WEBVTT NOTE 36. The New York Land Revolt 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:08.480 volume 3 chapter 36 the New York land revolt undoubtedly one of the main reasons for the 2 00:00:08.480 --> 00:00:14.240 collapse of resistance in New York was the gratitude of the New York landed oligarchy 3 00:00:14.240 --> 00:00:22.800 for the prompt use of British troops in suppressing a widespread tenant rebellion in 1766 by the middle 4 00:00:22.800 --> 00:00:29.920 of the 18th century rising resentment against the manorial lords of New York recipients of huge 5 00:00:30.000 --> 00:00:45.000 In 1750, a tenant-settler revolt occurred in Dutchess County, and in the early 1760s, 6 00:00:45.000 --> 00:00:52.040 similar revolts erupted on the giant manors of Albany and Westchester counties. Discontents 7 00:00:52.040 --> 00:00:59.280 centered in the largest ones, the Big Four Manors, and the movement of the New York peasantry 8 00:00:59.280 --> 00:01:07.160 culminated in the General Hudson River Rebellion or Leveller's Uprising of 1766. 9 00:01:07.160 --> 00:01:12.520 This revolt began over land in the Phillips Manor, Highland Patent, in southern Dutchess 10 00:01:12.520 --> 00:01:18.560 County, now Putnam County, where Phillips tenant settlers, largely from New England, 11 00:01:18.560 --> 00:01:24.560 concentrated in the eastern end of the county, were buying their land titles from the local 12 00:01:24.560 --> 00:01:33.360 Indians and Ignoring the Phillips Land Claims. By 1756, the Phillips proprietors had seized 13 00:01:33.360 --> 00:01:39.920 the lands from the Indians and had brought ejectment suits against the rebellious tenants. 14 00:01:39.920 --> 00:01:47.760 In 1763, the tenants renounced the Phillips leases and refused to pay rent to their designated 15 00:01:47.760 --> 00:01:55.600 Landlords. A Chancery Court case reached trial in the spring of 1765, but the judges, 16 00:01:55.600 --> 00:02:01.640 including members of the Colden, Smith and Delancey families of the New York oligarchy, 17 00:02:01.640 --> 00:02:07.760 were all great landlords. One judge, William Smith, was even connected with the Livingston 18 00:02:07.760 --> 00:02:13.820 family, which was involved in similar lawsuits with the Indians. Not only were the judges 19 00:02:13.820 --> 00:02:21.220 was packed against the Indians and the tenants, but the Grand Indian Sakham, Daniel Ninam, 20 00:02:21.220 --> 00:02:26.620 was unable to retain a lawyer, because every attorney in the province had been bought by 21 00:02:26.620 --> 00:02:33.500 the landlords. Furthermore, not only was Ninam not allowed to speak in court, but the tenants 22 00:02:33.500 --> 00:02:41.460 were ordered arrested for the high crime of depriving the crown of its due inheritance. 23 00:02:41.460 --> 00:02:47.420 While Ninam appealed to England, Van Rensselaer took ejectment action against many of his 24 00:02:47.420 --> 00:02:54.340 tenants claiming Indian titles. The settler cases were brusquely thrown out by the courts, 25 00:02:54.340 --> 00:03:00.140 except for those won by the Phillips proprietors on the strength of obviously forged bills 26 00:03:00.140 --> 00:03:07.140 of sale from the Indians. Deprived of their lands by the aggression of pact and landlord-dominated 27 00:03:07.140 --> 00:03:13.140 In the time when the landlord dominated courts, the tenants looked for other means of defending their property. 28 00:03:13.140 --> 00:03:25.140 At the end of 1765, the tenants of New York, undoubtedly inspired by the stamp tax fight for liberty, decided to strike out for liberty for themselves. 29 00:03:25.140 --> 00:03:35.140 The Phillips settlers advertised publicly for tenants to meet in order to reinstate the evicted tenants by force. 30 00:03:35.140 --> 00:03:41.260 The Duchess County rebels moved to stand by each other with lives and fortunes to force 31 00:03:41.260 --> 00:03:48.500 their landlords to grant them security of tenure and, at least, to lower their rents. 32 00:03:48.500 --> 00:03:53.940 Their main methods were by refusing to pay rent and defending themselves against any 33 00:03:53.940 --> 00:03:56.220 forced ejections. 34 00:03:56.220 --> 00:04:01.580 They pledged to rescue any tenants arrested for refusing to pay rents. 35 00:04:01.580 --> 00:04:07.660 The Calcutrant tenants were now forced to join the rent strike. William Prendergast, 36 00:04:07.660 --> 00:04:13.980 one of the more prosperous tenants, was chosen as leader, and militia companies were formed. 37 00:04:13.980 --> 00:04:19.220 Judges were forced by the rebels to swear never to prosecute them. In the spring of 38 00:04:19.220 --> 00:04:26.220 1766, the Leveller rebels on the Van Cortlandt manor in Westchester refused to pay rent, 39 00:04:26.220 --> 00:04:30.220 and demanded their land in fee simple. 40 00:04:30.220 --> 00:04:33.220 When three of them were arrested by the New York government, 41 00:04:33.220 --> 00:04:37.220 over a thousand assembled Westchester tenants 42 00:04:37.220 --> 00:04:41.220 threatened to rescue the prisoners from the New York City jail. 43 00:04:41.220 --> 00:04:46.220 The duchess rebels, who had been leery of the radicalism of the Westchester movement, 44 00:04:46.220 --> 00:04:50.220 now eagerly joined in the demands for rescue. 45 00:04:50.220 --> 00:04:53.220 The armed tenants marched on the city, 46 00:04:53.220 --> 00:04:59.700 of the City, Naively Expecting Aid from the New York Sons of Liberty. When this help 47 00:04:59.700 --> 00:05:07.500 never materialized, the tenants disbanded and returned home before reaching the city. 48 00:05:07.500 --> 00:05:13.620 As the conflict polarized, the alarmed governor, Sir Henry Moore, called out the militia to 49 00:05:13.620 --> 00:05:20.220 suppress the tenants. Five hundred rebels now gathered and threatened to burn the house 50 00:05:20.220 --> 00:05:32.700 A mob of 500 also freed John Way from a Poughkeepsie jail where he had been confined for non-payment 51 00:05:32.700 --> 00:05:34.260 of rent. 52 00:05:34.260 --> 00:05:40.260 But a show of military force and a proclamation for the seizure of tenant leaders managed 53 00:05:40.260 --> 00:05:42.580 to disperse the rebels. 54 00:05:42.580 --> 00:05:48.900 The Dutchess County rebels, led by William Prendergast and Samuel Munro, moved against 55 00:05:48.900 --> 00:05:56.340 at Livingston Manor, several hundred leveler rebels marched on Livingston's house, threatening 56 00:05:56.340 --> 00:06:04.260 to destroy the Lord and his property, unless they were at last freed from rent and taxation. 57 00:06:04.260 --> 00:06:08.900 They were dispersed, however, by an armed Livingston troop. 58 00:06:08.900 --> 00:06:14.980 Seventeen hundred armed rebels also fought at Van Rensselaer Manor. 59 00:06:14.980 --> 00:06:23.100 By the summer of 1766, jail rescues of tenants flourished throughout the eastern Hudson Valley. 60 00:06:23.100 --> 00:06:29.340 Despite proclamations and orders for arrest for high treason, the provincial government 61 00:06:29.340 --> 00:06:32.860 could not begin to suppress the rebellion. 62 00:06:32.860 --> 00:06:38.680 The militia, including many small farmers, proved completely unreliable, and British 63 00:06:38.680 --> 00:06:43.140 troops had to be called in by the governor to quell the uprising. 64 00:06:43.140 --> 00:06:49.540 Ruthless suppression by the pillaging British troops continued for four months. Finally, 65 00:06:49.540 --> 00:06:53.860 about eighty of the rebels were captured, including the great leader of the Phillips 66 00:06:53.860 --> 00:07:01.780 Rebellion, William Prendergast. Significantly, so far was Prendergast from being a radical 67 00:07:01.780 --> 00:07:08.020 partisan of debtors or heedless of the property rights of creditors that he made it clear 68 00:07:08.020 --> 00:07:13.700 Remember that payment of debts in general must be strictly enforced. Only debts for 69 00:07:13.700 --> 00:07:22.140 the unjust exactions of quasi-feudal rents drew Prendergast fire. Prendergast and the 70 00:07:22.140 --> 00:07:28.180 eighty other or so rebel leaders were brought to trial. The judges were all great landlords 71 00:07:28.180 --> 00:07:33.960 and land speculators. Moreover, two of the judges were directly related to the manorial 72 00:07:33.960 --> 00:07:43.160 The Rebels were indicted on charges of riotous assault and some for rescuing prisoners. They 73 00:07:43.160 --> 00:07:48.360 were variously sentenced to fines, imprisonment, and the pillory. 74 00:07:48.360 --> 00:07:56.960 Prendergast's trial was different. His indictment was for high treason. Prendergast, highly 75 00:07:56.960 --> 00:08:03.920 popular in the colony and known to be a sober, honest, and industrious farmer, was able to 76 00:08:03.920 --> 00:08:22.720 The court sharply remarked that they might as well cover the prisoner with a veil, lest 77 00:08:22.720 --> 00:08:29.080 the distress painted on his countenance should too powerfully excite compassion. 78 00:08:29.080 --> 00:08:35.120 The jury quickly brought in a verdict of guilty, with a recommendation of mercy, but the court 79 00:08:35.120 --> 00:08:39.660 sentenced Prendergast to be hanged and quartered. 80 00:08:39.660 --> 00:08:46.400 Meanwhile, butchery continued in the field, where British troops burned, pillaged and 81 00:08:46.400 --> 00:08:51.320 plundered the still recalcitrant Philip's tenants. 82 00:08:51.320 --> 00:08:57.120 Dispossessed Van Rensselaer and other tenants fled to Massachusetts and Connecticut, where 83 00:08:57.120 --> 00:09:03.440 They continued their quest for the land via guerrilla warfare aided by Massachusetts and 84 00:09:03.440 --> 00:09:09.680 the Indians. Because of the great popular sympathy for Prendergast, the sheriff could 85 00:09:09.680 --> 00:09:16.060 find no one willing to carry out the brutal sentence upon him, despite the sheriff's promise 86 00:09:16.060 --> 00:09:22.820 to disguise and reward the collaborator. Finally, after keeping Prendergast in prison 87 00:09:22.820 --> 00:09:29.340 The Earl of Shelburne, Secretary of State for the Southern Department, recommended a 88 00:09:29.340 --> 00:09:36.380 pardon in view of the prisoner's great popularity, and the King agreed. 89 00:09:36.380 --> 00:09:42.780 Frederic Bast incidentally had bravely refused several chances to escape from prison in order 90 00:09:42.780 --> 00:09:48.100 to spare his family from having their property confiscated. 91 00:09:48.100 --> 00:09:52.100 He now returned home to great rejoicing. 92 00:09:52.100 --> 00:09:57.840 As for the rebellious settlers, many of them left either for cheap and available land in 93 00:09:57.840 --> 00:10:03.640 virtually unsettled Vermont or for nearby Massachusetts. 94 00:10:03.640 --> 00:10:09.320 The Indians, despite the Crown's sympathy for their land claims, were forced to plead 95 00:10:09.320 --> 00:10:15.480 their case before a packed court, a council consisting of great landlords, some of them 96 00:10:15.480 --> 00:10:18.340 directly involved in the dispute. 97 00:10:18.340 --> 00:10:24.340 The Indians could not find a lawyer in the province, their witnesses were arrested and 98 00:10:24.340 --> 00:10:28.420 judgment was concluded against them. 99 00:10:28.420 --> 00:10:34.300 The failure of the liberal forces in New York was the failure of groups like the Sons of 100 00:10:34.300 --> 00:10:40.900 Liberty to merge with the Tenant Liberation Movement, but given the conditions of the 101 00:10:40.900 --> 00:10:47.780 day, no further link was possible between these two libertarian groups, for the landlord 102 00:10:47.780 --> 00:10:54.780 In the late 19th century, the world leadership of the struggle against British oppression could hardly join hands with their own tenetry. 103 00:10:54.780 --> 00:11:03.780 The zeal of the Livingstons for liberty always stopped well short of extending such liberty to their own tenants. 104 00:11:03.780 --> 00:11:14.780 Two, the bulk of the Sons of Liberty was urban and artisan and had little appreciation of the problems of the tenetry 105 00:11:14.780 --> 00:11:22.780 or perception of how the mutually beloved concept of liberty could have forged a link between the two movements. 106 00:11:22.780 --> 00:11:29.780 Hence the indifference or hostility of the urban radicals toward the tenants. 107 00:11:29.780 --> 00:11:33.780 The radicals even applauded the calling in of British troops. 108 00:11:33.780 --> 00:11:41.780 And hence the lack of enthusiasm among the New York tenants for the Sons of Liberty and their cause. 109 00:11:41.780 --> 00:11:48.820 A pity, since the tenants had been firm supporters of the Stamp Act rebellion, and were inspired 110 00:11:48.820 --> 00:11:53.340 by that very revolt to struggle for their own particular liberty. 111 00:11:53.340 --> 00:12:00.380 A grave split thus developed among the radical forces of New York, weakening the whole resistance 112 00:12:00.380 --> 00:12:04.060 drive in that critical province. 113 00:12:04.060 --> 00:12:09.620 An example of this split was the case of John Moran Scott, an early founder of the Sons 114 00:12:09.620 --> 00:12:10.620 of Liberty. 115 00:12:10.620 --> 00:12:16.420 It is true that Scott was early suspended, in control of the sons by such radical leaders 116 00:12:16.420 --> 00:12:25.420 as Isaac Sears, John Lamb, and Alexander McDougall. But it is also significant that this merchant, 117 00:12:25.420 --> 00:12:34.980 land speculator, large landlord, and political ally of the Livingston's was viciously anti-tenant, 118 00:12:34.980 --> 00:12:42.300 and was one of the personally interested judges who condemned Prendergast to death. 119 00:12:42.300 --> 00:12:48.820 On the other hand, an arch-tory like Lieutenant Governor Cadwallader Colden counseled against 120 00:12:48.820 --> 00:12:55.100 the massive use of force that crushed the tenants. General Gage chortled at the come-uppance 121 00:12:55.100 --> 00:13:01.220 being given to the rich and most powerful people who had fought the Stamp Act. Gage 122 00:13:01.220 --> 00:13:08.100 Each wrote trenchantly that these leaders had first sowed the seeds of sedition amongst 123 00:13:08.100 --> 00:13:12.620 the people and taught them to rise in opposition to the laws.