Stephen Van Rensselaer III's will ordered $400,000 in back rents collected, and his tenants answered with the Anti-Rent War

At its peak the Van Rensselaer manor covered about 700,000 acres, and 60,000 to 100,000 people on it paid feudal rents. Stephen Van Rensselaer III died on 26 January 1839 owing about $400,000. His tenants owed him about the same in back rents. His will directed that the debts be paid by collecting those rents. The West Manor went to his son Stephen IV and the East Manor to his son William. In spring 1839 Stephen IV demanded the arrears in full. Tenants met in Berne on 4 July 1839 and refused, and the state sent the militia. Tenants disguised as "Calico Indians," about 10,000 at their peak, blocked sheriff's sales with tin-horn signals. In August 1845 deputy sheriff Osman Steele was shot dead at Moses Earle's farm in Delaware County during a cattle sale. Ninety-four people were indicted. John Van Steenbergh was sentenced to hang. Governor Silas Wright commuted the death sentences. Smith Boughton and Moses Earle received life terms. The 1846 constitution banned new feudal leases and farm leases longer than 12 years. Existing leases stood. In 1852 the state's highest court upheld a ruling outlawing the quarter sale, and both brothers sold their holdings to farmers and speculators. In 1845 patroons held leases over about 250,000 people, about 12 percent of New York's population.