Proclamation. Citizens of Hudson…

Rebellion: Foment and Faux native Americans in 1840s New York State

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This unrecorded proclamation by Cyrus Curtiss, mayor of Hudson, was issued in the context of the Anti-Rent War, a widespread tenant uprising against the semi-feudal patroon system in New York State. Beginning in the 1830s and peaking in the 1840s, the movement saw tenant farmers in the Hudson Valley and beyond resisting oppressive leasehold agreements imposed by powerful landowners, particularly the Van Rensselaer family. Tenants, many of whom had worked the land for generations, demanded the abolition of long-term rent obligations that left them in a perpetual state of economic dependence.

By 1844, tensions had escalated into open conflict, with disguised “Calico Indians”—tenant farmers in Native American-style garb—resisting rent collections, intimidating law enforcement, and, in some cases, engaging in armed skirmishes. The proclamation directly references an “armed resistance to Law” and the arrest of ringleaders accused of orchestrating rebellion. The sheriff’s reported endangerment and the intercepted express to the Attorney General suggest a moment of crisis in which authorities feared a violent escalation.

Curtiss frames the issue as a battle between law and anarchy, urging Hudson’s citizens to uphold order. However, the language of the proclamation—warning of a potential prison break and even threats to burn the city—reflects elite anxieties about the broader implications of the tenant movement. While the mayor emphasizes law enforcement’s role in maintaining order, the proclamation reveals how deeply the anti-rent agitation had unsettled local governance. The call for military reinforcements and the rapid mobilization of armed forces demonstrate the state’s willingness to suppress tenant resistance through force.

Ultimately, proclamations like this one foreshadowed the state’s increasingly aggressive crackdown on anti-rent activities. By the late 1840s, New York had enacted legal reforms that weakened the patroon system, but only after years of conflict, arrests, and violent suppression of tenant activism.

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