Types of Rights in Envisioning America

“…for god hath given to the tonnes of men a double right to the earth, there is a naturall right & a Civil right…” -pg. 136

This was a quote that really stuck out to me when I first read the Envisioning America book. I know that by this point there was the idea of natural right and civil right – a concept that continues to thrive in modern society. However, it was just very interesting to see a different interpretation of natural right/civil right from what we are usually taught (and how we understand it in today’s context).

In the text, the difference between natural right and civil right was the excuse for why it was fine for the English settlers to take over the land that once belonged to the Native Americans. Although the Native Americans had a natural right to the land – every group was blessed by God with a land they can utilize for their needs – it was the civil right of the English settlers to take over, because the Native Americans were not making full use of their God-given area.

It not only showed that at that time civil right trumped natural right, but it also showed that the settlers believed that they were more civilized then their American counterparts in even the simplest way – making use of the land. The natives were not civilized enough to understand that they were suppose to make the most out of the land they were naturally given. Therefore, theĀ protestant English settlers felt like it was an affront to God to not take advantage of the land, so they had to do what was necessary – based on the ideas of civil right – to right this “wrong” they were seeing.

This was kind of how I interpreted that little tidbit (and the immediate section after). I would love to hear if anyone else was intrigued by the section on natural and civil right. Sadly, I do not remember much about the history of the concept – globalization classes have really turned themĀ into modern political terms for me – so if anyone has any insight, that would be great.

One thought on “Types of Rights in Envisioning America

  1. I was also fascinated by this English idea that they had the right to control the land the Native Americans had lived on in order to use it more efficiently. I talked about this in my paper on colonization, and how this also gave the English a religious justification to control the land due to it’s current improper use. A good example of this was when John Winthrop stated on page 137 that “they inclose noe land neither have any settled habitation nor tamed cattle to improve the land by”. The Native Americans were obviously using the land, but since they did not cultivate it in a similar way to the English, or keep tame cattle in fenced in areas, the English figured they were using the land improperly, and so had the right, as well as religious duty, to take control of it. I also thought this was an interesting post.

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