Land Riots and the Revolution in New Jersey
Central issue, problem, or question: How did the New Jersey land riots of the
1740s shape revolutionary conflict thirty years later? Was there a more
immediate connection between the Newark riots of 1770 and the Revolution?
Significance: This lesson examines how conflicts over landownership shaped
the revolution in New Jersey.
New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards for Social Studies:
Standard 6.4 (United States and New Jersey History). Middle School: D-2
(Describe the political, religious, social, and economic institutions that
emerged in colonial America); E-1 (Discuss the background and major issues
of the American Revolution). High School: D-4 (Analyze the political,
religious, social, and economic institutions that emerged in colonial New
Jersey); E-1 (Discuss the social, political, and religious aspects of the
American Revolution).
Objectives: After hearing a short lecture and examining two primary source
documents with opposite interpretations of the same events, students will be able
to:
• Compare and contrast two primary source documents.
• Explain how a specific event in Newark in 1770 may be seen as a
precursor to the American Revolution.
• Analyze how bias shaped two conflicting accounts of the same event.
Abstract: This lesson teaches students to analyze primary source documents
by comparing and contrasting two contemporary accounts of the same event.
After analyzing the documents, middle school students will write a journalistic
account of the event described in the documents. High school students will
evaluate the two accounts and then participate in a mock trial.
Duration: One or two 45-minutes class periods.
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Sources
Secondary Sources:
David Cohen online lecture: "Troublesome Times a’ Coming," July 2003;
available on the New Jersey History Partnership Project website,
http://nj-history.org, in the “Antecedents” section.
Brendan McConville online lecture: The Radicalization of Abraham Clark:
The Social Origins of the Revolution in New Jersey," July 2003; available
on the New Jersey History Partnership Project website,
http://nj-history.org, in the “Antecedents” section.
Brendan McConville, These Daring Disturbers of the Public Peace: The
Struggle for Property and Power in Early New Jersey (Ithaca, 1999).
“The Two New Jerseys,” program 2, New Jersey Legacy television series,
co-produced by the New Jersey Network and the New Jersey Historical
Commission, 1993, videocassette.
“Royal Rule and Religious Revival,” program 3, New Jersey Legacy
television series, co-produced by New Jersey Network and the New
Jersey Historical Commission, 1993, videocassette.
Primary Sources:
Letter to the New-York Gazette, 15 January 1770.
http://nj-history.org/americanRevolution/antecedents/documents/
antecedentsDoc2.pdf
Tobias Freeman to the New-York Gazette, 20 February 1770.
http://nj-history.org/americanRevolution/antecedents/documents/
antecedentsDoc3.pdf
Materials:
Teachers will require copies of primary source documents listed above.
Background: Disputes over land titles were a recurrent problem in colonial New
Jersey. These disputes date back to the conquest of the Dutch colony of New
Netherland by the English in 1664. The former Dutch colony was subdivided by
James, the Duke of York, into New York and New Jersey. He granted New
Jersey to Sir George Carteret and John, Lord Berkeley. However, there was a
question whether the grant of New Jersey to Carteret and Berkeley included the
right to be governed independently from New York.
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Without consulting Carteret and Berkeley, Governor Richard Nicolls of New York
proceeded to award land grants in New Jersey, specifically in Newark,
Elizabethtown, and Monmouth County. After the deaths of Carteret and
Berkeley, New Jersey was subdivided in 1676 into the two proprietary colonies of
East New Jersey and West New Jersey, but the so-called Nicolls patents
continued to be disputed by the proprietors of East New Jersey. Even after New
Jersey was reunited as a single royal colony in 1702, these boundaries were still
a source of conflict.
In addition, New Jerseyans disputed the validity of land purchases from Indians
and proprietors’ attempts to collect quitrents from colonists. The quitrent was a
type of tax owed to the proprietors. The tax was a survival from feudalism
reflecting the fact that the modern concept of land ownership was still evolving at
this time. Technically, the colonists were “freeholders”; that is, they held the land
rather than owned it. In exchange for holding the land, they were obliged to pay
quitrents to the proprietors. Yet, the colonists resented these quitrents and often
refused to pay.
Disputes over quitrents and land titles led to riots in the 1740s. Some historians
see the land riots as a source of revolutionary ferment a generation later. The
link between the land riots of the 1740s and the American Revolution of the
1770s was an incident that took place in Newark in the winter of 1770, which is
the focus of this lesson.
Key Words:
Land title
Proprietary colony
Proprietor
Freeholder
Quitrent
Middle School Procedures:
The teacher will begin this lesson with a short lecture (based on David Cohen’s
and Brendan McConville’s online lectures) on the New Jersey land riots in the
1740s and 1770. Both lectures are available on the New Jersey History
Partnership Project website, http://nj-history.org/, in the “Antecedents” section.
The teacher should then assign students to cooperative groups of 3-4. Before
students begin their group work, the teacher should read the two primary source
documents aloud with the class, stopping periodically to clarify points of
confusion:
• Letter to the New-York Gazette.
http://nj-history.org/americanRevolution/antecedents/documents/
antecedentsDoc2.pdf
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•
Tobias Freeman to the New-York Gazette.
http://nj-history.org/americanRevolution/antecedents/documents/
antecedentsDoc3.pdf
In small groups, students will outline the events described in each document.
After outlining these events, students will determine which facts both accounts
agree on and where they differ. The teacher should then ask each group to
compose a newspaper article reporting on the events described in the
documents. Each group will have to decide whether to take an unbiased
journalistic approach to the topic or to report the event from the perspective of
one of the participants. Their reports might include headlines and illustrations of
the event. Afterwards, each group should present their article to the class,
explaining whether and how their depiction of the events was biased.
High School Procedures:
This lesson will begin with a short lecture (based on David Cohen’s and Brendan
McConville’s online lectures) about how the Great Awakening and the Land Riots
that occurred in the 1740s were precursors to the American Revolution. Both
lectures are available on the New Jersey History Partnership Project website,
http://nj-history.org, in the “Antecedents” section.
The lesson will then take the form of a classroom discussion. The class should
read the first account of the riots that took place in Newark in the winter of 1770.
http://nj-history.org/americanRevolution/antecedents/documents/
antecedentsDoc2.pdf
The teacher should assign students to read segments of the documents aloud
and stop to discuss each segment with the class. Afterwards, the teacher should
pose the following questions (listed on the accompanying worksheet,
http://nj-history.org/americanRevolution/antecedents/lesson/antecedentsWS.pdf):
• What is the author’s attitude toward the rioters?
• What are the implications of the rioters being referred to as “Liberty
Boys”?
• What are the implications of their using the slogan, “Liberty and
Property”? How does it relate to John Locke’s “life, liberty, and estate” or
the phrase “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” in the Declaration
of Independence?
• How does the author invoke the issue of loyalty to the Crown to support
his view of the riots?
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Then the class should read Tobias Freeman’s account of the same events
http://nj-history.org/americanRevolution/antecedents/documents/
antecedentsDoc3.pdf and answer the following questions (also listed on the
worksheet):
• Which “facts” in the first letter does the author of the second letter
dispute?
• What motives does the author of the second letter attribute to the author of
the first letter?
• What adjectives does the second author use to describe the author of the
first letter? What does the use of these adjectives suggest about the level
of emotion surrounding the event?
• How does the author of the second letter answer the accusation that the
rioters were disloyal to the Crown?
• What is the significance of the fact that the second writer was willing to
admit that “two Persons who were there. . . heard something said in
Contempt of the Proprietors, as such, but not a single Word in Contempt
or Defiance of the Magistry, or any of his Majesty’s Officers of the Peace”?
• The author of the second letter refers to his account being “a true and
impartial Representation”? Do you agree with him?
Then the class should discuss the following questions:
• Which of these two accounts seems more trustworthy to you? Why do you
feel that it is more trustworthy?
• Do you see any connections between the land riots and the protests over
British rule that occurred in the 1760s and 1770s?
• Do you agree that this event was a precursor to the American Revolution?
If so, explain how. If not, why not?
At the end of the discussion, students will participate in a mock trial on the topic
of the proprietors’ complaints (as represented by the author of the first document)
against the rioters. The teacher will select students to assume the roles of judge,
lawyers, rioters, proprietors, and jury members. Both proprietors and rioters will
present their grievances, and the jury will assess the validity of their arguments.
Comments and Suggestions: Before beginning this lesson, teachers might
wish to explain to their students that an historical document represents the
author’s point of view and to urge students to look for examples of bias in the
two documents. High school teachers who wish to reduce the amount of class
time devoted to this lesson might ask students to read the documents and
answer the questions on the worksheet for homework.
Connections: This lesson could be part of a larger unit on revolutionary
ideology.
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