David Rovics - Landlord

^D The patroons came from Holland to America, became landlords where none had been bef^Aore Soon one man owned half a million acres, on both sides of the Hudson River ^Dshore He invited families to move in, and give him thirty perc^Aent Of everything they grew each year, this is how they'd pay the ^Drent His name was Rensselaer, he became one of the richest men on Ea^Arth In today's terms ninety billion dollars, is how much he'd be w^Dorth All this for doing nothing, but saying all of this was h^Ais “I have the power of the state behind me, and I'm in the landlord ^Dbiz” After two hundred years of this, and one revolution w^Aon Another Rennsalaer had another s^Don And this Rennsalaer was greedier, than his ancestors dead and pa^Assed It was now the 1840's, and things started changing ^Dfast It was the straw that broke the back, the bottle was unc^Aorked They started organizing meetings, the tenant farmers of New ^DYork They found the strength of numbers, they found the power of sugge^Astion They found each other, asking the same questi^Don

^DWho gave you the right to be a landlord, to live a life of ease while others t^Aoil Who gave you the right to be a rich man, while the rest of us pay you so that we can w^Dork this soil

^DThey vowed that they would stop the rent collection, they vowed they'd bring this madness to an ^Aend And when one blew the tin horn of distress, they'd soon find they had a thousand ^Dfriends Dressed in calico skirts with masks upon their faces, on horseback, armed with knives and ^Aguns They chanted and they yelled, they kept their farms, and they kept the sheriffs^D on the run

^DWho gave you the right to be a landlord, to live a life of ease while others t^Aoil Who gave you the right to be a rich man, while the rest of us pay you so that we can w^Dork this soil

^DThe governor's militias tried to stop them, but nothing could be done to break their^A will And by 1848 the landlords buckled and sold their holdings to the farmers in the ^Dhills Yes they overthrew this feudal system, but it's replaced now by speculators and ^Abanks And you can still hear the homeless families asking of all the landed gentry in our^D ranks

^DWho gave you the right to be a landlord, to live a life of ease while others t^Aoil Who gave you the right to be a rich man, while the rest of us pay you so that we can w^Dork this soil

^DWho gave you the right to be a landlord, to live a life of ease while others t^Aoil Who gave you the right to be a rich man, while the rest of us pay you so that we can w^Dork this soil

^DWho gave you the right?