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Article: Land Patents
- Article from:
- Dictionary of American History
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CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 The Gale Group Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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LAND PATENTS
LAND PATENTS.
In English colonial America, the Crown made large grants of territory to individuals and companies. In turn, royal colonial governors later made smaller grants of land that were based on actual surveys of the land. Thus, in colonial America on the Atlantic seaboard, a connection was made between the surveying of a land tract and its "patenting" as private property.
After the American Revolution and the ratification of the Constitution, the Treasury Department was placed in charge of managing the public lands of the new nation. Public lands came to cover all the territory of the nation except the original thirteen states plus Vermont, Kentucky, Tennessee, and ...