About this episode

The episode discusses the Anti-Rent War and the Calico Rebellion, highlighting the historical significance and personal reflections of the guests on this uprising.

In 1845, a feudal land system that had survived the American Revolution finally met its match in the hills above Andes, New York — and the clash left a county undersheriff dead and hundreds of farmers under arrest. The Anti-Rent War was a massive, organized uprising that had been building since the late 1830s and swept across upstate New York — yet it remains largely unknown outside this region. Victoria Kupchinetsky and Misha Gutkin are Russian-born journalists who stumbled upon the story at an Andes community day parade — and couldn't let it go. The result is Calico Rebellion , a documentary that centers the voices of local descendants, historians, and storytellers to bring this "final chapter of the American Revolution" back to life. We talk about the patroon system and its perpetual leases that kept tenant farmers from ever owning the land they cleared; the Calico Indians, disguised farmers who donned homemade masks and calico dresses to resist rent collectors; the dinner horns repurposed as an alarm network; and the fatal confrontation on Dingle Hill that set off a chain of trials, pardons, and ultimately, legislative reform. Victoria and Misha also reflect on what it meant…

People in this episode

Guests: Victoria Kupchinetsky, Misha Gutkin

Topics covered

• Anti-Rent War
• Calico Rebellion
• American Revolution
• tenant farmers
• democracy
• historical uprising

Keywords

• Anti-Rent War
• Calico Rebellion
• tenant farmers
• American Revolution
• democracy
• Andes New York
• historical uprising
• feudal land system
• Calico Indians

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Calico Rebellion

Places: Andes, New York, upstate New York, Soviet Union, Dingle Hill

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