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Land Title Origins: A Tale of Force and Fraud Land Title Origins: A Tale of Force and Fraud
By Alfred N. Chandler
2000/05 - Beard Books
1893122891 - Paperback - Reprint - 565 pp.
US$34.95

The engrossing story of early land ownership in America, based primarily on manipulation and land grabbing by powerful politicians.

Publisher Comments

Category: Real Estate

Of Interest:

Early American Land Companies: Their Influence on Corporate Development

One Hundred Years of Land Values in Chicago: The Relationship of the Growth of Chicago to the Rise of Its Land Values, 1830-1933

The Rise of the Community Builders

A large part of the history of mankind is the story of the increase in population compelling the migration of people to acquire land on which to live and maintain themselves, and of wars to govern and exact tribute of others. Mass migration of Europeans to America was caused, not by widespread desire for religious freedom as often declared but by craving for land, and to escape the poverty in Europe emanating from feudalism. Thus begins this fascinating, exhaustively researched treatise on land ownership in North America, rich with detail on land holdings, transfers, and prices. Land tenure was manipulated by European monarchs from the early 1600's through the Revolutionary War. In the first century of the existence of the United States Government, greedy and unscrupulous men of political power and influence grabbed vast expanses of the public domain. Stopping short of nationalization, the author proposes a reform plan that would permit landowners to keep title to their properties, but require that rents be paid to the state. A story to be enjoyed by all historians,

No book review available

Alfred N. Chandler's family arrived in the New World in 1687. He taught for many years at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, and was a tireless advocate of land reform.

Encomium vii
Preface ix
Dawn of the American Conquest 1
Who Owned America? 12
Why Europeans Migrated to America 15
The Indians and Land 23
Manors 37
Indented Servants 39
Religion Liberty Overstressed as Motive for Migration 42
Virginia 48
Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine and New France 77
Connecticut 122
Rhode Island 142
Vermont 155
New York 164
The Delaware Region (Below the Schuylkill) 221
The Swedes and Dutch 226
New Englanders on the Delaware 242
The Dutch on the Delaware 245
The Plowden Grant 254
British Dispossess the Dutch 256
William Penn Claims Delaware 261
Maryland 273
New Jersey 302
The Carolinas 349
Georgia 377
The Gulf Region 381
Pennsylvania 398
The Trans-Appalachian Region 433
Kentucky 441
Tennessee 446
Texas 451
California 455
The Oregon Country 466
The Public Domain 474
Epilogue 514
Bibliography 521
Index 531

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