DAYS OF OLD DUTCHESS by Louise Tompkins
The war against rents of tenants on farms along the Hudson River was carried on during two centuries of oppression. Rent-burdened settlers fought the British in the belief that when the War of the Revolution was won, the federal system introduced by the first Van Rensselaer patroon would be supplanted by a new republican government. After that, they believed the large estates along the river would be divided into farms for independent and democratic farmers. But the estates were not broken up, and the antirent struggle was a long wax fought by successive generations. Basically, the war was a conflict between two ways of life, the fundamental ideas of both having been brought to the Hudson Valley from the Old World. One was the way of the aristocrat, based on the belief of the superiority of the few. This was Europe's old way of life. The other was the way of the democrat, based on the belief in the dignity and deserving of honest persons. The people, dreaming of a land where men had equal rights, fought on decade after decade. The landholders, cherishing aristocratic privileges, prevented them from realizing their dreams. According to Cooper's novel, "Satanstoe," the tenant farmer paid no rent on his farm of 500 acres for the first 10 years, the second 10 years he was required to pay six pence an acre, with the privilege of cutting timber. From that time on as long as the farmer occupied the land he paid six pence sterling for the land and 40 pounds currency ( $100.00) extra for the use of the mill site. The Hudson River Valley developed rapidly in the first half of the 1700's. The poor Palatines were only one group of immigrants. Englishmen arrived in great numbers and settled along the river. They planted immense fields of flax, corn and wheat on the river acres which yielded abundant crops. The Manor lords increased their holdings enormously. By 1750, in Westchester County, five-sixths of the inhabitants were manor tenants. Similar conditions existed elsewhere in the Hudson Valley. The road to Quaker Hill was rough and hard to climb in 1754. Even the strongest horse was winded before he reached the top. Not many travelers cared to make the effort to climb the hill. The Quakers residing on the summit liked it like that. They had settled there, hoping to live out their lives in peace, far from the turmoil of the world around them. At the foot of the hill, a Kilkenny Irish Protestant with charming ways and delightful wit, settled on a farm. His name was William Prendergast and he was destined to play an important part in preventing the Road to Freedom from reaching a dead end. One day William climbed the hill to the tall house on the summit where Jedediah Wing lived. He met Jedediah's lovely daughter Mehitabel and observed her loving care of her 10 sisters and brothers. The Wings were orthodox Quakers. 48
