Tin Horns and Calico


Read by Maria Kasper

In the early 19th century, in the Hudson Valley of New York State, hundreds of square miles of land were still the feudal domains of large landowners known as patroons. Such families as the Van Rensselaers, Livingstons, and Schuylers owned the farms and towns in which hundreds of thousands of ordinary people lived and worked. Even the capitol city of New York State, Albany, was encompassed in the private fiefdom of a patroon. On July 4, 1839, in the mountain town of Berne, New York, a mass meeting of tenant farmers issued a declaration of independence, promising: "We will take up the ball of the Revolution where our fathers stopped it and roll it to the final consummation of freedom and independence of the masses." The Anti-Rent War consumed the Catskill Mountain region through the 1840's, leading in the end to the downfall of the patroon system and the democratization of land ownership in New York State. - Summary by Maria Kasper (14 hr 30 min)

Chapters

Acknowledgements and Introduction 14:54 Read by Maria Kasper
A Landed Aristocracy 37:11 Read by Maria Kasper
Call to Rebellion 32:02 Read by Maria Kasper
Seward Takes the Helderbergs 47:09 Read by Maria Kasper
They Could Not Stand Idle 33:56 Read by Maria Kasper
Justice For Sale 15:28 Read by Maria Kasper
Storms and Tempests 19:37 Read by Maria Kasper
Big Thunder 48:32 Read by Maria Kasper
Political Infiltration 16:02 Read by Maria Kasper
A Price on His Head 36:20 Read by Maria Kasper
Law and Order 37:22 Read by Maria Kasper
King Silas 14:54 Read by Maria Kasper
The Bastard War 40:08 Read by Maria Kasper
In the Good Cause 42:39 Read by Maria Kasper
''For the Land is Mine'' 23:32 Read by Maria Kasper
Lead Penetrates Steele 55:49 Read by Maria Kasper
''Brimful of Wrath and Cabbage'' 15:52 Read by Maria Kasper
Packed Court 41:40 Read by Maria Kasper
Delhi Justice 54:10 Read by Maria Kasper
''November Ides'' 49:18 Read by Maria Kasper
The Goose is Plucked 45:54 Read by Maria Kasper
''The Prisoners! They Come!'' 26:14 Read by Maria Kasper
The End of Manor Aristocracy 41:24 Read by Maria Kasper
Deep in the Land 39:02 Read by Maria Kasper
Songs and Ballads 41:30 Read by Maria Kasper