New York Almanack

History, Natural History & the Arts

Anti-Rent War

Early Settlement Above The Helderberg Escarpment

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Detail of John Bleeker made a map of the van Rensselaer's patroonship, Rensselaerswijck, 1767, showing unidentified farms above the Helderberg escarpmentFrom 1630 until the Anti-Rent Movement of the 1840s, most of what is now Albany and Rensselaer Counties, along with parts of Columbia and Greene Counties, was part of the estate of the van Rensselaer family. They leased the land, but did not generally sell it.

Running north-south through Albany County is the Helderberg Escarpment, a vertical limestone cliff hundreds of feet high (Thatcher Park forms a part of this geologic feature) that separates the Hudson Valley lands in the eastern part of the county from the lands to the west, above the cliffs. Because the land above was difficult to reach, and the soils poorer, that area was settled somewhat later by Europeans. [Read more…] about Early Settlement Above The Helderberg Escarpment

Albany’s Ira Harris: From Rights Advocate to Lincoln’s Assassination

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Ira HarrisIra Harris was born at Charleston, Montgomery County, NY on May 31st, 1802 to Fredrick Waterman Harris and Lucy Hamilton. When he was six years old, his family moved to Preble, NY where his father became one of the largest landowners in Cortland County.

Harris attended Homer Academy and graduated from Union College in 1824. He studied law for one year in Homer, New York and then moved to Albany where he assisted one of that city’s most highly regarded jurists, Ambrose Spencer. [Read more…] about Albany’s Ira Harris: From Rights Advocate to Lincoln’s Assassination

Murder Trials Of Note In 19th Century Saratoga County

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Saratoga County NY Map 1856The following record of nineteenth century murder trials in Saratoga County was provided by a Mechanicville correspondent to the Troy Daily Times in 1891:

There have been many noted murder trials in Saratoga county since the first court was held in the town of Stillwater May 10, 1791 – 100 years ago. The court now in session at Ballston Spa meets about five miles from where the first court was held, at the residence of Samuel Clark, near East Line, Judge John Thompson of Stillwater [then] presiding, he having received the appointment as the first judge of Saratoga county from Governor Clinton. [Read more…] about Murder Trials Of Note In 19th Century Saratoga County

Which NYS Battle Was Most Significant For The State?

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Herkimer at the Battle of OriskanyOver at the New York History Blog Facebook Page we recently asked the following question:

Which battle in New York State’s history had the most significant impact on the state?

The answers were surprisingly varied and included answers from the 1643-45 Kieft’s War (the war between New Netherland settlers and the Native inhabitants of Hudson River Valley also known as the Wappinger War) to the Anti-Rent War of 1839–1845.

We’ve reviewed the suggestions, and came up with a short list of five battles* which stand out as the most important to us (with short descriptions from Wikipedia) – what do you think? [Read more…] about Which NYS Battle Was Most Significant For The State?

Freemen Awake! Anti-Rent Movement Songs and Poems

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Freemen Awake Rally Songs Poems from NY Anti-Rent MovementSUNY 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. [Read more…] about Freemen Awake! Anti-Rent Movement Songs and Poems

1763-1848: The Age of Revolutions

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ben_franklins_worldBetween 1763 and 1848, an age of revolutions took place in North America, South America, the Caribbean, Africa, and Europe. But why is it that we only seem to remember the American Revolution, the French Revolution, and the Haitian Revolution?

Given that the American Revolution took place before all of these other revolutions, what was its role in influencing this larger “Age of Revolutions?” Did it influence this larger period?

Ben Franklin’s World: A Podcast About Early American History’s exploration of what the American Revolution looked like within the larger period known as the “Age of Revolutions” continues as Janet Polasky, a professor of history at the University of New Hampshire and the author of Revolutions Without Borders: The Call of Liberty in the Atlantic World (Yale University Press, 2015), guides us through the period to explore answers to these questions. [Read more…] about 1763-1848: The Age of Revolutions

Columbia County: A Lecture On Copake History

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Pelholm barn with Ezra PellsLocal historian and author Howard Blue will present talk on the history of Copake, Columbia County, at the Roe Jan Historical Society in Copake Falls on Sunday, May 18 at 2:00 pm. Blue’s program is based in part on interviews of local residents from whose family albums he was allowed to copy old photos.

The presentation will focus primarily on the town’s and county’s first settlers, the Mohican Indians, and the 90-year-long, sometimes violent conflict between the Livingston family which at one time owned almost all of Copake and the family’s tenant farmers. Blue will also discuss Martin Van Buren’s role in Copake’s anti-rent movement, Copake in the Revolutionary war years, the existence of slavery in Copake, and Copake’s Civil War era bond issue that helped buy out from the draft some of Copake’s young men. [Read more…] about Columbia County: A Lecture On Copake History

New York’s Anti-Mask Law Has Roots In The Anti-Rent War

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murray249Halloween has swung the spotlight of history back on New York’s anti-mask law.

It was one of the first tools used by New York City police to break up the Occupy Wall Street in 2011. Within days of donning Guy Fawkes masks, demonstrators were charged by police for violating the anti-mask law, section 240.35(4) of the New York Penal Law. Its origins go back to a statute passed in 1845 to suppress armed uprisings by tenant farmers in the Hudson Valley who were using disguises to attack law enforcement officers. [Read more…] about New York’s Anti-Mask Law Has Roots In The Anti-Rent War