The *Other* Declaration of Independence (Part II)

Summary

HISTORY This Week

Episode: The Other Declaration of Independence (Part II)
Date: July 6, 2026
Host: Sally Helm
Featured Experts: Reeve Houston (Duke University), Victoria Kupchanetsky & Misha Gutkin (Calico Rebellion documentary), David Fleming (Town Supervisor, Nassau NY)

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Episode Overview

This episode explores the climax and aftermath of the Anti-Rent Wars, a little-known 19th-century American struggle pitting impoverished tenant farmers against a landlord system reminiscent of feudal Europe. Picking up after the arrest of movement leader Dr. Smith Boughton ("Big Thunder"), the episode excavates the violence, legal maneuvering, and grassroots politics that ultimately dismantled the oppressive patroon system in New York. Through expert interviews and dramatic storytelling, the podcast shows how ordinary people forced systemic change—laying groundwork for future political and social movements, including the birth of the Republican Party.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Arrest of Smith Boughton and Public Uproar

• [03:54-04:45] Following Boughton's arrest in December 1844, Hudson, NY erupts in chaos, with rumors that anti-renters, masked as "Calico Indians," might storm the city and free him. The governor sends troops to restore order.
• Boughton's fate becomes a symbol for both the movement and for social justice.

2. The Emergence of Undersheriff Osmond Steele

• [05:43-06:18] Osmond Steele, known for humiliating and bullying tenant farmers, escalates tensions by forcibly evicting families and searching their homes.

  "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."
  —Victoria Kupchanetsky, [06:06]

3. The Andes Incident and Calico Indian Resistance

• [06:37-08:27] Steele is nearly caught by anti-renters in the town of Andes, but is protected by sympathetic tavern owners. The rebels—masked and menacing—light bonfires, but eventually disperse when reinforcements arrive.

  "The Calico Indians...went about their business because it was time to milk their cows."
  —Victoria Kupchanetsky, [08:18]

4. The Anti-Rent Political Strategy

• [08:51-09:18] The movement isn’t only violent—it's also political. Anti-renters organize and send representatives to the legislature, gaining major concessions through the ballot box.

  "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."
  —Reeve Houston, [09:08]

5. Boughton's Trial and Mistrial

• [09:52-10:36] Despite a stacked legal system (prosecuted by the state attorney general, John Van Buren), Boughton narrowly escapes conviction after a mistrial—but is illegally kept in jail.

  "Old Aquafortis is basically arguing, we cannot be sure that this nice doctor is Big Thunder… Who knows who was behind that mask?"
  —Dan Rosado, [10:02]

6. Public Outrage and Political Calculations

• [11:02-11:39] Mass public protest after Boughton’s trial influences Governor Silas Wright, who—concerned about his re-election prospects—frees Boughton.

  "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."
  —Narrator, [11:20]

7. Escalation: The Death of Osmond Steele

• [15:05-17:45] On August 7, 1845, Steele tries to enforce a rent sale. After ignoring warnings, he's confronted by armed Calico Indians. Violence erupts, Steele is shot, and, dying, tells the farmer:

  "See, none of this would have happened if you just paid your rent."
  —Osmond Steele (reported by Misha Gutkin), [17:50]

• His death prompts the governor to declare a state of insurrection, leading to mass arrests and the effective end of the Calico Indian resistance.

8. Show Trials and Harsh Sentences

• [21:34-23:12] Governor Wright manipulates Boughton's second trial, appointing a biased judge and rigging the jury. Boughton is convicted of robbery and sentenced to life in prison; others receive death or lengthy sentences.

  "You have the Attorney General of the State of New York in fisticuffs with the defense counsel. The judge sends them to jail."
  —Narrator, [22:26]

9. Shift to Political Change

• [23:33-24:53] While the armed movement is destroyed, its political wing thrives. The Anti Rent Party emerges, forming alliances and pushing for reforms at the 1846 constitutional convention—abolishing patroon landholding and making judgeships elected positions.

  "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."
  —Narrator, [24:08]

10. Victory and Lasting Legacy

• [25:07-26:50] The Anti-Renters hold the balance of power in the next election. Promises to pardon their leaders (and widespread political pressure) force Governor Young to release Boughton and hundreds of imprisoned farmers. Over time, landlords sell their estates to tenants—the system is dismantled.
• Many anti-renters go on to help found the Republican Party, carrying their notion of a "natural right to the soil" into national politics.

  "Ordinary people who don’t have the power, if they unite... justice is possible."
  —Victoria Kupchanetsky, [27:04]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• "Sarah Hunting stood at the top of the stairs with a knife and said, over my dead body you’re gonna get to him."
  —Misha Gutkin, [07:36]

• "Lead cannot penetrate steel."
  —Osmond Steele (quoted at the tavern), [16:16]

• "Justice is something 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."
  —Misha Gutkin, [28:04]

• "It's a constant work in progress, and if we get distracted, it can just evaporate."
  —Victoria Kupchanetsky, [27:55]

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 03:54: Setting the stage—Boughton's imprisonment and Hudson in uproar
• 05:43: Introduction of Undersheriff Osmond Steele
• 06:37–08:27: Andes showdown and the power of Calico Indian disguise
• 08:51: Rise of anti-rent politics
• 09:52: Boughton's first trial & legal system bias
• 11:02: Public outrage and governorship at stake
• 14:36: Return of Big Thunder & renewed conflict
• 15:05–17:45: The ambush and death of Osmond Steele—turning point
• 18:17: State of insurrection & mass arrests
• 21:34–23:12: Boughton’s second, rigged trial and harsh suppression
• 23:33–24:53: The anti-renters pivot to the political arena
• 25:07–26:50: Political bargaining, pardons, and ultimate anti-renter victory
• 26:28: Anti-renters seed new national movements, including the Republican Party
• 27:32–28:39: Reflections on democracy as ongoing collective work

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Conclusion

The Anti-Rent Wars, though little-remembered, were a pivotal example of grassroots American democratic struggle. By combining resistance, political organizing, and ultimately working within—then transforming—the system, ordinary tenant farmers toppled a quasi-feudal landlord class. Their struggle lived on, not just in state reform but in the spirit and ideology of later movements for justice and equality—reminding us that democracy is neither inevitable nor finished.

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Transcript

[Sally Helm]

If you listen to history this week, you know that we are always asking, how did we get here? And there is another show that does that just through the lens of the economy. NPR's Planet Money. You might have actually heard my voice over there too. What I love about Planet Money and their sister show, the indicator from Planet Money is that every episode starts with a question and then follows it somewhere really unexpected. Like I was just listening recently to a story about why Pokemon cards are suddenly exploding in value, like outpacing some retirement accounts. And it turns into this surprisingly clear window into speculation, scarcity and human behavior. And that is what the show does so well. From the job market to the stock market to the price of groceries, it takes these big abstract forces and makes them make sense through real stories. They've asked how Russia's economy has held up after years of sanctions, what a 750 pound walk robot means for the future of restaurant work. And they have even launched a satellite to understand the economics of space. It's the kind of show where you learn something, maybe laugh and walk away seeing the world a little differently. Follow NPR's Planet Money podcast and understand how money shapes the world.

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[Narrator/Host]

The History Channel Original Podcast

[Sally Helm]

History this week we pick up from our last

[Dan Rosado]

episode with the Anti rent Wars Part 2.

[Sally Helm]

It's a couple of days after the

[Dan Rosado]

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 robot 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.

[Narrator/Host]

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

[Dan Rosado]

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

[Narrator/Host]

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

[Dan Rosado]

down and the governor of New York sent in the troops.

[Narrator/Host]

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

[Dan Rosado]

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.

[Sally Helm]

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.

[Victoria Kupchanetsky]

He deliberately wanted to humiliate the farmers and their families.

[Dan Rosado]

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

[Victoria Kupchanetsky]

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.

[Dan Rosado]

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 Bender sits in jail, the anti renters are continuing to agitate. One known center of activity is the town of Andes.

[Sally Helm]

And that is where Osmond Steele goes on the brisk winter morning of March 10, 1845.

[Dan Rosado]

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.

[Sally Helm]

But on the way back, the lawmen are intercepted by the Calico Indians.

[Dan Rosado]

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.

[Misha Gutkin]

If they captured him, they would probably tar and feather him.

[Dan Rosado]

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

[Misha Gutkin]

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

[Dan Rosado]

So the calicos wait outside.

[Misha Gutkin]

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

[Dan Rosado]

Osmund Steel, 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 out. And when the calicos 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.

[Victoria Kupchanetsky]

They went about their business because it was time to milk their cows.

[Dan Rosado]

By the time the lawmen arrive, they can't tell which of these cow milkers is secretly a rebel. The Calicos are safe this time. But Osmund Steel 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.

[Victoria Kupchanetsky]

We can say that the Calcointians were just like the weaponized arm of this movement. The movement was much broader.

[Dan Rosado]

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

[Reeve Houston]

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.

[Dan Rosado]

Every single town in Rensslerwick sends anti renters to higher office. They're consolidating their power. But meanwhile their leader sits in jail. Dr. Smith Bouton 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.

[Narrator/Host]

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.

[Dan Rosado]

But Boughton's got a good lawyer too. Ambrose Jordan. He's nicknamed Aqua Fortis, 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 sorta goes his way. The jury can't agree on a verdict so it's a mistrial. Boughton is off the hook for now,

[Sally Helm]

although the judge probably illegally keeps him in jail.

[Dan Rosado]

July 4, 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 population public is outraged at the

[Sally Helm]

result of Bouton's trial.

[Dan Rosado]

And New York Governor Silas Wright takes notice.

[Narrator/Host]

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

[Dan Rosado]

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

[Narrator/Host]

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.

[Dan Rosado]

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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[Dan Rosado]

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 undersherriff Osman Steele.

[Reeve Houston]

The main distinguishing feature of Osment Steel as far as the anti renters were concerned, was he wasn't afraid of Them,

[Dan Rosado]

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.

[Reeve Houston]

They put on a big show that we're going to do violence to you. And very carefully avoided violence until Steel showed up.

[Dan Rosado]

On August 7, 1845, Osmond Steel again rides into Andes, New York.

[Sally Helm]

This time he's there to preside over a distress sale on the farm of Moses Earl.

[Dan Rosado]

Earl owes rent and Steel 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.

[Victoria Kupchanetsky]

So they stopped by the Hunting Tavern and Ephraim Hunting served them some drinks and some lunch. And he said very quietly to Hunter, sheriff, still, you know, still there is this whole bunch of Indians gathering on the hills. And they've been gathering there since yesterday.

[Sally Helm]

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

[Victoria Kupchanetsky]

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

[Dan Rosado]

Nice line.

[Misha Gutkin]

So he ignored the friendly warning and he went up to Dingle Hill to Moses Earl farm. Still proceeded to move the cattle out in the field where the auction was supposed to take place.

[Dan Rosado]

And then the Calico Indians make their move.

[Misha Gutkin]

They started coming down the hill from the forest, all wearing costumes. It was probably a scariest sight.

[Reeve Houston]

The Indians started shooting their guns at the feet of Steel and his men to scare them.

[Sally Helm]

But remember, lead doesn't penetrate steel.

[Reeve Houston]

And when that didn't work, it becomes a much more dramatic kind of confrontation.

[Dan Rosado]

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

[Victoria Kupchanetsky]

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.

[Dan Rosado]

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

[Misha Gutkin]

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

[Dan Rosado]

Five hours later, lying in Moses Earl's bed, Osmond Steele D. 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.

[Victoria Kupchanetsky]

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.

[Dan Rosado]

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

[Victoria Kupchanetsky]

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

[Reeve Houston]

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. The evidence doesn't back it up. So it was a mess.

[Dan Rosado]

But even if the evidence was weak, the Calico Indians are effectively finished.

[Reeve Houston]

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

[Dan Rosado]

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.

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[Dan Rosado]

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

[Narrator/Host]

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.

[Dan Rosado]

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. Bouton'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.

[Narrator/Host]

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

[Dan Rosado]

But when all is said and done, Smith Bowton 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.

[Narrator/Host]

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

[Dan Rosado]

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.

[Sally Helm]

In the end, two farmers are sentenced to death and two others are sentenced to life. In Moses Earl, whose house Steele died in, and Daniel Squire's, who wasn't even there. Hundreds more get lengthy sentences. The Calico Indians are effectively snuffed out.

[Dan Rosado]

But the political part of the movement that continues.

[Narrator/Host]

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

[Dan Rosado]

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.

[Sally Helm]

The Anti Renters ally themselves with other more powerful parties like The Whigs to edit the laws that had kept patronism in place for generations.

[Narrator/Host]

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.

[Dan Rosado]

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.

[Narrator/Host]

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

[Dan Rosado]

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.

[Narrator/Host]

John Young, who was the Whig that was going to run against right, made promises on the campaign trail that he was going to pardon Dr. Boughton and that he was going to pardon these anti rent leaders and get them out of jail.

[Reeve Houston]

The anti renters had serious influence. They were the swing votes that got Jon Young elected governor after actually taking

[Dan Rosado]

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.

[Sally Helm]

He quickly orders the release of all

[Dan Rosado]

the farmers imprisoned at Delhi 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.

[Narrator/Host]

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

[Dan Rosado]

And the people who were a part of the anti rent movement 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.

[Reeve Houston]

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.

[Victoria Kupchanetsky]

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

[Dan Rosado]

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.

[Victoria Kupchanetsky]

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

[Misha Gutkin]

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

[Sally Helm]

Victoria Guptanetsky and Misha Gutkin, who made that documentary about the anti rent war, they both immigrated to the US 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.

[Victoria Kupchanetsky]

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

[Misha Gutkin]

It's not a straight story democracy, it's not something that's been given to the 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 actively that's why we have to be engaged in continuing to construct America's story.

[Sally Helm]

Thanks for listening to History this Week, a Back Pocket Studios production in partnership with the History Channel. To stay updated on all things History this week, sign up at History history this week podcast.com and if you have any thoughts or questions, send us an [e-mail] Special thanks to our guests, Reeve Houston, Emeritus Associate professor of History at Duke University and author of the book Democratic Aspiration Democratic the Triumph of Mass Politics in the United States, 1815-1840 Victoria Kupchanetsky and Misha Gutkin, director and producer, 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 US 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 use to put this episode together at our website, historythisweek.com. This episode was reported and produced by Dan Rosado it was also produced by Ben Dickstein and by me, Sally Helm. It was sound designed by Dan Rosado 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.