American Historical Ephemera and Photography

[ANTI-RENT WAR]. Letter describing activities of the "Calico Indians" and incidents of the "Anti-Rent War" in upstate New York, incl. reference to tar and feathering. Roxbury, [New York], 29 March 1845.

ALLABEN, Ezra W. (ca 1822-1853). Autograph letter signed ("E.W. Allaben"). Roxbury, [New York], 29 March 1845. 4pp with integral address leaf, approx. 8 x 9 1/2 in. (creasing at folds, toning, approx. 3 1/2 in. tear along center vertical fold). Addressed to his mother Mrs. Salina Allaben.

Allaben writes at length to his mother about the ongoing "Anti-Rent War" in upstate New York, with a detailed description of recent events: "I should have written immediately on arriving here but I wished to see the termination of our Anti-rent trouble first which thank heaven I think now are closed.... After deputy Sheriff Steel had taken Erastus Squires the indians of this town in particular were determined to be revenged or to take vengeance on him. They went so far as to say that if he ever came in this town again he would not go out alive...." The letter then provides a detailed account of the conflict that ensued between Steel, who was accompanied at the time by Charles Parker a Constable of Delhi [NY], and a group of disguised men as Steel went to "serve some civil processes." The disguised Anti-Renters surrounded Steel and ordered him to a blacksmith shop where they intended to confine him. Steel instead rode to a nearby hotel, blockaded himself him, and kept the anti-renters at bay, until ultimately "on promise of protection from the chief came forth." Later, Steel came to town accompanied by 80 men and took "Gera Preston who indicted last fall for taring and fethering Hiram More. The indians threatened to rescue him," and Allaben then describes the ensuing developments of that encounter. Allaben closes the letter listing the names of men arrested by Officer Steel and "his posse," and reporting that many of those involved in the Anti-rent activities had fled to the woods to avoid the posse: "All is consternation among them and I believe that every every man engaged in it would give the whole that he is worth if he were only out of it. They all or nearly so signify their willingness to pay their rent and acknowledge that they were wrong...."

The Anti-Rent War was a tenants' revolt in upstate New York between 1839 and 1845, and Roxbury, New York, was one of the centers of the conflict. Landowners, called "patroons," received large colonial land grants before the American Revolution and, echoing a feudal type system, charged for the use of this land. Though the peasant farmers and their families who actually worked the land had done so for generations, they were never able to become land owners. Abuses and inequities of the system led to objections from "Anti-Renters" to collecting the rent for this land led, and further led to the persecution of the rent collectors and armed resistance. "Anti-Renters," often with painted faces and in disguise as Native Americans, resisted eviction, tax collection, and law enforcement, sometimes tarring and feathering their enemies. The efforts and demands for land reform made by the Anti-Renters, sometimes referred to as "Calico Indians," were ultimately successful, resulting in the passage of laws that made feudal tenures illegal and outlawed leases greater than 12 years.

Ezra W. Allaben was born in Catskill, Greene County, New York. It is unclear in what capacity he was in Roxbury and witness to the Anti-Rent War activity. The 1850 U.S. Federal Census indicates that Ezra W. Allaben was a physician living in Red Hook, Dutchess County, New York. He died just a few years later.

Material related to the Anti-Rent War is extremely scarce at auction. A wonderfully vivid letter about a fascinating episode in American history.