Books Should Be Free Loyal Books Free Public Domain Audiobooks & eBook Downloads |
|
Mother Earth Land Grants in Virginia 1607-1699 By: Walter Stitt Robinson |
---|
![]()
Mother Earth LAND GRANTS IN VIRGINIA 1607 1699 By W. STITT ROBINSON, JR.
Associate Professor of History
University of Kansas
VIRGINIA 350TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION CORPORATION
WILLIAMSBURG, VIRGINIA
1957 COPYRIGHT©, 1957 BY
VIRGINIA 350TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION
CORPORATION, WILLIAMSBURG, VIRGINIA Jamestown 350th Anniversary
Historical Booklet, Number 12
CHAPTER ONE The Land and the Indian
Among the motives for English colonization of America in the seventeenth
century, the desire for free land occupied a prominent place. The
availability of land in the New World appealed to all classes and ranks
in Europe, particularly to the small landholder who sought to increase
his landed estate and to the artisans and tenants who longed to enter
the ranks of the freeholder. The desire for land and the opportunity to provide a home for one's
family, according to Professor C. M. Andrews, "probably influenced the
largest number of those who settled in North America." Land also had its
appeal as the gateway to freedom, contributing substantially to the
shaping of the American character. When analyzing the factors that
helped make this "new man, who acts upon new principles," De Crèvecoeur
in 1782 emphasized the opportunity to "become a free man, invested with
lands, to which every municipal blessing is annexed!" Formulation of a land policy confronted the officials of all the
colonies in early America. Its importance is reflected in the statement
by C. L. Raper in his study of English colonial government that the
"System and policy concerning land determine to a very considerable
extent the economic, social, and political life of the colonists." The
existence of the American frontier with unoccupied land was a potent
force in America, and Frederick Jackson Turner stated in his famous
essay in 1893 that the "Most significant thing about the American
frontier is, that it lies at the hither edge of free land." Before analyzing the nature of landholding and the land policy that was
adopted in early Virginia, let us examine first the problem that arose
by virtue of the presence of the Indians in North America. At the time of the settlement of Jamestown in 1607 the area of
present day Virginia was occupied by Indians of three linguistic stocks:
Algonquin, Siouan, and Iroquoian. Generally speaking, the Algonquins
which included the Powhatan Confederacy inhabited the Tidewater,
reaching from the Potomac to the James River and extending to the
Eastern Shore. The Siouan tribes, including the Monacans and the
Manahoacs, occupied the Piedmont; while the Iroquoian group, containing
the independent Nottoways and Meherrins, partially surrounded the others
in a rough semicircle reaching from the headwaters of the Chesapeake
through the western mountains and back to the coast in the region south
of the James River. The presence of these tribes in the areas of proposed colonization
confronted the colonizers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries
with the same problem that has faced imperialists of a later date, the
question of "right and title" to land. The British, like other European
nations, did not recognize the sovereign right of the heathen natives
but claimed a general title to the area by the prevailing doctrine of
right by discovery and later by the generally accepted doctrine of
effective occupation. As stated in the charter to Sir Walter Raleigh in
1584 with essentially the same provision included in the first charter
of Virginia in 1606, the colonizers were authorized to occupy land "not
actually possessed of any Christian Prince, nor inhabited by Christian
People." Over the Indians the British maintained a "limited
sovereignty"; and when acknowledging any claim, they recognized only the
Indian's right of occupation and asserted the "exclusive right" to
extinguish this title which occupancy gave them. In the first years of the colony not even these tenure rights were
recognized by the British... Continue reading book >>
|
Genres for this book |
---|
History |
Science |
eBook links |
---|
Wikipedia – Walter Stitt Robinson |
Wikipedia – Mother Earth Land Grants in Virginia 1607-1699 |
eBook Downloads | |
---|---|
ePUB eBook • iBooks for iPhone and iPad • Nook • Sony Reader |
Kindle eBook • Mobi file format for Kindle |
Read eBook • Load eBook in browser |
Text File eBook • Computers • Windows • Mac |
Review this book |
---|