligarchy. Sharing a common ideology and a common devotion to the basic social 119 00:14:31.140 --> 00:14:38.680 structure, political struggles became mainly squabbles of family and place. Carl Becker 120 00:14:38.680 --> 00:14:44.240 Boehm-Bawerk put the point very well. For political purposes, the organization of the 121 00:14:44.240 --> 00:14:52.120 aristocracy rested upon the surviving feudal principle of the personal relation. Personal 122 00:14:52.120 --> 00:14:59.540 loyalty, rather than faith in a proposition, was the key to political integrity. The principle 123 00:14:59.540 --> 00:15:06.120 means by which this bond was established was the marriage relation. An effective political 124 00:15:06.120 --> 00:15:19.120 was established not by securing control of a machine within a party, but by interrelating one's family with the aristocracy as advantageously as possible. 125 00:15:19.120 --> 00:15:27.120 As is the norm in ruling aristocracies, the leading landed families were widely interrelated. 126 00:15:27.120 --> 00:15:35.120 After mid-century, however, this situation began to change, as will be seen further below. 127 00:15:35.120 --> 00:15:43.120 The two leading factions of the province came to be headed by the Livingston and the Delancey families. 128 00:15:43.120 --> 00:15:52.120 To the Livingston camp began to gravitate the upstate interest, while the New York City interest tended to join the Delancey faction. 129 00:15:52.120 --> 00:16:00.520 In addition, the dissenters tended to support the Livingstons and the Anglicans, the Delancies. 130 00:16:00.520 --> 00:16:06.820 New York's system of land monopoly greatly aggravated the colony's territorial disputes 131 00:16:06.820 --> 00:16:11.320 with its neighbors, Massachusetts and New Hampshire. 132 00:16:11.320 --> 00:16:16.520 In upstate New York, the rebellious tenants of the manorial lords took advantage of the 133 00:16:16.520 --> 00:16:23.520 Territorial Claims of Massachusetts to a Boundary on the Hudson River. In 1751, the 134 00:16:23.880 --> 00:16:29.680 tenants of Livingston Manor refused to pay their rents and argued that they owned the 135 00:16:29.680 --> 00:16:36.280 land outright in fee simple under the authority of Massachusetts. Tenants of Livingston and 136 00:16:36.280 --> 00:16:42.760 Van Rensselaer petitioned to Massachusetts to include them in its jurisdiction and ignored 137 00:16:42.760 --> 00:16:49.240 Livingston's orders to leave their land. The embattled tenants were led by Michael 138 00:16:49.240 --> 00:16:55.880 Hollenbeck and Josiah Loomis, and the encouragement of Massachusetts was particularly given to 139 00:16:55.880 --> 00:17:03.960 them by David Ingersoll, the manorial Lord Robert Livingston, Jr., retaliated by burning 140 00:17:03.960 --> 00:17:10.560 the house of one of the tenants and throwing the tenant himself into jail. He also began 141 00:17:10.560 --> 00:17:40.560 The Rebels, led by Joseph Payne, retaliated by chopping down over a thousand of living 142 00:17:40.560 --> 00:17:46.960 Livingston's Manorial Trees. In addition, Massachusetts stepped into the fray, pushing 143 00:17:46.960 --> 00:17:52.680 its own jurisdiction by arresting a Livingston tenant who refused to take a Massachusetts 144 00:17:52.680 --> 00:18:00.400 title and finally forcibly transferring his land to another claimant. Loomis and Hollenbeck, 145 00:18:00.400 --> 00:18:07.200 attracted by Massachusetts' support of tenant claims, escaped to the Bay Colony. There they 146 00:18:07.200 --> 00:18:14.200 In fact, the land conflict was aggravated the following year as both Massachusetts and New York sent troops into the area to battle Indians, and both sets of troops remained to take opposite sides in the battle. 147 00:18:37.200 --> 00:18:43.820 and Boundary Dispute. Van Rensselaer Tenants, led by Hallenbeck and Robert Noble, formed 148 00:18:43.820 --> 00:18:49.920 an alliance with Massachusetts militia in Albany County to battle New York troops, and 149 00:18:49.920 --> 00:18:56.920 warfare raged throughout the area until 1757, with numerous armed raids and daring captures 150 00:18:58.440 --> 00:19:05.440 on either side. The armed conflict reached peaks in early 1755 and in 1757, pitting the 151 00:19:07.200 --> 00:19:32.320 New York's other great land dispute was with New Hampshire, over its western territory, 152 00:19:32.320 --> 00:19:34.120 now Vermont. 153 00:19:34.120 --> 00:19:40.760 New York had begun the arbitrary parceling out of New Hampshire lands in 1696 with an 154 00:19:40.760 --> 00:19:50.160 84-square-mile grant to the Reverend Godfredus Delius. But it was in the late 1760s that the 155 00:19:50.160 --> 00:19:56.280 carving up of Vermont land was pursued in earnest in a wild race with the New Hampshire 156 00:19:56.280 --> 00:20:03.080 Government From 1765 to 1776, New York governors handed 157 00:20:03.080 --> 00:20:11.320 out claims to over 2.1 million acres of Vermont land, and over 2.4 million additional acres 158 00:20:11.320 --> 00:20:16.200 were military grants purchased by the New York grantees. 159 00:20:16.200 --> 00:20:24.600 Of the grantees, eight New York lawyers, merchants and land speculators were given over 375,000 160 00:20:24.600 --> 00:20:31.600 Acres. Leading recipients of New York's law guests were James Duane and Goldsbrough Banyar. 161 00:20:34.200 --> 00:20:40.400 One of the most unfortunate groups of sufferers from New York's policy of land monopoly was 162 00:20:40.400 --> 00:20:47.400 a band of German refugees from the Palatinate who were known as the Palatines. England had 163 00:20:47.400 --> 00:20:53.720 England had prided itself on admitting all Protestant refugees from Europe, and the French 164 00:20:53.720 --> 00:21:00.800 Huguenots, mainly businessmen and financiers, were a welcome dividend from this policy. 165 00:21:00.800 --> 00:21:07.800 But in 1709, a group of several thousand Protestant, Palatinate refugees fled to London from the 166 00:21:09.300 --> 00:21:15.280 devastation of their homes and lands that was ravaging Germany during the War of the 167 00:21:15.280 --> 00:21:21.200 and the Spanish Succession. Now that the Palatines were there, what could be done with these 168 00:21:21.200 --> 00:21:27.600 poor and homeless peasants? With England's own land engrossed by feudal lords, there 169 00:21:27.600 --> 00:21:33.480 seemed to be no room for the Palatines there. The British government decided to combine 170 00:21:33.480 --> 00:21:40.480 humanitarianism with profit by shipping the Palatines as indentured servants to New York, 171 00:21:40.480 --> 00:21:47.240 New York, a colony with a severe shortage of labor and an abundance of land. The catch, 172 00:21:47.240 --> 00:21:53.440 of course, was that the land was also being engrossed there and that the shortage of immigrants 173 00:21:53.440 --> 00:22:00.520 to the colony was largely because of that preemption of land. Indeed, Britain decided 174 00:22:00.520 --> 00:22:05.640 to kill several birds with one stone. New York was eager to develop a staple product 175 00:22:05.640 --> 00:22:11.840 other than FERS and the Crown was also interested in increasing production of naval stores such 176 00:22:11.840 --> 00:22:17.800 as tar and pitch for the Royal Navy. What better way than to force the Palatines to 177 00:22:17.800 --> 00:22:25.400 produce such naval stores? And so the hapless Palatines, who wanted nothing but to farm 178 00:22:25.400 --> 00:22:32.440 land of their own, were shipped to New York and coerced into working for the Crown and 179 00:22:32.440 --> 00:22:39.440 for Robert Livingston to produce naval stores, a product about which they knew nothing. 180 00:22:39.640 --> 00:22:45.900 There they were forbidden to engage in the one thing they did know, farming. On the first 181 00:22:45.900 --> 00:22:52.540 leg of their journey, three thousand were herded into ten ships, with fully one-fourth 182 00:22:52.540 --> 00:22:59.540 of the passengers dying en route. When they landed the unhappy, Palantines were kept on 183 00:22:59.540 --> 00:23:06.540 from Nutton Island, now Governor's Island, in New York Bay for five months while their 184 00:23:06.540 --> 00:23:13.860 fate was being decided. The Palatines were originally scheduled to go to the Mohawk Valley, 185 00:23:13.860 --> 00:23:19.220 but after they arrived in New York in early 1710, it was suddenly discovered that the 186 00:23:19.220 --> 00:23:25.780 Mohawk land was unsuitable for naval stores production. Governor Hunter thereupon purchased 187 00:23:25.780 --> 00:23:32.780 The crown and Livingston had joined to exploit the labor of the Palatines, but Livingston 188 00:23:55.780 --> 00:24:03.020 Livingston's gains were seemingly more certain and immediate. And so the Palatinate peasants, 189 00:24:03.020 --> 00:24:10.180 trustingly fleeing from devastation in Germany to a supposed haven in England, now found 190 00:24:10.180 --> 00:24:17.440 themselves in remote, upstate New York surrounded by pine trees and forced to produce naval 191 00:24:17.440 --> 00:24:23.860 stores for the Crown. As if this were not enough of a cross to bear, neither Livingston 192 00:24:23.860 --> 00:24:29.900 Livingston, nor the government, was particularly conscientious about feeding the Palatines. 193 00:24:29.900 --> 00:24:34.700 When Livingston found that a supply of his beef was spoiling, he quickly shipped two 194 00:24:34.700 --> 00:24:41.140 months' supply to the Palatines, with the full connivance of the New York government. 195 00:24:41.140 --> 00:24:48.140 On to the job, the unfortunate Palatines worked in labor gangs under strict supervision. Moreover, 196 00:24:48.140 --> 00:25:05.140 Moreover, the children of those who had died at sea were forcibly separated from their remaining relatives and sent by the government to be apprenticed far away in other colonies, and even children of living parents were seized in the same way. 197 00:25:05.140 --> 00:25:11.140 The Palatines, understandably, began to grow restive at this treatment. 198 00:25:11.140 --> 00:25:19.140 Led by John Conrad Weiser, they threatened to mutiny, that is to leave their wretched circumstances. 199 00:25:19.140 --> 00:25:25.140 Governor Hunter, failing to persuade the Palatines to become resigned to their fate, 200 00:25:25.140 --> 00:25:32.140 sent for an armed troop, disarmed the Palatines, ordered them treated as the Queen's servants, 201 00:25:32.140 --> 00:25:35.140 and appointed a court to dictate their affairs. 202 00:25:35.140 --> 00:25:41.140 and troops were sent in periodically to try to force the Palatines to keep working. 203 00:25:41.140 --> 00:25:47.140 Thieves fall out, however, and Livingston was betrayed by his own partner, 204 00:25:47.140 --> 00:25:51.140 the Royal Government, in the oppression of the Palatines. 205 00:25:51.140 --> 00:25:55.140 The Government refused to pay Livingston's vittling account. 206 00:25:55.140 --> 00:26:01.140 Furthermore, the artificially encouraged Naval Stores program was going very badly 207 00:26:01.140 --> 00:26:06.760 Sadly, and the Crown officials decided to heap all the blame on Livingston. Governor 208 00:26:06.760 --> 00:26:12.980 Hunter's pet naval stores project was collapsing. And what with the squabbling over the vitaling 209 00:26:12.980 --> 00:26:18.180 account between the government and Livingston, the Palatines began to raid Livingston's 210 00:26:18.180 --> 00:26:23.420 storehouse to obtain food. Finally, with the new government in Britain reluctant to pour 211 00:26:23.420 --> 00:26:30.420 good money after bad in further subsidy, Governor Hunter was forced to abandon the disastrous 212 00:26:30.420 --> 00:26:41.420 A government program of artificially stimulated production with the use of forced labor had 213 00:26:41.420 --> 00:26:44.300 failed ignominiously. 214 00:26:44.300 --> 00:26:48.420 The governor told the Palatines that they were free to work where they wished during 215 00:26:48.420 --> 00:26:53.660 the winter, provided that they reassembled in the spring, but a large number of Palatines 216 00:26:53.660 --> 00:26:59.220 used their newfound freedom to escape to the Schoharie country in New York, to New Jersey 217 00:26:59.220 --> 00:27:05.220 and Pennsylvania and to other parts of New York Colony. Before long the government abandoned 218 00:27:05.220 --> 00:27:11.420 the whole project and the palatines were released from bondage to the Crown. The bulk of the 219 00:27:11.420 --> 00:27:18.200 palatines moved happily during 1713 to the Skahari country where they purchased land 220 00:27:18.200 --> 00:27:24.380 from the Mohawk Indians. But the persecuted palatines were not yet free. The various land 221 00:27:24.380 --> 00:27:33.380 The Palatine speculators managed to obtain monopolistic grants from the governor of the very lands on which the Palatines had settled. 222 00:27:33.380 --> 00:27:45.380 The would-be land engrossers of Skowhary, who included a Livingston and a Shuler, demanded that the Palatines take out leases and pay rent to their designated landlords. 223 00:27:45.380 --> 00:27:53.380 They were aided and abetted by Governor Hunter, who for one thing was angry at the Palatines' escape from their servitude. 224 00:27:53.380 --> 00:27:59.020 And while the full force of the government created and tried to sustain the land monopoly, 225 00:27:59.020 --> 00:28:06.020 the doughty Germans, led by Weiser, insisted on defending their hard-earned land by force. 226 00:28:06.020 --> 00:28:12.060 The rebel palatines drove their would-be overlords out of the Skahari settlement and gave Sheriff 227 00:28:12.060 --> 00:28:18.540 Adams a thorough trouncing. Hunter retaliated by ordering the palatines to submit to the 228 00:28:18.540 --> 00:28:28.540 and as defiance continued, he prohibited all further cultivation of the land by the Palatines. 229 00:28:28.540 --> 00:28:37.540 Wiser shipped secretly to England to try to win the support of the Crown for free possession of their land, but the attempt failed. 230 00:28:37.540 --> 00:28:44.540 Driven off their land by monopolistic land grants, half the Palatines left Skahari and moved westward, 231 00:28:44.540 --> 00:28:51.140 of the World, settling along the Mohawk River during the 1720s. But Weiser and his followers 232 00:28:51.140 --> 00:28:57.540 thoroughly disgusted with New York policies, left for Pennsylvania and settled there. As 233 00:28:57.540 --> 00:29:02.540 a matter of fact, New York's treatment of the Palatines discouraged all further German 234 00:29:02.540 --> 00:29:08.340 immigration into New York, and from then on, Pennsylvania was much more heavily favored.