Freemen Awake! Anti-Rent Movement Songs and Poems

SUNY Oneonta English Professor Roger W. Hecht’s new book, Freemen Awake! Rally Songs & Poems from New Yorks’s Anti-Rent Movement (Delaware Co. Hist. Assoc., 2018) is an edited collection of nearly three dozen songs and poems written by anti-renters and their supporters.

The Anti-Rent War (1839 to 1852) was a movement of tenants against the state’s most powerful landholding families, including the Van Rennselaers, to end the lease-holding system.

The poems, culled from Anti-Rent newspapers, offer insights into the emotional and imaginative foundation of the Anti-Rent movement. Professor Hecht edited the collection and wrote the historical/critical introduction.

Freemen Awake! is available at the Delaware County Historical Association at 46549 State Highway 10, Delhi, New York 13753. Contact (607) 746-3849 or dcha@delhi.net for details.

Note: Books noticed on The New York History Blog have been provided by their publishers.