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E-book
Author Saxine, Ian, author

Title Properties of empire : Indians, colonists, and land speculators on the New England frontier / Ian Saxine
Published New York : New York University Press, [2019]
©2019

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Description 1 online resource
Series Early American places
Early American places.
Contents Introduction. Properties of empire -- 1. Networks of property and belonging. Land use in the 17th century -- 2. Dawnland encounters, 1600-1713 -- 3. Land claims, 1713-1722 -- 4. Breaking-and making-the peace, 1722-1727 -- 5. In defiance of the proprietors, 1722-1727 -- 6. The rightful owners thereof, 1735-1741 -- 7. Troubled times, 1741-1752 -- 8. Contrary to their own laws, 1749-1755 -- Conclusion. Treaties buried and lost. Indigenous rights and colonial property since 1755
Summary A fascinating history of a contested frontier, where struggles over landownership brought Native Americans and English colonists together in surprising ways to preserve Indigenous territory. Properties of Empire shows the dynamic relationship between Native and English systems of property on the turbulent edge of Britain's empire, and how so many colonists came to believe their prosperity depended on acknowledging Indigenous land rights. As absentee land speculators and hardscrabble colonists squabbled over conflicting visions for the frontier, Wabanaki Indians' unity allowed them to forcefully project their own interpretations of often poorly remembered old land deeds and treaties. The result was the creation of a system of property in Maine that defied English law, and preserved Native power and territory. Eventually, ordinary colonists, dissident speculators, and grasping officials succeeded in undermining and finally destroying this arrangement, a process that took place in councils and courtrooms, in taverns and treaties, and on battlefields. Properties of Empire challenges assumptions about the relationship between Indigenous and imperial property creation in early America, as well as the fixed nature of Indian "sales" of land, revealing the existence of a prolonged struggle to re-interpret seventeenth-century land transactions and treaties well into the eighteenth century. The ongoing struggle to construct a commonly agreed-upon culture of landownership shaped diplomacy, imperial administration, and matters of colonial law in powerful ways, and its legacy remains with us today
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes Online resource; title from PDF title page (EBSCO, viewed March 27, 2019)
Subject Abenaki Indians -- Land tenure -- Maine
Abenaki Indians -- Maine -- Treaties
Indians of North America -- First contact with other peoples -- Maine
HISTORY -- United States -- State & Local -- General.
HISTORY -- United States -- State & Local -- Middle Atlantic (DC, DE, MD, NJ, NY, PA)
HISTORY -- United States -- State & Local -- New England (CT, MA, ME, NH, RI, VT)
Abenaki Indians
Indians of North America -- First contact with other peoples
Indiens d'Amerique -- États-Unis -- 1600-1775 (Periode coloniale)
Abenaki (Indiens) -- Traites -- États-Unis -- Maine (États-Unis)
Abenaki (Indiens) -- Terres -- États-Unis -- Maine (États-Unis)
Indiens d'Amerique -- Premiers contacts avec les Occidentaux -- États-Unis -- Maine (États-Unis)
SUBJECT Maine -- History -- Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85079910
Subject Maine
Genre/Form History
Treaties
Form Electronic book
ISBN 9781479860524
1479860522