2-799-055 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Anti-rent insurrection - attack on the Sheriff of Albany, 1844. White settlers demand payment from indigenous Americans, with consequences: '...the Sheriff himself was held down in a ditch, and pistols were pointed at his head, and he was threatened with death, unless he gave up his papers, to which he replied, "Shoot away; I never will give up while I am alive". The Indians then proceeded to tar and feather the Sheriff, but without making any impression on the indomitable temper ol the Sheriff, who, on being asked by an Indian, who was holding a pistol at his head, what he would do to him if he was in his place, replied, "Shoot you, as quick as I would a black snake"'. From "Illustrated London News", 1844, Vol V.