Did early American settlers have to buy their land from the government?
score:6
In the pre-1760 period, most land was settled by squatting, but in some cases it was bought from the natives. The colonial government did not sell land to any great extent. In general, the colonial government was trying to encourage people just to come to the colony, which in itself was extremely expensive. The last thing they wanted to do was anything that would discourage them, like charge them for land.
The main point of contention in the early days was between adjoining farms. The general rule was that you owned any land you could surround with a stone wall three feet high. For this reason, if you drive around New England today, you will see drystone walls everywhere. They are the remnants of property stakes.
Upvote:2
It is my impression that the government of the Pennsylvania colony had land agents and sold land.
I suggest that anyone interested who lives in one of the thirteen English colonies trace the history of his house from owner to owner and sale to sale as far back as he can, and perhaps he will find a sale from the colonial government.
Upvote:4
The accepted answer is entirely untrue. The headright system, where you got land for just showing up and paying your way across the ocean, was abolished long before the 1760s. Even in the 1600s, you had to get land legally from SOMEONE. You could get a large grant directly from a king or a company and then bring people in to settle the land. Those people would, 99% of the time, be purchasing land. Even under headright, you only got your 50 acres for free. The rest you had to buy, either by purchasing it outright or paying someone else's way across. Even when squatters came in to large areas of land, chances were they had to pay for it eventually, even if at a reduced price. There was very little land that was simply free to anyone who would improve it, ever, in the history of the country. Land speculation by absentee landlords drove up prices so badly in the 1700s that there was already a large mass of landless tenant farmers before the Revolutionary War. Part of the reason the Appalachians filled up quickly, including areas with pretty bad land, was because it was the only land that people could still buy affordably by the early 1800s. That's why there was a huge rush of settlers to the cheap railroad lands, as well as the famous '49ers going West. Land hunger on the East coast was extreme by that point. It wasn't until the West was completely opened that there was a major price correction.
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