Trespassing : an inquiry into the private ownership of land

Trespassing, "a thoughtful, beautifully written addition to environmental and regional literature" (Kirkus Reviews), is a historical survey of the evolution of private ownership of land, concentrating on the various land uses of a 500-acre tract of land over a 350-year period. What began as wild land controlled periodically by various Native American tribes became British crown land after 1654, then private property under US law, and finally common land again in the late twentieth century. Mitchell considers every aspect of the important issue of land ownership and explores how our attitudes toward land have changed over the centuries. Cover 1 Half-title 3 Title 5 Copyright 6 Dedication 7 Contents 11 Preface to the New Edition 13 Acknowledgments 19 Chronology 21 Players 25 Prologue 29 ONE: A Certain Tract of Land 35 TWO: Owners and Outcasts 47 THREE: Should Trees Have Standing? 59 FOUR: The Cords of Christ's Tent 77 FIVE: To Have and to Hold 89 SIX: Common Ground 103 SEVEN: Cross-Lot Walking 117 EIGHT: Terra Nullius 133 NINE: Holding Ground 149 TEN: Out of the Quiver of the Scriptures 161 ELEVEN: The Last of the Commons 177 TWELVE: Islands of the Dead 193 THIRTEEN: Who Really Owns North America ? 209 FOURTEEN: The Tawny Vermin 221 FIFTEEN: Their Heirs and Assigns Forever 241 SIXTEEN: The Intelligence of Salamanders 265 SEVENTEEN: The Landing 281 EIGHTEEN: Drawn and Quartered 297 Epilogue 313 "How did a nation built on a vision of "wide open spaces" come to believe in the private ownership of land? John Hanson Mitchell, one of our foremost nature writers, explores this question." "Building upon the heartbreaking story of a tribe of "praying Indians" who bought into the colonists' legal system and settled their own 2000-acre tract, only to be dispossessed and herded into a detention camp, Mitchell explores every variation of this important issue. From the beginning of British common law up to the most recent Supreme Court takings decisions, Trespassing follows the evolution of our attitudes toward land."--Jacket Sometimes in September, when the air is still and the atmosphere is charged with that aura of dormant energy that lingers in certain places long after history has passed them by, I go down to the hill where Sarah Doublet last lived and sit on a wall above Nagog Pond. An exploration of the evolution of private ownership of land, concentrating on the various uses of a 500-acre tract of land over a 350-year period. -- Back cover An exploration of the various systems of land control and the evolution of private property