ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the observation that scenery and farmland are being consumed at a rapid rate in the Hudson Valley, to the apparent dismay of local residents, policy makers, and leaders. It analyzes the changes in property forms in one place, the Hudson Valley Region in New York State. The colonial manors and patents in the Hudson Valley also illustrated some feudal obligations, as well as emerging market relations and republican government structures. The positions taken by various authors in the Federalist/Anti-Federalist debate resonated with persons and issues first encountered in the tenant unrest in the Hudson Valley, where the positions of George Clinton and Alexander MacDougall against Alexander Hamilton and John Jay were already familiar. The operation of land markets in the Hudson Valley was the result of a long and contested process. The Hudson Valley is studded with spectacular evidence of its manorial history, notably in its numerous state and federal parks.
