Frances Wilson

What does ownership of land really mean?

The passion for proprietorship has led to the loss of countless lives over the centuries and the dispossession of those for whom the concept was meaningless

Native Americans approach, in 1820, to inspect the tiny settlement that would become Chicago. Credit: Getty Images 
issue 13 February 2021

At the end of the last century, Simon Winchester bought 123 acres of wooded mountainside in the hamlet of Wassaic, the village of Armenia, the town of Dover, the country of Dutchess, the state of New York, the country of America. His land had originally been inhabited by the Mohicans, who grew corn and squash and beans until they were expelled by the Dutch.

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