<p>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.</p><p>The Anti-Renters had to celebrate Independence Day with cannon fire and readings of the Declaration, but without their leader.&nbsp;</p><p>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?&nbsp;</p><p>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?</p><p>Special thanks Reeve Huston, emeritus associate professor of history at Duke University and author of <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://amzn.to/3SQSbAJ">Land and Freedom: Rural Society, Popular Protest, and Party Politics in Antebellum New York</a>; Victoria Kupchinetsky and Misha Gutkin, director and producer of the film <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="http://calicorebellion.com">Calico Rebellion</a>; David Fleming, the town supervisor of Nassau, NY; Nancy Newman, professor at SUNY Albany and author of the book <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://amzn.to/3SStbsV">Songs and Sounds of the Anti-Rent Movement in Upstate New York</a>; and the Association of Public Historians of New York State.</p><p>You can find all the books we’ve used to make recent HISTORY This Week episodes at <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="http://historythisweekpodcast.com">historythisweekpodcast.com</a>.</p>