Land Ownership In America

Nearly every aspect of American history involves white supremacy. Upon the discovery of the Americas, the Europeans believed they entered into a land inhabited by savages (Boyer 20). According to President Jackson, the mistreatment of the Indians was to “kill the Indian, but save the man” (Williams) in order to purify America. They were forced to adapt to the dominate society or be killed. According to Wiethaus, “the Trail of Tears is a story of tragedy far overshadows the longer term economic consequences of Indian land for the United States economy and the disruption of individual lives for those dispossessed of their homes” (29). The Columbian Exchange involved the slavery of Africans which later became an issue during the 1800’s once the colonies formed into states. African-Americans did not receive emancipation until after the civil war. Before then, slavery was at the heart of the Commercial Revolution which set the stage for the modern era of economic growth (Wright 14). During the 1800’s, states became divided upon the issue of being a Slave or Free State. After the Civil War, Johnson approved of the emancipation of slaves (Boyer 497). However, during the Reconstruction, “black codes” were constructed to prevent African-American to be considered worthy citizens. Many Acts were passed to give them equality, but they still received inhuman treatment (Boyer 509-511). It took years of marches, protest, and riots

Early in our county’s history almost all black people came here as slaves. Because people in the South felt they needed cheap labor in building land and because black people in Africa knew how to farm land like the ones in the South, they were taken from their homes and forced to come to America. Arriving in this county, they were sold to whites as slaves without rights or freedom. IN 1776, the American Colonies declared their freedom from Great Britain. In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson write that “all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable right; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” He declared that all citizens have their rights and equal opportunities in pursuing their goals. Efforts to give black people their rights never stopped, but the changes were not enough. After War II, many people felt that new laws were needed. In 1954, the Supreme Court ruled that blacks and whites could go to the same schools. However,

For most Americans, our ancestors came to the United States to own land and it was true if you were a white male. The right to own land in the United States has not been a reality for much of people in the US without a long struggle to change laws regarding citizenship and land ownership. At the time of the Revolutionary War and the writing of the constitution, land ownership was limited to “citizens”. Becoming a citizen, even if a person was born in the United States was quite muddy. The decision of who could be a citizen or own land was left up to the individual states. Persons of various ethnicities were legally denied citizen status for years in many states. In addition to persons who are citizens, particularly

T.H. Breen's and Stephen Innes’s book "Myne Owne Ground" does and outstanding job of pointing out the difference in perspectives when it came to living in the south and being black was like. It goes in depth and shows how a black person was competent and was capable to acquire a wealth that was comparable to a wealthy white man, but it is never recognized by the general white population. The authors make an argument that in early colonial Virginia blacks that owned property were able to live semi-normal, if not prosperous, racism free lives. Breen and Innes argue that before the Virginia slave codes were passed, property owning blacks had a chance to be viewed as

Sharecropping voided the 13th amendment which according to Document A was, “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction”. Wealthy whites living in the South created a new labor system that would replace slavery and in which they would profit from. The new labor system that was created was Sharecropping. Sharecropping was when black farmers worked on white planters’ land, but had to pay a quarter or half of their crops. This slavery-like system tied African Americans to white planters’ land because sharecropping lead them to a never-ending debt in which they gave up their crops to pay. In Document G, it says, “Sharecroppers farmed on land they rented from a landlord, in exchange for a share of the crop they produced. Because sharecroppers needed to borrow money for necessities, like tools and food, they seldom were able to make or save any money”. This cyclical process led to mortgages on future

The development of sharecropping was associated with the endless debt cycles that afflicted the entire South well into the twentieth century. The freedmen endured an economic status likened to peonage, (Bowles, 2011) in addition to having their hopes for political and social equality dashed. The entire South suffered, it was the freedmen who paid the highest price. Ignorant and impoverished, they were easy targets for exploitation by landlords (Bowles, 2011) and merchants alike; moreover, their options were limited by the overt racism in the South, legal restrictions and partiality. Sharecropping resulted from the intense explicit or implicit desire of white Southerners to keep blacks subservient to them. African Americans possessed few skills, and those they did possess related almost exclusively to agricultural production; they owned no property but the clothes on their backs; (Bowles, 2011) Many dreamed of "forty acres and a mule" with which to begin life anew as an integrated part of American society and the proprietor of one's own land. Inside of a year, however, a different reality became obvious to most. By 1868, land confiscation and redistribution was not in the realm of American political possibility. Desperation, familiarity with people and surroundings at the old places coupled with reunion of many lost loved ones, as well as the urgings of

This is because many freed African American saw 40 acres and a mule policy as proof that they will finally be able to work their own land after years of servitude. Owning land was the key to economic independence and autonomy. Becoming a sharecropper had its benefits, farmers were not forced to work till exhaustion and there was no close supervision unlike slavery system. Some sharecroppers would manage to earn lass of money and would become senate formers who had a more control over management. Some hardships that sharecroppers encountered was that they worked hard in lands but earned only a low standard of living, less money, and had no ownership of the land.

In 1852 a political group (Free Soil Party) demand that people would be allowed to acquire free homesteads.The free homestead act was known as the most important act for the welfare The People passed in the US. Homesteads are tracts of land acquired under the homestead Act. The people of The West were poor, so of course they approved of the bill, but there was strong

Have you ever wondered how we know the land of the United States so well? We have not always had drones to fly around and take pictures ,or had all theses devices to show us the land and how it's lays. People have come to know the land and discover new animals, plants ,landforms ,waterways ,and many more features of the earth. However two men in the early 1800s were sent out to find more information about the new land the United States had just acquired in the Louisiana Purchase not by drones ,but on foot and horses.

The Color of the Land, written by David A. Chang suggest that the ultimate research question for his work was, “How did the struggle over the land of Oklahoma mold the way Americans created and gave meaning to races and nations?” In return, to answer Chang’s initial research question, his thesis for his book states,” This study demonstrates how complex ideas of nationhood evolved in relation to the racial self- constructions of Creek Indians and African Americans as well as white Americans. It further argues that in this rural context class conflict over landownership gave added impetus to the already potent politics of race and nation” (Chang, 2010, 10). In simpler terms, land is the main way people in Oklahoma and the United States of America

By 1800 the least amount of land owned is 320 acres. The settlers had to pay 4 payments for $1.25 pre acre until 1854. The Federal Government makes a law that they only had to pay for 30 years, then 54 years in 1785. They could only own 640 acres for a township split into 36 sections. 1854 they made the cost for 12 ½ cents. The Legislation was stymied three times in 1852, 1854, 1859. They passed the Homestead act in 1859 [the House of representatives passed it], in 1862 the homestead came law. This was before the slavery removal act. In 1862 you could pay a $1.25 per acre for six months after the Civil-War. The people who did have the Homestead act for 160 acres were mostly

Historically, “ideas of Black inferiority and White superiority have been embedded in multiple aspects of American culture, and many images and ideas in contemporary popular culture continue to devalue, marginalize, and subordinate non-White racial populations”. Racism has influenced decades of land use, housing patterns, and infrastructure development. With the creation of housing subdivisions, the white and wealthy moved to modern communities, while the non-white and poor were left to live in areas that were rundown. Today, we see that in some cases, zoning laws have fueled environmental, as well as residential, racism. In certain communities around the nation, “expulsive” zoning has pushed out residents, and allowed industries to move into communities, and pollute the land, air, and water. These zoning laws define land for residential, commercial, or industrial uses, and impose narrower land-use restrictions. In this case certain individuals are forced to leave their community, and give any property they have up to these “dirty” industries. Without more stringent enforcement mechanisms and penalties in place, this nation will continue to see this type of discrimination and environmental racism.

The Virginia Company preferred landowning men to marry the woman rather then servants. The reason was simply money. The company charged every man who ordered a women a huge amount of their best tobacco. The men had to pay 120lbs. when they wanted to have a women shipped, even in the case she may have died. They also had to give some of the tobacco to their wives. Servants couldn’t afford this kind of payment but so could the landowners. Also was it better for the promotion when the company encouraged young women to immigrate to the colony, when they could say that they would be married to free, wealthy colonist. Furthermore, when one of the landowners got married and had children with a wife and he died, so the his male hers got all the properties

I did not think about how the land would of been exhausted. Just like farmers today, they have to switch the crop they grow so they do not take all the nutrients out of the soil. This method is what the colonists should of done, but they did not know any better. The colonists exhausted the land and then they moved to a better location to grow and harvest crops. I think that this was a great point. It takes years for the land to regain nutrients, this affected many of the next generations.

But during the 1980's, drought and white emigration badly damaged the economy, which already strained by the need for massive government spending in the long-neglected areas of black education, health, and social services. The cleavages over land distribution, which continue today, present an ongoing challenge to the government and an obstacle to agricultural development and will be