On April 21, I read an article called, “Project Muse: The Connecticut Genesis the Western Reserve 1630-1796” written by Robert A. Wheeler. This article is about how the British were taking over the majority of land to spread their authority over the Native American lands to expand their settlements to the Northern territories. In 1631, many settlers were relocating to the Northern regions of the New World. The Native Americans who were protecting the land from foreign invaders owned the land. The British threatened Native Americans to make them retreat to the West because the Native American land was valuable in natural resources. The British created a patent called, “WarWick” to control the majority of land owned by the Native Americans and the Dutch. King Charles II revised the patent to make it official to guarantee the land rights to the British territory including the borders of Connecticut. The author, Wheeler, described about how the land of Connecticut was very valuable to the British for constructing more settlements but the Native Americans fought for the land.
In 1681, the British attacked the borders of Connecticut to control the land and agreed to give the western part of Connecticut to William Penn. He was the founder of the Pennsylvania territory. The author, Wheeler, explained in the article how the settlers had conflicts with the British about land right, economic issues, and transportation. King Charles II had control over most of Connecticut’s land and would not allow settlers to have the rights to take care of these issues. It took thirty years for settlers and investors to fight to claim the land to build colonies and reserve the rights for democratic settlement.
Reference to:
Wheeler, Robert Project Muse . Retrieved May 31, 2009, from The Connecticut Gensis of Western Reserve 1630-1796 Web site: http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/ohio_history/v114/114.wheeler.pdf
