Absentee Landowning and Exploitation in West Virginia, by Barbara Rasmussen

By Barbara Rasmussen

Absentee landowning has lengthy been tied to monetary misery in Appalachia. during this very important revisionist examine, Barbara Rasmussen examines the character of landownership in 5 counties of West Virginia and its results upon the counties' fiscal and social development.

Rasmussen untangles an internet of outdoor domination of the area that started out earlier than the yankee Revolution, making a legacy of problem that maintains to plague Appalachia this present day. The proprietors and exploiters of the zone have integrated Lord Fairfax, George Washington, and, such a lot lately, the U.S. wooded area Service.

The overarching challenge of those absentee landowners has been to regulate the land, the politics, the govt., and the assets of the fabulously wealthy Appalachian Mountains. Their early and incessant domination of politics guaranteed a land tax procedure that also favors absentee landholders and at the same time impoverishes the state.

Class adjustments, a capitalistic outlook, and an ethic of progress and improvement pervaded western Virginia from earliest cost. citizens, besides the fact that, have been fast outspent through wealthier, extra strong outsiders. lack of confidence in landownership, Rasmussen demonstrates, is the main major distinction among early mountain farmers and early American farmers far and wide.

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By Barbara Rasmussen

Absentee landowning has lengthy been tied to monetary misery in Appalachia. during this very important revisionist examine, Barbara Rasmussen examines the character of landownership in 5 counties of West Virginia and its results upon the counties' fiscal and social development.

Rasmussen untangles an internet of outdoor domination of the area that started out earlier than the yankee Revolution, making a legacy of problem that maintains to plague Appalachia this present day. The proprietors and exploiters of the zone have integrated Lord Fairfax, George Washington, and, such a lot lately, the U.S. wooded area Service.

The overarching challenge of those absentee landowners has been to regulate the land, the politics, the govt., and the assets of the fabulously wealthy Appalachian Mountains. Their early and incessant domination of politics guaranteed a land tax procedure that also favors absentee landholders and at the same time impoverishes the state.

Class adjustments, a capitalistic outlook, and an ethic of progress and improvement pervaded western Virginia from earliest cost. citizens, besides the fact that, have been fast outspent through wealthier, extra strong outsiders. lack of confidence in landownership, Rasmussen demonstrates, is the main major distinction among early mountain farmers and early American farmers far and wide.

Show description

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Extra resources for Absentee Landowning and Exploitation in West Virginia, 1760-1920

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41 . Western settlers enjoyed the support of liberal (DemocraticRepublican) Virginians who favored populating the interior. These leaders were led by some landowners who hoped to get rich by selling lands to settlers and at the same time stabilizing the republic with the presence of many small landowners. , and James Madison. 42 The conservatives preferred to withhold sale of their property, speculating on price increases and higher profits from future sale of their lands. Western settlement and development would bring pressures for expensive governmental services, and that prospect threatened to bring higher taxes for wealthy land speculators.

2 4 Their gift included about 2,862 square miles of what is now the state of West Virginia, north of the Little Kanawha River. The treaty stipulated that the land was for the exclusive use of the traders, but in fact Virginia also claimed the territory. Thomas Walker, a member of the Loyal Company, signed the treaty on behalf of Virginia. 25 To resolve the dispute between Virginia and the traders, in 1770 Samuel Wharton traveled to England, where Benjamin Franklin introduced him to influential Britons.

By the early nineteenth century, the idea of a national republic secured by freeholding commercial farmers was yielding to the pressure of an increasing population. The demand for land far exceeded its availability. 1 This shift occurred even before Thomas Jefferson, who espoused the aims of freeholders, left the presidency. To satisfy their demands for land, Americans continued to look to the frontier. Despite rising population and conflicting land claims between 1810 and 1830, Virginia continued to grant land in portions of the Appalachian Mountains and the Ohio River Valley.

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