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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1906 edition. Excerpt: ... Ubi8 Un&etttUre made the twenty-eighth DAY of June in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and two BETWEEN Lucus Elmendorf of Kingston, in the County of Ulster and State of New York, of the first part, and Daniel Wallace the Second of Blenheim, in the County of Schoharie of the second part, WITNESSETH * * * * ALL that certain FARM piece or parcel of land containing ninety-five acres and an half TO HAVE AND TO HOLD forever, saving and reserving all Mill seats with two Acres of Land adjoining the same and exclusive rights of erecting mills and mill dams thereon, and also all mines, minerals, and ores * * * * * * the yearly rent forever of fifteen bushels and an half of good sweet Merchantable Winter Wheat on the first day of January yearly to be delivered in the town of Kingston aforesaid or at some other place equally near the said premises above granted as shall be annually appointed by the party of the first part his heirs or assigns in and upon the first day of July of each year. * * * * * If it shall so happen, that the rent above reserved, or any part thereof, shall be behind or unpaid by and for the space of sixty days, then in every such case it shall and may bs lawful to and for the said party of the first part, his heirs and assigns or any of them, at the option of the said party of the first part, either to prosecute for the recovery of the same in some court of record, or in person, or by his or their servant or servants, bailiff or bailiffs, into the whole or any part of the premises to enter, and there to distrain, and the distress so taken to lead, drive or carry away, and the same to expose to sale at public vendue, and out of the monies therefrom arising, to deduct the rent then due and in arrear, toget

Excerpt from The Anti-Rent War on Blenheim Hill: An Episode of the 40's; A History of the Struggle Between Landlord and Tenant Growing Out of the Patroon System in the Eastern Part of New York The same conditions prevailed in France before the Revolution. The nobil ity with its families, pensioners of the king, ornaments of the court, liv ing in riotous luxury, held one-fifth of the lands of France and paid scarcely any taxes, while the bulk of the population, some persons, lived by hard labor and lived in want. Whenever the peasant's property changed hands, the lord stepped in to claim his fine. On the roads and at the bridges the lord claimed his tolls. At the markets and fairs the lord claimed his dues and sold to the peasant the right to sell to others the produce of his farm. The peasant must grind his wheat at the lord's mill and crush the grapes in the lord's wine press. The lord alone could fish in the stream which flowed through the peas ant's farm, or shoot the game which ruined the peasant's crops. The lord alone could hunt over the peasant's land and deer and big game, preserved for the sport of princes, wandered unchecked, devouring the fields and vineyards of the poor people, and woe be to the peasant who dared to interfere with their free dom. For six months in the year the farmers were compelled to watch allnight in order to save their vines and harvests from destruction. When the lord was done with the peasant, the Church stepped in to take its tithe for spiritual purposes, a reminder of how much he owed for the guardianship of his soul. Such conditions brought on the great conflict which destroyed in part the ah cient society of Europe and replaced it by a more simple system, based as far as possible on equality of rights. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

The Anti-Rent movement impelled the state's governors, legislators, and judges to abolish an archaic form of land tenure at the root of the violent rent strike. Blending legal and political history, this book chronicles the largest tenant rebellion in US history. Instead of treating law and politics as dependent variables, this work highlights the ways in which law and politics shaped both the pattern of Anti- Rent violence and the drive for land reform. It explores the changing structure of legal doctrine that constrained political actors, and the effects of legal and political discourse on the strategies of the activists and their landlord antagonists. McCurdy teaches history and law at the University of Virginia. Annotation copyrighted by Book News Inc., Portland, OR

Taking our understanding of political antislavery into largely unexplored terrain, Jonathan H. Earle counters conventional wisdom and standard historical interpretations that view the ascendance of free-soil ideas within the antislavery movement as an explicit retreat from the goals of emancipation or even as an essentially proslavery ideology. These claims, he notes, fail to explain free soil's real contributions to the antislavery cause: its incorporation of Jacksonian ideas about property and political equality and its transformation of a struggling crusade into a mass political movement. Democratic free soilers' views on race occupied a wide spectrum, but they were able to fashion new and vital arguments against slavery and its expansion based on the party's long-standing commitment to egalitarianism and hostility to centralized power. Linking their antislavery stance to a land-reform agenda that pressed for free land for poor settlers in addition to land free of slavery, Free Soil Democrats forced major political realignments in New York, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Ohio. Democratic politicians such as David Wilmot, Marcus Morton, John Parker Hale, and even former president Martin Van Buren were transformed into antislavery leaders. As Earle shows, these political changes at the local, state, and national levels greatly intensified the looming sectional crisis and paved the way for the Civil War.

With an expert blend of political, social, and economic history, Harvest of Dissent investigates the character of agrarian movements in nineteenth century New York to reexamine the nature of Northern farmers embrace of or resistance to the emergence of capitalist market agriculture. Taking the long view, Harvest of Dissent brings together the events of nearly a century of agrarian radicalism in central New York, giving Summerhill the ability to understand everything from the Anti-Rent movement to the Grange movement as part of a whole.Based on exceptionally thorough primary research, Summerhill convincingly demonstrates how protracted and contingent the process of drawing farmers into capitalist markets actually was, and the ways farmers selectively and creatively resisted it. Rather than characterizing farmer political insurgencies as episodic responses to discrete crises (as they are often portrayed), Harvest of Dissent argues that agrarianism played a constant role in the major political, economic, and social transformations that marked the emergence of modern America.Thomas Summerhill is an assistant professor of history at Michigan State University. He coedited Transatlantic Rebels: Agrarian Radicalism in Comparative Context.