1629; composition year
Winthrop’s colonization argument discounts Indigenous land rights
New England; Indigenous communities
A 1629 argument attributed to John Winthrop justified English settlement by distinguishing natural possession from a civil right supposedly gained through enclosure and cultivation. It asserted that New England’s Indigenous inhabitants held only the former and that settlers could take land beyond what they deemed sufficient for Native use. The argument made English standards of land use a justification for colonial appropriation.
Dates preserve the source’s precision. This entry is part of a selected historical record; its qualifications and sources are retained below.
Context / qualification
The passage is in “Reasons to Be Considered, and Objections with Answers,” not an enacted statute or a dated court judgment. The Massachusetts Historical Society attributes this group of writings to Winthrop; the surviving copy is in Forth Winthrop’s hand. Its claims about Native land use and consent are colonial assertions. The year dates composition, not a particular seizure.
Sources
- Howard Zinn, A People’s History of the United States, chapter 1, pp. 13–14; supplied print pages, edition/year unidentified
- Winthrop Papers, volume 2, “Reasons to Be Considered, and Objections with Answers” (1629), pp. 138–145, especially pp. 140–141 and manuscript note; Massachusetts Historical Society ↗
- Winthrop Papers, volume 2, editorial introduction to the plantation arguments, pp. 106–111; attribution and dating of drafts ↗