The Urban Crucible (Cambridge, MA, 1979).22 22 E. Fraser Darling, “Man’s Ecological Dominance through Domesticated Animals on Wild Lands,” in William L. Thomas, ed., Man’s Role in Changing the Face of the Earth (Chicago, 1956), p. 781.
23 23 Winthrop, Journal, I, pp. 132, 151; Emerson, Letters, p. 154; Bradford, Plymouth Plantation, p. 253.
24 24 Thomas Hutchinson, The History of the Colony and Province of Massachusetts-Bay (1765), Lawrence Shaw Mayo, ed. (Cambridge, MA, 1936), I, p. 405; John Smith, “Advertisements for the Unexperienced Planters of New-England” (1631), Massachusetts Historical Society Collections, 3rd ser., 3 (1833), p. 37; Emerson, Letters, pp. 214, 227.
25 25 Wood, Prospect, p. 34; James, Plymouth Visitors, p. 67; Everett Edwards, “The Settlement of Grasslands,” in USDA Yearbook, Grass (1948), p. 17; Bidwell and Falconer, Northern Agriculture, p. 20; Lyman Carrier, The Beginnings of Agriculture in America (New York, 1923), pp. 239–43; Bridenbaugh, Fat Mutton, pp. 31–3; Roger Williams, Letters, John R. Bartlett, ed. (Providence, 1874), pp. 146–7; Robert R. Walcott, “Husbandry in Colonial New England,” New England Quarterly, 9 (1936), pp. 239–40. At least one New England town – New Haven – made an effort to protect its English grasses during the early years of settlement. The town voted in 1654: “All men were desired to take notice that if any cut up any English grass which growes about the markit place, the streets, or other commons, to plant in their owne ground, they must expect to receive due punishment for the same.” Dexter, New Haven Records, p. 204.
26 26 Alfred J. Crosby, “Ecological Imperialism: The Overseas Migration of Western Europeans as a Biological Phenomenon,” Texas Quarterly, 30 (1978), pp. 18–19; Hutchinson, History of Massachusetts-Bay, I, p. 403; Herbert G. Baker, “The Evolution of Weeds,” Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics, 5 (1974), p. 4; Margaret B. Davis, “Phyto-geography and Palynology of Northeastern United States,” in H. E. Wright, Jr, and David G. Grey, eds, The Quaternary of the United States (Princeton, NJ, 1965), p. 396; Richard B. Brugam, “Pollen Indicators of Land-Use Change in Southern Connecticut,” Quaternary Research, 9 (1978), pp. 349–62.
27 27 John Josselyn, New-England’s Rarities Discovered (1672), Edward Tucker-man, ed., Transactions and Collections of the American Antiquarian Society, 4 (1860), pp. 216–19; Asa Gray, “The Flora of Boston and Its Vicinity, and the Changes It Has Undergone,” in Justin Winsor, ed., The Memorial History of Boston (Boston, 1880), pp. 17–22; Gray, “The Pertinacity and Predominance of Weeds,” American Journal of Science and Arts, 3rd ser., 18:105 (September 1879), pp. 161–7; Dexter, New Haven Records, p. 132. I have relied throughout on Merritt L. Fernald, Gray’s Manual of Botany, 8th ed. (New York, 1950), to determine whether a plant is of European or American origins. An interesting popular account of plant migrations is Claire S. Houghton, Green Immigrants: The Plants That Transformed America (New York, 1978).
28 28 Jared Eliot, Essays upon Field Husbandry in New England (1748–62), Harry J. Carman and Rexford G. Tugwell, eds. (New York, 1934), pp. 27–9, 61–6; Carrier, Beginnings of Agriculture, pp. 239–42; Bidwell and Falconer, Northern Agriculture, pp. 103–5; Samuel Deane, The New-England Farmer (Worcester, MA, 1790), pp. 28–9, 285–6.
29 29 Peter Whitney, History of the County of Worcester (Worcester, MA, 1793), p. 203; Harold J. Lutz, “Trends and Silvicultural Significance of Upland Forest Successions in Southern New England,” Yale School of Forestry Bulletin, 22 (1928), p. 22; Stanley W. Bromley, “The Original Forest Types of Southern New England,” Ecological Monographs, 5 (1935), pp. 79–80; Eliot, Essays, p. 19.
30 30 Lutz, “Trends of Upland Forest Succession,” p. 22; H. I. Winer, History of the Great Mountain Forest, Litchfield County, Connecticut, PhD Thesis, Yale University, 1955, p. 255; Bromley, “Original Forest Types,” p. 80; Timothy Dwight, Travels in New England and New York (1821), Barbara M. Solomon, ed. (Cambridge, MA, 1969), II, pp. 309–10; P. L. Marks, “The Role of Pin Cherry (Prunus pensylvanica L.) in the Maintenance of Stability in Northern Hardwood Ecosystems,” Ecological Monographs, 44 (1974), pp. 73–88.
31 31 Dwight, Travels, I, p. 75; Bromley, “Original Forest Types,” pp. 75, 80; E. Lucy Braun, Deciduous Forests of Eastern North America (New York, 1950), p. 253; G. E. Nichols, “The Vegetation of Connecticut, II, Virgin Forests,” Torreya, 13 (1913), pp. 199–215; Lutz, “Trends of Upland Forest Succession,” p. 15.
32 32 B[enjamin] Lincoln, “Remarks on the Cultivation of the Oak,” Massachusetts Historical Society Collections, 2nd ser., I (1814), p. 193.
33 33 E. A. Johnson, “Effects of Farm Woodland Grazing on Watershed Values in the Southern Appalachian Mountains,” Journal of Forestry, 50 (1952), pp. 109–13; Harry O. Buckman and Nyle C. Brady, The Nature and Property of Soils, 7th ed. (New York, 1969), pp. 249–53; Eugene P. Odum, Fundamentals of Ecology, 3rd ed. (Philadelphia, 1971), pp. 418–19.
34 34 Gottfried Pfeifer, “The Quality of Peasant Living in Central Europe,” in Thomas, Man’s Role in Changing the Earth, pp. 249–53.
35 35 Eliot, Essays, p. 204; Angus McDonald, Early American Soil Conservationists (1941), USDA Miscellaneous Publications, #449 (Washington, DC, 1971), pp. 3–19; F. H. Bormann, et al., “The Export of Nutrients and Recovery of Stable Conditions Following Deforestation at Hubbard Brook,” Ecological Monographs, 44 (1974), pp. 255–77. The literature about Hubbard Brook, on which much of the argument of this paragraph relies, is quite large; see Cronon, Changes in the Land, pp. 212–13.
Documents
Robert Cushman, “Reasons and Considerations Touching the Lawfulness of Removing Out of England into the Parts of America”
(Excerpt from Remarkable Providences 1600–1760, ed. with Introduction and notes by John Demos. New York: Braziller, 1972.)
Since prior occupancy gave Indians a title to North America in the minds of many European thinkers, various colonial writers tried to rationalize such rights away. In this 1622 justification for English claims to Indian land, note the ways in which Robert Cushman, a colonist, regards Indians as nomadic wanderers who do not farm the land or “order” it. In fact, as William Cronon pointed out, New England Indian villages were often farming communities. Why did colonists like Cushman refuse to recognize them as such? Is there a connection between these early colonial understandings of Indians as rootless wanderers and popular perceptions of all Indians as nomadic hunters? What other reasons does Cushman give for seizing Indian land? Is there a connection between Cushman’s religious enthusiasm and his understanding of Indians and the New England countryside?
* * *
Letting pass the ancient discoveries, contracts, and agreements which our Englishmen have long since made in those parts, together with the acknowledgment of the histories and chronicles of other nations who profess [that] the land of America from the Cape de Florida unto the Bay Canado (which is, south and north, three hundred leagues and upwards; and east and west, further than yet hath been discovered) is proper to the king of England, yet letting that pass – lest I be thought to meddle further than it concerns me or further than I have discerning – I will mention such things as are within my reach, knowledge, sight, and practice, since I have travailed in these affairs.
And first, seeing we daily pray for the conversion of the heathens, we must consider whether there be not some ordinary means and course for us to take to convert them, or whether prayer for them be only referred to God’s extraordinary work from heaven. Now it seemeth unto me that we ought also to endeavor and use the means to convert them; or they [ought to] come to us. To us they cannot come, [for] our land is full; to them we may go, [since] their land is empty.
This then is a sufficient reason to prove
