The Frontier in American HistoryTurner, Frederick Jackson
History
The Frontier in American History
Turner, Frederick Jackson
Frontier and pioneer life -- United States; Frontier thesis; United States -- History; United States -- Territorial expansion
Space does not permit us to describe this movement of
colonization.[100:3] The entrance to the fertile limestone soils of the
Great Valley of Pennsylvania was easy, in view of the low elevation of
the South Mountain ridge, and the watergaps thereto. The continuation
along the similar valley to the south, in Maryland and Virginia, was a
natural one, especially as the increasing tide of emigrants raised the
price of lands.[100:4] In 1719 the proprietor's price for Pennsylvania
lands was ten pounds per hundred acres, and two shillings quit-rents. In
1732 this became fifteen and one-half pounds, with a quit-rent of a half
penny per acre.[101:1] During the period 1718 to 1732, when the Germans
were coming in great numbers, the management of the lands fell into
confusion, and many seated themselves as squatters, without
title.[101:2] This was a fortunate possibility for the poor
redemptioners, who had sold their service for a term of years in order
to secure their transportation to America.
By 1726 it was estimated that there were 100,000 squatters;[101:3] and
of the 670,000 acres occupied between 1732 and 1740, it is estimated
that 400,000 acres were settled without grants.[101:4] Nevertheless
these must ultimately be paid for, with interest, and the concession of
the right of preemption to squatters made this easier. But it was not
until 1755 that the governor offered land free from purchase, and this
was to be taken only west of the Alleghanies.[101:5]
Although the credit system relieved the difficulty in Pennsylvania, the
lands of that colony were in competition with the Maryland lands,
offered between 1717 and 1738 at forty shillings sterling per hundred
acres, which in 1738 was raised to five pounds sterling.[101:6] At the
same time, in the Virginia Valley, as will be recalled, free grants were
being made of a thousand acres per family. Although large tracts of the
Shenandoah Valley had been granted to speculators like Beverley,
Borden, and the Carters, as well as to Lord Fairfax, the owners sold
six or seven pounds cheaper per hundred acres than did the Pennsylvania
land office.[102:1] Between 1726 and 1734, therefore, the Germans began
to enter this valley,[102:2] and before long they extended their
settlements into the Piedmont of the Carolinas,[102:3] being recruited
in South Carolina by emigrants coming by way of Charleston--especially
after Governor Glenn's purchase from the Cherokee in 1755, of the
extreme western portion of the colony. Between 1750 and the Revolution,
these settlers in the Carolinas greatly increased in numbers.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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