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The History Channel, original podcast.

History this week. We pick up from our last episode with the Anti-Rent Wars, part two. It's a couple of days after the 4th of July, 1845. And Dr. Smith Boughton, aka Big Thunder, has been through about six months of legal purgatory. And he is still sitting in jail. He's been helping to lead the anti-rent rebellion. But now he's incarcerated in Hudson, New York, a major port up the river that shares its name. And Boughton's arrest back in December of 1844, it really shook things up.

Hudson, which was a huge city at the time, was just in an uproar.

That's David Fleming, a town supervisor in upstate New York.

There were these threats and rumors of bands of anti-renters storming the city to bust out Smith Bowden from prison. They were going to burn the city down.

And the governor of New York sent in the troops.

That's got to be a little disconcerting to suddenly you see troops marching through your city.

The anti-rent movement is coming to a head. As the legal case proceeds and violence breaks out, and anti-renters lobby the governor, Smith-Boughton's fate hangs in the balance. Today, the fate of Big Thunder and the movement he helped lead. What happened when the anti-renters brought their fight to the ballot box? And how did their cause end up reflecting and even shaping the politics of the nation? After Big Thunder's arrest in 1844, Another lawman begins to emerge as the latest enemy of the upstate tenant farmer. He will ultimately be a major part of the movement's end. Undersheriff Osmond Steele serves in Delhi, New York, 74 miles west of the Hudson. He has red hair, heavy-lidded eyes, and a reputation as a bully.

He deliberately wanted to humiliate the farmers and their families.

That's Victoria Kupchanecki, director of the film Calico Rebellion.

He would go into personal houses, through personal things, and sometimes even go through the dressers and the women's underwear. And that was outrageous.

Osmond Steele has made himself an arm of the landlords in New York State. The patroons, the wealthy estate owners. And even as Big Thunder sits in jail, the anti-renters are continuing to agitate. One known center of activity is the town of Andes. And that is where Osmond Steele goes, on the brisk winter morning of March 10, 1845. He and a constable ride into town and terrorize some of the people there. Rifle through their possessions, toss them out of their homes into the cold. But on the way back, the lawmen are intercepted by the Calico Indians, the masked anti-rent rebels linked to Big Thunder. Steele and his deputy break away. And lucky for them, not everyone in this town is on the side of the Calicos. Local tavern owners Ephraim and Sarah Hunting are pro-landlord, and they agree to shelter the two lawmen in their tavern. Soon enough, the Calico Indians arrive outside.

If they captured him, they would probably tavern feather him.

That's Misha Gutkin, another producer of the Calico Rebellion documentary. The Calico Indians break into the tavern, but the owner is there waiting.

Sarah Hunting stood at the top of the stairs with a knife and said, over my dead body, you're going to get to him.

So, the Calicos wait outside.

The Calico Indians, the rebels surrounded the tavern and started lighting bonfires. It was a menacing scene.

Osmond Steele, trapped in the tavern, manages to get a message out to his allies in nearby Delhi. Send help. A small army of law enforcement sets up.

out. And when the Calico's get wind of the reinforcements, they scatter. All they really have to do is take off their masks and costumes and get back to farming. They went about their

business because it was time to milk their cows. By the time the lawmen arrive, they can't tell

which of these cow milkers is secretly a rebel. The Calico's are safe this time, but Osmond Steele will not forget. This pattern of lawmen going after tenants and calicos going after them, it never really quiets down. But it's not the only form of resistance.

We can say that the Calico Indians were just like the weaponized arm of this movement. The

movement was much broader. There is a civilian side to the anti-rent war, A political effort playing out, too. Here's Reeve Houston, professor at Duke University.

They get their guys elected to the legislature as anti-rent candidates. Or they win over a leader who's already in office, and you can get concessions.

Every single town in Rensselaer-Wick sends anti-renters to higher office. They're consolidating their power. But meanwhile, their leader sits in jail. Dr. Smith-Boughton stands accused of robbery for snatching some legal papers from a sheriff, and also conspiracy to obstruct justice. And he's being personally prosecuted by the New York State Attorney General, who happens to be former President Martin Van Buren's son, John Van Buren. And David Fleming told us the deck is pretty stacked against Dr. Smith-Boughton.

A legal system that was just completely adulterated to the benefit of one particular class, the landed gentry and not the average citizens of the state.

But Boughton's got a good lawyer too, Ambrose Jordan. He's nicknamed Aquafortis, which is a caustic acid. They call him that because of his biting cross-examinations. And old Aquafortis is basically arguing, we cannot be sure that this nice doctor is Big Thunder. After all, Big Thunder always wore that leather mask decorated with war paint. Who knows who was behind that mask? And the trial sort of goes his way. The jury can't agree on a verdict. So it's a mistrial. Boughton is off the hook for now. Although the judge, probably illegally, keeps him in jail. July 4th, 1845. The anti-rent movement celebrations are loud. In Albany County, they begin with a three-cannon salute, then a reading of the Declaration of Independence. The public is outraged at the result of Boughton's trial. And New York Governor Silas Wright takes notice.

Governor Wright ultimately realized that his re-election could be in the balance as public sentiment started to turn.

The governor has been keeping Boughton in jail, likely because of the influence of the landlords and patroons.

He was trapped because he was dealing with a class of folks in the political world who he owed his entire governorship to and really had been doing their bidding for a long time. And, you know, sometimes when you walk with the devil to get to the other side of the bridge, you realize that you maybe shouldn't have crossed the bridge in the first place.

These anti-renters seem like they might have more power than he thought. And shortly after Independence Day, the governor sets Big Thunder free.

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you get your podcasts. Big Thunder, Dr. Smith Boughton, returns home to his wife and young son. He's out on bail. He'll have to go back into custody for his trial. And by that point, things will have changed because of an incident.

involving that undersheriff, Osmond Steele.

The main distinguishing feature of Osmond Steele, as far as the anti-Renters were concerned, was he wasn't afraid of them.

They're not used to that. Their scary masks, the scary music they play, it's enough to rattle most of the patroon agents they encounter, even if their bark is bigger than their bite. Again, Reeve Houston.

They put on a big show that we're going to do violence to you and very carefully avoided violence. Until Steele showed up.

On August 7th, 1845, Osmond Steele again rides into Andes, New York. This time, he's there to preside over a distressed sale on the farm of Moses Earl. Earl owes rent, and Steele is going to sell his cattle to cover the debt. He and his deputy stop by the hunting tavern. The owners, remember, are sympathetic to the lawmen and the landlords.

So they stopped by the hunting tavern, and Ephraim Hunting served them some drinks and some lunch. And he said very quietly to under Sheriff Steele, You know, Steele, there is this whole bunch of Indians gathering on the hills. And they've been gathering there since yesterday.

Notice of the sales date and location had been posted in advance. So the Calico Indians were ready.

And there are wagon loads of rifles going up the hill to Moses Earl's farm. I don't know if it's a good idea for you to go there. And Sheriff Steel takes a bullet and puts it into his brandy and says, Lead cannot penetrate steel.

Nice line.

So he ignored the friendly warning, and he went up to Dingle Hill, to Moses Earl Farm. Misha Gutkin still proceeded to move the cattle out in the field where the auction was supposed to take place.

And then the Calico Indians make their move.

They started coming down the hill from the forest, all wearing costumes.

It was probably a scary sight. The Indians started shooting their guns at the feet of Steele and his men to scare them. But remember, lead doesn't penetrate Steele. And when that didn't work, it becomes a much more dramatic kind of confrontation.

According to one source, it was Steele's deputy who fired first with the intent to kill. But regardless, bullets are soon flying. One hits Steele's horse, and as it goes down, another hits Steele himself.

They say that he took three bullets, and at that point, most of the Calico Indians disappeared. But not all of them. Some of them actually helped the sheriff. They brought him into Moses Earl's house and put him on the bed, and they called for the doctor.

Osmund Steele lies bleeding in the house of the man whose cattle he'd planned to take.

He said to Moses Earl, see, none of this would have happened if you just paid your rent.

Five hours later, lying in Moses Earl's bed, Osmund Steele dies. Things are different now. Governor Silas Wright has a new kind of political ammunition. one he wants to use to end this war once and for all.

The governor declared a state of insurrection. Militia was sent, and they started arresting farmers. They went house to house and searched for the costumes.

The state militia focuses on Delaware County, on the west side of the Catskill Mountains.

The authorities arrested several hundred suspected participants of this killing, And they were all brought to Delhi and put into jail there.

When you do mass arrests like this, it's really hard to come up with evidence. And often arrests are made out of anger or for political reasons. And the evidence doesn't back it up.

So it was a mess. But even if the evidence was weak, the Calico Indians are effectively finished.

The Indians just disband. They just stop meeting. And not just in Delaware County, in every county.

There are so many prisoners held in the jail at Delhi, they have to build additional stockades. And meanwhile, back near Hudson, Big Thunder's time as a free man is up. He goes back into custody and back on trial. Living in a big city, grocery shopping... shopping can turn into a whole production. You realize halfway through that you've bought way more than you can actually carry home, and suddenly you're hauling heavy bags down the street, onto the subway, or up apartment stairs, wondering why you thought this was a good idea. That's one of the reasons I use Instacart all the time. I can open the app, order from stores I already know and like, choose the exact brands and groceries I want, and get delivery through Instacart in as fast as 30 minutes. And I really appreciate the quality side of it too. You can set preferences for produce, for placements, all those little details that actually matter when someone's selecting your groceries. Especially in the summer, it just gives you time back. Instead of losing half a Saturday running errands, I can focus on work, seeing friends, getting outside, whatever I actually want to be doing. And from a historical perspective, that's kind of crazy. For most of human history, getting food and household essentials consumed a huge part of everyday life. Entire routines revolved around carrying, transporting, preserving, or preparing just basic necessities. Anything that makes modern life a little easier, especially in a city, I'm grateful for. Instacart brings convenience, quality, and ease right to your door, so you can focus on what matters most. Download the Instacart app now and get groceries just how you like.

Governor Silas Wright personally appoints the judge in Dr. Smith-Boughton's trial, Judge John Edmonds. And it's pretty clear where he stands.

He's quoted in the papers, basically saying, the guy's totally guilty, but we're going to run through this whole process just to make everybody feel better.

That process is pretty far from neutral. Judge Edmonds doesn't let anyone from the anti-rent districts on the jury. He even has a spy on Dr. Boughton's legal team reporting back to him about their strategy. And the trial itself is pretty tense. John Van Buren is back to prosecute. Ambrose Aquafortis Jordan is back as Boughton's defense attorney. At one point, Aquafortis makes a snide comment about Van Buren's dad, former President Van Buren. And then Van Buren snaps back and ends up literally taking a swing at Aquafortis. Dr. Boughton has to duck out of the way.

You have the Attorney General of the state of New York in fisticuffs with the defense counsel. The judge sends them to jail. They just have to spend 24 hours in solitary confinement.

But when all is said and done, Smith-Boughton, big thunder, is convicted of robbery. Judge Edmonds, in his closing remarks, says that this robbery is akin to high treason and sentences Boughton to life in prison.

This is a guy who's arrested for theft, and I think it's a life sentence.

The hundreds of trials for the people rounded up in the wake of Undersheriff Steele's death, they proceed in a similar way. The judge tells jurors that anyone who was armed and disguised can be convicted of murder, even if they never fired a shot. In the end, two farmers are sentenced to death, and two others are sentenced to life in prison. Moses Earle, whose house Steele died in, and Daniel Squires, who wasn't even there. Hundreds more get lengthy sentences. The Calico Indians are effectively snuffed out. But the political part of the movement, that continues.

These people realized that there was just as much power at the ballot box if they could actually get together and agree.

They've created a new political party, the Anti-Rent Party, and on the horizon in 1846 is a constitutional convention for New York State. The Anti-Renters ally themselves with other, more powerful parties, like the Whigs, to edit the laws that had kept patrounism in place for generations.

Their political movement really laid the groundwork for revising land ownership and rights in the state and certainly killing the feudal system that existed in New York.

They also helped make it so that going forward, judges and other state officials will be elected rather than appointed by the governor. For the patroons and landlords, all this means that the writing is on the wall. All of a sudden, the landlords become much more willing to sell land to their tenants. In the election of 1846, Governor Wright is on the ballot, and he sees that the anti-renters might really be able to beat him.

I think the governor was incredibly concerned that he had overplayed his hand.

He sends a message to Mary Boughton, Smith Boughton's wife, with an offer to pardon her husband if Mary could get him to support the governor's re-election bid. She refuses. And the governor's challenger sees an opportunity.

John Young, who was the Whig that was going to run against Wright, made promises on the campaign trail that he was going to win.

He was going to pardon Dr. Bowden, and that he was going to pardon these anti-rent leaders and get them out of jail.

The anti-renters had serious influence. They were the swing votes that got Jong Young elected governor.

After actually taking office in January of 1847, Young tries to go back on his word. But the anti-rent party sends a petition to his office with 11,000 signatures. And he changes his mind. He quickly orders the release of all the farmers imprisoned at Dalhai and of Dr. Smith Boughton. It takes years, but through buyouts, sales, and court cases, the landlords do finally give up their land. In that way, the anti-renters win.

They were able to take down the property interests of the leading political class and some of the richest families ever in America.

And the people who are a part of the anti-rent movement, they go on to join other movements for change. In 1854, several prominent anti-renters are there in Wisconsin at the forming of a new political party, the Republican Party.

They wound up adopting a lot of the ideas of the anti-renters. The most important of these was the idea that somehow human beings had a natural right to the soil, that every human being has a natural right to the soil.

The guys who were in this rebellion in the Catskills, they participated in creating Abraham Lincoln's Republican Party.

The anti-renters were proud of the generation before them that fought tyranny. And when they felt like tyranny still had not been eradicated in their region, they banded together to inch things forward.

Ordinary people who don't have power, if they unite and if they identify who is exploiting them, what groups of people are exploiting them, justice is possible.

I think many immigrants, when they come to this country, they have these idealistic motions about United States. This is a democracy and it's already formed. It's there.

Victoria Kupchanevsky and Misha Gutkin, who made that documentary about the anti-rent war, they both immigrated to the U.S. from the Soviet Union. And they said, working on this project and getting to know the whole local history saga of the rent wars, it really upended that sense for them that American democracy is just there.

It's a constant work in progress. And if we get distracted, it can just evaporate.

It's not a straight story. Democracy, it's not something that's been given to this American people. It's something that people forge. And we have to be vigilant about the forces that would tap it down, because they are always active. That's why we have to be engaged in continuing to construct America's story.

email at historythisweekathistory.com. Special thanks to our guests, Reeve Houston, Emeritus Associate Professor of History at Duke University, and author of the book Democratic Aspiration, Democratic Discontent, The Triumph of Mass Politics in the United States, 1815-1840. Victoria Kupchanecki and Misha Guttkin, director and producer of the film Calico Rebellion. To learn more about the film and where you can see it, visit calicorebellion.com. Their book on the anti-renters will be available from SUNY Press in 2027. And thanks also to David Fleming, the town supervisor of Nassau, New York. We'd also like to thank Nancy Newman, professor at SUNY Albany and author of the book Songs and Sounds of the Anti-Rent Movement in Upstate New York, and the Association of Public Historians of New York State. New York is the only state in the U.S. that appoints a public historian for each county and municipality, and we dug deep into that network for our research. If you're curious about New York history, head to www.aphnys.org to learn more. You can find links to the sources we used to put this episode together at our website, historythisweek.com. This episode was reported and produced by Dan Rosato. It was also produced by Ben Dickstein and by me, Sally Helm. It was sound designed by Dan Rosato. For Back Pocket Studios, our executive producer is Ben Dickstein. From the History Channel, our executive producers are Eli Lehrer and Liv Fiddler. Don't forget to follow, rate, and review History This Week wherever you get your podcasts. And we'll see you next week.

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