Land Office warrant issued in 1779 to Joseph Cabell, assignee of
Sgt. Gabriel Penn, to receive 200 acres of land in return for Penn's service in the
French and Indian War Colonial era English land grants During
England's colonization of the Americas, the
English Crown gave land grants to encourage the foundation of
overseas possessions in
North America. King
James I of England granted a
royal charter to the
Virginia Company of London, an English
joint-stock company founded to
colonize Virginia. Similar schemes were later used when royal charters were granted by the Crown to English
proprietary colonies in Rhode Island, Connecticut and Pennsylvania. Some settlers were given land grants known as
headrights, encouraging them to migrate to North America. Similar systems were used during the
Dutch colonization of the Americas. As English colonial law developed, headrights became patents and a patentee had to improve the land. Under this doctrine of planting and seeding, the patentee was required to cultivate of land and build a small house on the property, otherwise the patent would revert to the government.
Spanish and Mexican land grants Between 1783 and 1821,
Spain offered land grants to anyone who settled in its colonies of
Florida and
Louisiana. When the United States acquired that land by treaties, it agreed to honor all valid land grants. As a result, years of litigation ensued over the validity of many of the Spanish land grants. Spain and Mexico used the same system of offering land grants along the
Rio Grande River near the Texas/Mexico border. These grants were given to help colonization of the area, initially by the Spanish crown, and later by
Mexican authorities nationals, and strengthen frontier towns along the Texas border. During the
Mexican period of
California (and other portions of Mexican territories inherited from
New Spain), the Mexican government granted individuals hundreds of
ranchos or large tracts of land. The ranchos established land-use patterns that remain recognizable in the
California of today. Controversy over community land grant claims in
New Mexico persist to this day.
Public lands and bounty-land warrants Future President
Thomas Jefferson crafted the
Ordinance of 1784, which carved out ten prospective states west of the
Appalachian Mountains and established the basis for the
Public Land Survey System. The
Land Ordinance of 1785 provided a method for settling that land and establishing government institutions, which became federal land policy until 1862. The
Northwest Ordinance of 1787 established the
Northwest Territory, pursuant to which homesteading settlers could buy land, and certain land was set aside for public schools and other purposes. The federal government acquired additional lands by treaties with various Native American tribes, such as the
1833 Treaty of Chicago, by which many eastern tribes agreed to settle across the
Mississippi River. Revenues from public land purchases were a major source of funding for the federal government through the 19th century, along with tariff revenues, since the federal income tax was not established until the 20th century. Starting with the
American Revolutionary War, veterans often received land grants instead of back pay or other remuneration. Bounty-land warrants, often for 160 acres, were issued to veterans from 1775 to 1855, thus including veterans of the American Revolutionary War, the
War of 1812 and the
Mexican–American War, as well as various
Indian wars. The
United States Military District in Ohio was created by Congress to reward Revolutionary War veterans with land. The land grants helped settle the Northwest Territory (and later smaller areas, such as the
Indiana Territory, the
Illinois Territory and the
Wisconsin Territory) and as well as the
Platte Purchase in Missouri. Eligibility for the warrants expanded over the years through new Congressional acts of 1842, 1850, 1852 and 1855 to the point where they could be sold or given to descendants. The warrant program was discontinued before the
American Civil War. Universities were also beneficiaries of land grants. All five of the
transcontinental railroads in the United States were built using land grants. The
Morrill Land-Grant Acts of 1862 and 1890 provided for the establishment of
land-grant colleges.
Economic impact There is general agreement that the United States' federal policy of offering land grants had a positive impact on economic development in the 19th century. == See also ==