38. Rebellion at Livingston Manor

While Burgoyne was preparing his fateful expedition, the oppressed tenants of Livingston Manor, in upstate New York, decided to take a hand in the struggle. To the downtrodden victims of the New York landed oligarchy, the issues of the war seemed remote; the important issue was gaining ownership of the land they had tilled and brought into productive use. If their landlords happened to be Whigs—as were the Livingstons, leaders of the conservative rebel faction—then the tenants naturally and understandably became Tories. For them, only victory of British arms might bring the ownership of their lands. Certainly there was no hope for them in a Livingston victory.

Livingston Manor occupied the east bank of the Hudson, south of Albany (now Columbia County). From the outbreak of the Revolution, tenant unrest, which had erupted during the general tenants’ rebellion of 1766, was renewed throughout the 160,000 acres of Livingston Manor. As leaders of revolutionary New York, the Livingstons kept a tight control over the Manor Committee of Safety; like parish vestries in the south, the manor committee was a self-perpetuating oligarchy, despite formal adherence to democratic regulations such as annual elections by the inhabitants of the manor. By the fall of 1776, unrest on the manor was becoming grave, and was being aggravated by conscription into militia preparing to fight in their landlord’s battles against Burgoyne. Indeed, Henry Livingston, commander of the regiment of manor militia, refused to march north against Burgoyne; for most of the men would simply refuse to march, and the order would probably provoke an uprising against the manor committee. Many tenants were reported hiding in the woods; and one magnificently independent tenant, Jury Wheeler, warned the manor committee “that if [he had] to go to the army, the first person he would shoot would be his captain.”

By October 1776, a number of discontented tenants had gathered in the southeast corner of Livingston Manor, and several signed a “King’s Book,” pledging that they would fight for King George. Tenants were also restive on other estates of Whig landed monopolists. In the late autumn of 1776, 400 tenants rose in arms against the lord of Rensselaerwyck. By April of 1777, a great increase of Toryism around Albany led to massive desertions of militia, and an attack on the Albany jail by 700 men to free captured deserters.

The intelligent path for the rebellious tenants would have been to hold off any uprising until Burgoyne had reached the area of Albany, i.e. until the fall of 1777. If they had waited, they might well have turned the tide. But in those days information was particularly faulty. They acted in May 1777 on the false belief that British troops were already in the vicinity. Consequently, the tenants made two fatal mistakes: They rose much too early, and once having risen they failed to bring their full force to bear, expecting as they did British help at any moment. In addition, in their spontaneous action they lacked the leadership necessary to guide and give intelligent direction to their uprising.

Even so, the underground tenant organization was skilled and elaborate. Almost every tenant was included in the conspiracy, which was centered in the eastern part of the manor. Active in the rebellion were 400 tenants of Livingston Manor, 60 tenants of the Lower Manor (to the south) and 50 nontenant farmers and militiamen of the manor. Their goal was ownership of the land, which they believed rightfully theirs. Their arms were either homemade and improvised, or stolen from patriot stores or Livingston mill.

The Livingston tenant rebellion, taking place during the first week of May, was precipitated by the arrival of outside militia escorting tenant prisoners. A series of tenant skirmishes ensued. Several hundred militiamen from outside, headed by landed oligarchs John P. Livingston and Robert Van Rensselaer, were brought in to suppress the tenants and viciously ordered to “fire upon every man fleeing before them.” On May 5, the hapless tenants, facing superior arms, offered to surrender in exchange for a guarantee against retribution. The offer was brusquely spurned, and the tenant uprising ruthlessly suppressed. Six tenants were killed in the fighting, and perhaps a dozen tenants were executed for their part in the rising. Over 300 tenant prisoners were dispersed outside the manor. A few were held hostage, while the suitably penitent were set free after swearing a loyalty oath to the Revolution. This uncharacteristically gentle treatment of the rebels was due to shock and bewilderment among the Livingstons, who were afraid of further uprisings, especially with Burgoyne drawing near.

There were, it is true, no further uprisings among the tenantry; but their sullen Toryism (or rather, anti-Whiggery) continued. By the fall, the tenants were already repudiating the oaths of loyalty they had been forced to take in May, and nearly seventy Livingston tenants left to join Burgoyne’s army. Even after Burgoyne’s defeat, widespread desertions and draft-dodging continued on Livingston Manor. The tenants were not able to win their land, but they did accomplish one thing by their uprising: never again would they be treated like cattle by their landlords, and never would their votes be simply taken for granted.*

* For the story of this until recently forgotten uprising, see Staughton Lynd, “The Tenant Rising at Livingston Manor, May 1777,” The New York Historical Society Quarterly (April 1964), pp. 163–77.