Enclosure: Protection of Personal Property or Injustice?

When the English first came to the new world, they brought along with them their concept of personal property--your land? Fence it in! So when they got here and saw all sorts of native populations milling about and tribes sharing land in common, they noticed also that these native populations lacked, well, fences. The term we discussed in class was the concept of "enclosure," which is important to the English at the time (particularly to their philosophers). Like any population acting on so-called "divine" superiority, it was clear that the English way of doing things was right, and that the natives' way was wrong.

As I certainly may be getting ahead of myself (or exposing obvious holes in the lesson plan--kidding, kidding), at the center of this concept was John Locke (not the "Lost" guy, althought I can probably work him in later). In his book The Two Treatises of Government, Locke says, "God, who hath given the world to men in common, hath also given them reason to make use of it to the best advantage of life, and convenience. The earth, and all that is therein, is given to men for the support and comfort of their being," and, "The fruit, or venison, which nourishes the wild Indian, who knows no enclosure, and is still a tenant in common, must be his, and so his, i.e. a part of him, that another can no longer have any right to it, before it can do him any good for the support of his life." How relevant! No enclosure, no personal property. So taking the natives' land (and hoping to supplant their spiritual beliefs with your own) is totally justified, right?

Locke also says, "God gave the world to men in common; but since he gave it them for their benefit, and the greatest conveniencies of life they were capable to draw from it, it cannot be supposed he meant it should always remain common and uncultivated. He gave it to the use of the industrious and rational, (and labour was to be his title to it;) not to the fancy or covetousness of the quarrelsome and contentious." These rights, like many rights promised back in the late 1600s, were really only valid if you were a white land-owning male. God gave the English rationality and industriousness; what they were doing (taking land from those who had cultivated it themselves) was truly not seen as wrong, rather, that rational action given to them by God was rightly used.

It is interesting to me to observe how far these property debates go back. Obviously, the English used this concept of "enclosure" to justify what they were doing. Later, Thomas Jefferson will read Locke's work (perhaps the driest piece of literature you could ever read) and some of the ideas would end up in some other American documents, I don't remember what they were called, we haven't gotten that far yet.

Oh yes, and did anyone see the "Lost" finale? That was epic. (I told you I'd say something).

Locke ("On Property")