I had an uncle who invested in real estate at a time when it
was more popular to invest in stocks and bonds or precious metals. Even though
I was in my early twenties, he made a statement that has stayed with me:
“The
thing about land is, they aren’t making any more of it.”
Residents of the Netherlands, New Orleans and other areas
where they have used dikes and levees to hold back oceans and rivers may disagree with
that statement. But, generally, that is true. What land is available on the
earth is what we have. My uncle’s attitude was this: if you hold title to land long enough, even
land people today don’t think is valuable, the day will come
someone will want it. Why? Populations tend to grow, but there is only
so much land on this earth available to them. Eventually, any land will be
valuable to someone.
The history of migration tends to prove this out. An example is the
sea-bound island nation of Great Britain. Over millennia it was inhabited early
by Celts who originated in central Europe and came there by way of the Iberian Peninsula.
It later was invaded by the Romans, Danes, Saxons, Normans among a few. One reason
the Y-DNA of most men in Great Britain can be from almost anywhere, mostly from
middle Eastern by way of Europe, but the Mt-DNA of women is almost all Celtic
is because that nation of islands has a history of “They came; they conquered;
they copulated.” (That quote is a Robyn Hobusch Echols original, by the way.)
One exception is the Mt-DNA of some of the northern islands due to the
Norwegians who came and brought their whole families to settle because—guess why?—they
ran out of enough farmland in Norway to support their population.
As the population grew in Great Britain, the land could not
support it. We think of groups of people like the Pilgrims of Massachusetts who
came for religious freedom. However, the motivation behind most migration to this
continent was based on obtaining the resources of this land. People were
brought here to work the land for the benefit of the British crown and
aristocracy, many because this was the penal colony before Australia became the
penal colony, and many because of the promise of eventually being able to own
land. As people came and worked off their indentures—either penal or to pay
their passage, they eventually spread across the land forcing off the original native inhabitants.
The Scotch-Irish were brought over to inhabit the frontier to act as a buffer
against the native tribes who fought against the Europeans encroaching on their
land. The Irish famine drove many from that island to North America in the 1800’s.
These suggestions of the motivation for immigration are very
simplified. Books have been written on the topic. But, the one word summary of
what was behind the motivation is this:
LAND.
Immigrants from all over Europe sacrificed to come to North
America in order to own what was impossible for them to obtain at home: LAND.
Since money to finance wars was scarce, soldiers in wars,
starting with the Colonial wars and ending with the Civil War, were often paid
with warrants that granted them the right to LAND.
With the Louisiana Purchase, to deal with the dispute over who should own
the Northwest Territory, as part of the Monroe Doctrine and Manifest Destiny, the
United States formulated policies that would encourage westward migration. The
lure was the one thing the nation at the time felt it had plenty of: LAND.
Some of the early land policies in North America were these:
1. Royal
Proclamation of 1763 forbade colonists from moving westward past a certain
point (called the Proclamation Line) extending from Quebec to West Florida. (We
all know how well that worked out.)
2. The
Land Ordinance of 1785 (following the American Revolution) stated that an
individual had the right to purchase 640 acres of public land for $1 per acre,
later reduced to 320 acres.
3.
Preemption Act of 1841 dealt with squatters, particularly in Kansas and
Nebraska territories.
4.
Donation
Land Claim Act of 1850 allowed settlers to claim land in the Oregon Territory,
then including the modern states of Washington, Oregon, Idaho and parts of Wyoming.
5. Homestead Act of
1862 granting the right to obtain 160 acres of public land at a nominal cost by
meeting certain requirements.
These land acts are the foundation of the migration motivation behind
many of the romances written by our Sweet Americana Sweethearts authors,
whether they be Oregon Trail wagon train romances, or mail order bride
romances. I will be discussing some of these land acts in more detail in future
posts: Land issues in Kansas and Nebraska in July, Donation Land Claim issues
in August and the Homestead Act in September.
My most recent Eastern Sierra Brides 1884 novella, Her
Independent Spirit, deals with two women claiming a different kind of
independence than the one celebrated in July. Beth Dodd seeks her independence
by obtaining her own land using the provisions of the Homestead Act. You may
enjoy learning more about the this land act in action by reading her story
which you can purchase on Amazon by CLICKING HERE .
Zina
Abbott is the pen name used by Robyn Echols for her historical novels. The
first three novellas in the Eastern Sierra Brides 1884 series, Big Meadows Valentine, A
Resurrected Heart, and Her
Independent Spirit, are now available. He Is
a Good Man was published as part of the Lariats,
Letters and Lace anthology.
