According to an old story, there was once a Dutchman who was so bothered by the rats in his barn that he burned down the barn to get rid of them. Thus a 'barn burner' became one who destroyed all in order to get rid of a nuisance. In the 1840s and 1850s there was a faction of the Democratic party in New York State opposed to the extension of slavery in the territories, and the name Barnburners was given them by their opponents.