Antirenters were a group of tenant farmers in New York who fought against paying rents to the landlords. They were active from 1839 to 1847. Most landlords inherited their property from ancestors of the 1600’s and 1700’s. They lost feudal privileges in the American Revolution but still owned about 1,800,000 acres (730,000 hectares) of land. Almost one-fourth of this land belonged to Kiliaen Van Rensselaer, a Dutch merchant.
Tenant families had lived on the land for generations. They felt it rightfully belonged to them. Sometimes they went for years without paying rent. In 1839, the Van Rensselaer heirs tried to collect $400,000 in back rents. The angry farmers of Columbia and Delaware counties refused to pay the landlords and resisted attempts to take away their farms. They formed antirent societies. The Antirenters became so strong that they could easily defeat any political party that opposed them. In 1846, the Antirenters got the New York Constitution amended in their favor. After 1846, tenants began buying out landlords’ interests in their farms. By the 1850’s, the era of tenant-farmed estates in New York was over.
