Lesson 4: Reconstruction

Another source of tension was the "patroon" system, which the Dutch West India Company set up in 1629 to promote settlement. Patroons were given huge estates, which they rented to tenant farmers. Patroons had the power to control such aspects of settlers' lives as their right to move, establish businesses, and marry. The Duke of York allowed Dutch landowners to retain these estates, and gave equally large tracts of land to his supporters. By 1703, five families held approximately 1.75 million acres of New York. By 1750, these families had become among colonial America's wealthiest landed elite. Although these landowners lost their feudal privileges as a result of the Revolution, they still owned about 1.8 million acres of land in the early nineteenth century. Between 1839 and 1846, tenant farmers on these properties staged "Anti-Rent Wars," demanding title to lands that they felt rightfully belonged to them. In 1846, New York granted the tenants their farms.  (source)