The *Other* Declaration of Independence (Part II)
About this episode
The episode explores the Anti-Renters Rebellion in New York during July 1845, focusing on the events surrounding Dr. Smith Boughton and the implications of the rebellion on national politics.
Visit htwpod.com for ad-free listening and bonus content! July, 1845. Dr. Smith Boughton, the man behind the mask of "Big Thunder," is sitting in a Hudson jail after a trial that ended in a hung jury. The Anti-Renters had to celebrate Independence Day with cannon fire and readings of the Declaration, but without their leader. The rebellion across Upstate New York is escalating: an undersheriff with a bully's reputation is terrorizing farm families in the Catskills, masked Calico Indians are massing at rent sales, and before summer's end, a lawman will lie dying in a tenant farmer's bed. New York now has to decide: are these rebels murderers, or is the system they're fighting the real crime? What happens when the Anti-Renters trade their tin horns for the ballot box? And how does a local revolt over rent end up shaping the politics of a nation? Special thanks Reeve Huston, emeritus associate professor of history at Duke University and author of Land and Freedom: Rural Society, Popular Protest, and Party Politics in Antebellum New York ; Victoria Kupchinetsky and Misha Gutkin, director and producer of the film Calico Rebellion ; David Fleming, the town…
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- The *Other* Declaration of Independence (Part I)
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