After the recent
presidential election, I was in a patriotic mood, and pondered the creation of the great United States of America. After listening to Mr. LaVaque Manty’s
lecture on Locke and property, it dawned on me how important the concept of
property was to the birth of our country. With the vast expanse of untouched
land and the untold fortunes it could contain, Native Americans and the
European immigrants fought and died for three centuries over rights to it.
From the Native
American’s perspective, the initial intentions of these unfamiliar Europeans
immigrants were not very clear. Some indigenous groups were approached with
kindness and respect, while others were slaughtered, captured or forced off
their land. But what I am really questioning is how Locke’s view of property
would apply to the colonization of the United States and its effect on Native
Americans.
To better understand
this, we need to look at the concept of Locke’s definition of property:
“Property is a claim
against other people about a right to the continued use, possession and
disposal of some object, whether such object is currently in the possession of
or in use by the owner or not.”
Many believe
that Locke would support the Europeans takeover of the land in America, because
he was a proponent of unrestricted capitalist accumulation. But it is important
to look at the differences between the natives and the European interlopers,
because they were starkly different. From the quote above, Europeans were
essentially trying to “claim (land) against other people about a right to the
continued use” (Locke). But what is making the claim to property in America difficult
to understand was both Europeans and Native Americans had completely different
views of what property was.
In general, Native
Americans were matrilineal; Europeans were patriarchal. Native Americans thought the land
belonged to no one; Europeans owned land privately. The concept of “owning”
property was completely foreign to the natives. This was a situation ripe for
exploitation by Europeans when they gazed over the huge expanse of untouched
new world soil. Land was essential to Europeans as a way to profit, trade, and make
personal gain. But who is the rightful owner to this land? Although the
eventual owner of land was the Europeans, it seems that the land should have
belonged to the Natives. But rightful ownership of property could be argued either
way.
Another piece of
Locke’s theory can be used for another point to his property theory relevant to
the colonization of America was:
“The question of
over-accumulation of property.”
Native Americans
took from the land what they needed to live; Europeans exploited the land for
its natural resources. Europeans
conquered as much land as they could, they essentially over-accumulated
property. But as non-native population growth continued throughout the 1700’s,
the colonies began to run short of workers. The shortage was especially tight
in southern colonies, which were initially developed for resource exploitation
rather than settlement. Colonists captured Native Americans and turned them
into slaves, used to cultivate tobacco, rice, and indigo. In many instances even Native Americans themselves sold other
Native Americans as war captives to the colonists. Using the enforced servitude of the natives
to solve labor shortages was a key growth factor in the young country. The
over-accumulation of the slaves as property eventually lead to a sharp decrease
in the population of Native Americans. As Europeans grew slavery, it was one of
the key growth factors of the United States. So how would Locke see the
enslavement of Native Americans? He
says:
“We own our bodies. Through labor, we are
able to make other things our property.”
As tensions between
the two groups became violent, European
diseases and advanced weapon technology ravaged the Native Americans. As many
Native American tribes were forced into slavery
as war captives, like I previously stated, their populations began to shrink. According
to Locke are they property of the slave owners? Is the work that the slaves do
the property of they themselves or their owners? Locke would say that they are
all property of slave owners, both the slaves and the work that they perform.
When humans crossed
the Bering straight from modern day Russia into Alaska during the last ice age
and spread out across North America, those who did make the travel and
eventually stayed in North American were known as Native American. While
Europeans stayed in their own continent during that time. They were too different; there was no hope
for coexistence. Early Europeans interacted
quite often with each other. Native
Americans on the other hand, consisted of many tribes spread throughout the
entire United States and rarely had interactions with each other.
To try to better
understand why the two groups had such different views on property ownership it
is a good idea to look at their social structure, probably the most important
difference between the two. The Europeans had a very defined hierarchical
society starting with the King and ending with slaves. Every class had their
set rights; there was no equality. The natives had a very basic hierarchy with
the chief on top, but they that everyone was equal. The thought of land ownership by individuals
was alien. Europeans saw the natives on
the same level as slaves, and slaves had no property rights.
As Professor
LaVaque-Manty defined property, it came to me about how important it was to the
creation of the United States. The reason why so many people immigrated and so
much bloodshed was caused over the creation of America was the seemingly
unlimited land. Even after many years the Native Americans were stripped of
their land, there is still controversy over who should have rightful owner ship
of land in the United States. Locke would have a field day trying to decipher
the relevance of property when it came to one of the most critical discoveries
of the world, the Americas. Whether you believe that the land belonged to the
Native American or Europeans, property has been a critical piece of the puzzle
of early American history.
Video regarding the argument over specific land that is supposedly the property of Native Americans:
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