Between the mid-1750s and the early 1800s, a series of land riots erupted in the northern colonies and states from New York to New Hampshire and Maine. Frontier settlers, tenant farmers, and proprietary landlords disputed land claims, which led to these uprisings. Lands in frontier Maine, the Hudson Valley of New York, and the disputed area between New York and New Hampshire (which eventually became Vermont), all saw organized efforts by settlers and tenants to challenge land claims and protect their property.
The way in which the land was owned in the Hudson Valley made that system unique as compared to other regions in the colonies. Manors and patents divided the land in such a way as to resemble a medieval tenant system that did not allow for eventual ownership by the occupants. Moreover, by the 1750s, serious questions arose as to whether many of these tracts of land had been obtained legally or through fraud. Indian claims to the same land, as well as the disputed boundary between New England and New York, also tended to add confusion and tension to the situation in the region. The reluctance of some of the more prominent families, such as the Livingstons and Van Rensselaers, to either sell their lands to the tenants or at least modify some of the harsh terms of the leases, caused two major uprisings by tenant farmers, one in 1755 and the other in 1766. Both of these disturbances were caused by the sudden eviction of tenants by the landlords. In each case, rioters would attack the property of the landlord, destroying crops, tearing down buildings or, in some cases, displacing new tenants and replacing them with the original occupants. Landlords acted swiftly to put down these riots, usually calling out the militia or local law enforcement. In the case of the 1766 riots, British troops were utilized. The tenant riots in the Hudson Valley were put down as quickly as they started, and the end result solidified the standing of the landlords.
Both New York and New Hampshire claimed the territory that would eventually become Vermont until 1764, when the Crown ruled in favor of New York claims. Before the ruling, however, both colonies had granted some of the same lands to settlers. The unrest that shook the region after 1764 stemmed from New Hampshire grantees who feared that submitting to New York authority would cost them their land, or at the least they would pay more in rents and taxes. Many of the insurgents came from the Green Mountains in Vermont; hence, they became known as the Green Mountain Boys, and their most famous leader was Ethan Affen. This movement was much more organized than the Hudson Valley riots. In 1772 and 1773 New Hampshire grantees formed committees, organized militia units, held courts and tried and punished what they considered to be enemies of the movement. Sometimes, authorities who sought to enforce New York laws found themselves jailed and even lashed by the Green Mountain Boys. Most of the violence, however, focused on property rather than persons, in the form of crops and buildings being destroyed. By 1775-76, New York was in the throes of the revolutionary movement, and the Green Mountain Boys managed to establish the independent state of Vermont.
In Maine, the process of settlement was similar to that of New York and Vermont. Before, during, and immediately after the Revofutionary War (1775-83), Maine saw a huge influx of settlers from southern New England who were looking for land to farm. These settlers improved the land, built towns, and developed an evangelical style of worship that ran counter to the established Congregational church. Resistance began in the 1760s, died down during the war, and then sprang up again in the 1780s and 1790s when proprietors tried to reestablish their land claims and instill a social and religious order that fit with their idea of democratic society. The insurgents in Maine called themselves Liberty Men, after the Sons of Liberty from the RESISTANCE MOVEMENT (1764-75) to British imperial regulation. The proprietors called them White Indians, since many of the rioters wore fake Indian costumes during their attacks on proprietor’s property and agents. Resistance on the Maine frontier did not have one single climactic event or moment. Rather, the threat of resistance would simmer when a proprietor pressed his claims or try to have boundaries surveyed and redefined. When this occurred, settlers turned their attention to committee meetings, petitions, militia patrols, and physical threats to land agents or potential traitors within the Liberty Men. This pattern of resistance in Maine lasted well into the 1810s, finally subsiding around 1820.
In all of the land riots that occurred in the period from the 1750s to the 1810s, certain characteristics marked these events. In most cases, the violence was against property or agents of the great proprietors rather than against the proprietor himself. Also, the resistance often took the form of extralegal meetings and alternative government organization (although the tenant riots in the Hudson Valley were an exception), which typically mirrored the revolutionary direct action organizations. Lastly, the land riots represented a continuation of the struggle to clarify the meaning of the American Revolution regarding property, central power of government, and the legitimacy of extra-legal crowd action that lasted well into the early republic.
Further reading: Edward Countryman, “‘Out of the Bounds of the Law:’ Northern Land Rioters in the Eighteenth Century,” in The American Revolution: Explorations in the History of American Radicalism, ed. Alfred Young (DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 1974); Thomas Humphrey, Land and Liberty: Hudson Valley Riots in the Age of Revolution (DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 2004); Alan Taylor, Liberty Men and Great Proprietors: The Revolutionary Settlement on the Maine Frontier, 1760-1820 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1990).
—Jeffrey A. Davis
Laurens, Henry (1724-1792) businessperson, statesman, signer of the Articles of Confederation Merchant, planter, and statesman, Henry Laurens was born in Charleston, South Carolina in 1724. His education was not classical but met the requirements of a colonial-merchant society. By the 1760s he had emerged as a leading merchant in Charleston. His firm primarily managed the ventures of investors and exporters of rice, indigo, slaves and indentured servants. Laurens grew increasingly uncomfortable with the SLAVE TRADE, and by 1763 he ended his direct involvement with it. In 1776, corresponding with a son who served as an aide to George Washington, Laurens wrote, “I abhor SLAVERY.” Such comments would be resurrected by abolitionists later, even though Laurens did not free his own slaves. In the 1790s, well after the inspired letter to his son, Laurens continued to hold around 300 slaves.
Laurens turned away from the merchant life to focus on planting. He eventually controlled three plantations in South Carolina and two in Georgia, as well as significant land holdings in the South Carolina backcountry. Laurens’s involvement in public affairs increased as well. He served in a variety of local and church offices, including the colonial assembly.
The RESISTANCE movement (1764-75), which Laurens generally supported, affected him personally. During the Stamp Act (1765) crisis, his home was invaded by radicals searching for stamped paper. During the uproar over the TowNSHEND Duties (1767), however, British customs officers seized two of Laurens’s ships. Laurens wrote pamphlets criticizing the royal officials, including A Representation of Facts (1767). In 1775 Laurens was elected to the first provincial congress of South Carolina and later was chosen as the president of the Council of Safety. In June 1777 he became a delegate to the Second Continental Congress and in November succeeded John Hancock as president of the Congress. Laurens held that office for over a year, but his relationship with Congress grew strained at times. Laurens frequently allowed himself to be drawn into factional disputes. He eventually resigned the presidency because of a growing lack of support and confidence.
Laurens was appointed envoy to the Netherlands to negotiate a commerce treaty in 1780. He was captured en route, however, by the British navy off the coast of Newfoundland. As the British boarded the Mercury, Laurens attempted to scuttle his papers. They were retrieved and used against him in charges of treason. Laurens was held prisoner in the Tower of London from October 1780 to December 1781. He was eventually released in a prisoner exchange for CHARLES, Lord Cornwallis, who had surrendered at Yorktown (October, 19, 1781).
The imprisonment took its toll on Laurens’s health, and he began to withdraw from public life. Notable exceptions included his contribution to the Treaty of Paris (1783), working alongside John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and John Jay in 1782. Laurens was appointed to the Constitutional Convention, but chose not to serve. He spent the final years of his life attending to his estates and repairing the damage caused by the war. His will directed that his body be cremated, an unusual practice at that time. He died on December 8, 1792.
Further reading: Daniel J. McDonough, Chrisitopher Gadsden and Henry Laurens: The Parallel Lives of Two American Patriots (Selinsgrove, Pa.: Susquehanna University Press, 2000); David Duncan Wallace, The Life of Henry Laurens (New York: Knickerbocker Press, 1915).
—Jay R. Dew
World History
