Tin Horns and Calico: A Decisive Episode in the Emergence of American Democracy

by Henry Christman, Carl Carmer

A stirring tale of the antirent agitation in the Catskills, Hudson Valley and up-state New York in the 1840’s.“As the somewhat cryptic title suggests, this book is concerned primarily with one aspect of a many-sided theme in the economic and social history of New York state, and it deals with that topic in its final stage of popular protest and legal liquidation. During the first two centuries of New York's history the dominant form of landholding in the Hudson Valley was the large estate occupied by tenants on the quasi-feudal terms of annual rentals in kind or equivalent cash and the reservation of rights to share in land sales. Inaugurated by the Dutch and continued under English rule, this system of landholding was extended and reinvigorated after the Revolution in the guise of a permanent leasehold, mainly devised by Alexander Hamilton, the brother-in-law of Stephen Van Rensselaer, the last of the patroons and the principal landlord in the state.The rising tide of political democracy, coupled with economic distress and the accumulation of arrears, produced an inevitable popular reaction against the burdens of tenancy. The spark of revolt was struck in 1839, on the death of Stephen Van Rensselaer, when his heirs attempted to collect arrears by legal process. The result was an antirent agitation between 1839 and 1845, which flared up into sporadic violence and resistance to the sheriffs of several upstate counties by bands of farmers, summoned to the call of tin horns and disguised in calico robes and Indian masks. This in turn provoked collision with the state authorities upholding law and order.”-Journal of Economic History

Genres: History

585 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 9, 2020

Reviews

[Christopher Saunders · Rating 4 out of 5]

Henry Christman's Tin Horns and Calico offers a highly readable narrative of the Anti-Rent Movement of 1830s and 1840s. Christman's book sketches the near-feudal system of the patroons, old Dutch colonial families who ran massive estates in New York while exploiting an army of tenant farmers. Naturally, this led to resentment and eventually unrest: defiance spiraled to protests and riots, with an army of tenants dressed as Indians prowling the countryside, terrorizing landowners and sheriff's deputies who sought to defend them. Christman captures the fervor of the movement, one of the most unique and effective protests in American history, and how it played into the highly fractious politics of 19th Century New York. William Henry Seward, the Whig Governor, extended sympathy towards the Anti-Renters while the Democrats of the "Albany Regency" found themselves awkwardly forced to defend landowners, their traditional political rivals. The movement spurted off and on for years, leading ultimately the detonation of the patroon system - though its success was overshadowed by sensational incidents like the murder of Deputy Osman Steele, which triggered a murder trial and massive backlash against the Anti-Renters. Perhaps this is why, outside of specialist histories, few remember the Anti-Rent Wars; we prefer our protesters peaceful, if they must protest at all. Still, Christman's book (though written in 1945) remains a fascinating read about a uniquely successful case of mass political action.