Cottages were crumbling in ruins and abandoned by their tenants who had emigrated. Before famine struck, nearly half of all rural families lived in windowless, one room, mud cabins. Many landlords were harsh. Some landlords were nearly as impoverished as their tenants, but it is not recorded that any landlords died of starvation. Irish landlords were much like "slave holders with white slaves." (Taylor, 1962, p. 174). Unable to pay rent to the landlord, thousands of starving peasants were thrown out. Thousands more were threatened to be thrown out of their home to perish on the roadside. A few landlords were even shot.