Bolton Hall | |
|---|---|
 Hall in 1917 | |
| Born | (1854-08-05)August 5, 1854 Ireland |
| Died | December 10, 1938(1938-12-10) (aged 84) Thomasville, Georgia, U.S. |
| Occupation(s) | Lawyer, author, and activist |
| Years active | 1898–1916 |
| Known for | Starting theback-to-the-land movement |
| Notable work | A Little Land and a Living |
Bolton Hall (August 5, 1854 – December 10, 1938) was an American lawyer, author, andGeorgism activist who worked on behalf of the poor and started theback-to-the-land movement in the United States at the beginning of the 20th century.[1]
Hall was born inIreland on August 5, 1854, the son of the Rev.John Hall, who later became pastor of theFifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York City. Because he was a teenager when the family came to the United States in 1868, he continued to speak English with an Irish accent.[2] In 1875, he was graduated fromPrinceton University (where herowed crew).[2] He received his law degree fromColumbia Law School in 1881.[citation needed]
It was reported after the death of the elder Hall in 1898 that the minister had disinherited Bolton "because of the latter's friendly attitude to labor and his friendship for Henry George and his belief in the single tax." Bolton Hall denied the report.[3][a]
Hall was a prolific writer of books and pamphlets.
Around 1886, Hall was a member of the export firm of McCarty and Hall, which failed that year. He filed for bankruptcy but withdrew the action after settling with creditors.[3]
Hall was active on behalf of variousprogressive movements. He was an admirer ofPierre-Joseph Proudhon, French politician, philosopher and socialist, ofBenjamin R. Tucker, editor and publisher of the individualist anarchist periodicalLiberty, andLeo Tolstoy, the Russian novelist, pacifist and Christian anarchist.[5] He was opposed toMarxism and agreed with classical liberal political theoristHerbert Spencer, who called it "the coming slavery."[2]
Hall was an early leader of theAmerican Longshoremen's Union in New York City, established with the help of Britishsocialist andtrade unionistTom Mann as part of a cross-Atlantic organizing drive for allmaritime workers.[2] In 1898, serving as general treasurer of thatlabor organization, he drew condemnation from delegates to New York City'sCentral Labor Union because he submitted a motion to oppose opening aSpanish–American War inasmuch as the latter country had agreed toarbitration in theHavana,Cuba, sinking of thebattleshipMaine. The motion lost by a small margin.[6]
Before 1908 he established the Vacant Lot Gardening Association in New York City, which grew to "about 200 members" who "conducted a number of experiments in and near New York during its existence." One of them included the use of 30 acres of land on Bronxdale Avenue, nearWhite Plains Road, "which theAstor estate had allowed us to use and on which a number of families had been living." Afterward, the association used property onDyckman Street near Prescott Avenue, not for cultivation, but for the establishment of atent city. The difficulty in getting free land for "vacant lot gardening" led Hall to establish the Little Land League, whose idea was to buy property no more than 90 minutes from New York for a training school, "and the people who have proved capable there we shall put on their feet as farmers on a larger piece of land further away." In 1909 he made a trip to Europe to study vacant-lot gardening.[7]
In 1910 he deeded some 68 acres (280,000 m2) of land to establish the egalitarian community ofFree Acres inBerkeley Heights, New Jersey, under which the residents pay only asingle tax on land values to the community, which, in turn, pays a lump sum to the city. Improvements such as buildings were not to be taxed, but only the value of the land.[8][9]
On June 5, 1916, he was arrested along withIda Rauh on a misdemeanor charge of distributing pamphlets onbirth control at a public meeting inManhattan'sUnion Square on May 20 of that year.[10]
He was a disciple ofHenry George and one of the leading exponents of thesingle-tax theory. He was opposed toTammany Hall, the organization that dominated the political life of the city in the early 20th century. He founded the New York Tax Reform Association.[1]
He and Susie Hurlbut Scott were married in 1884[11] and they had a son, John Hoyt Hall, who died at 14 in 1911,[12] and one daughter, Lois, who later married Gerard P. Herrick.[1]
He died on December 10, 1938, at the age of 84 while visitingThomasville, Georgia, on the advice of his physician.[1]
After providing for his wife and daughter, Hall bequeathed his residuary estate and $2,000 to theHenry George School of Social Science in New York City,[13] to which he had contributed generously.[2] In 1913, an admirer, George Harris, builtBolton Hall inTujunga, California—a structure that is now on theNational Register of Historic Places.[14]: 38
Hall was the author of:[15]
Media related toBolton Hall (activist) at Wikimedia Commons
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