The Ground Not Given

Agriculture and Colonization

• Agriculture serves as a justification for colonization in the United States.

• Emphasizes the illegibility of land sociality and the epistemologies of conquest.

• Latin roots of English terms:

  • Colonia: settlement, farm

  • Colonus: settler, farmer

  • Colere: cultivate, inhabit

• Prosperity for some has meant:

  • Displacement of Indigenous peoples

  • Abduction and enslavement of African peoples

  • Indenture, forced labor, migration

Historical Context

• Historical foundations of agriculture as dispossessive practices continue into the present.

• Agriculture's significance for capitalism evolves but remains crucial despite trends in finance and technology.

• Examines the interplay of property, agriculture, and racial capitalism in the context of dispossession in the US.

Dispossession and Racial Capitalism

• Focus on class action lawsuits from African American and Native American farmers against the USDA for discrimination.

• USDA's loan programs historically favored white male farmers.

• Lawsuits reveal entrenched economic disparities and racial discrimination:

  • USDA's Farmers Home Administration: served white farmers primarily, ignored complaints from farmers of color.

Antidiscrimination Challenges

• Antidiscrimination doctrine insufficient in addressing complex social hierarchies:

  • Discrimination as a means of reinforcing prevailing economic orders.

  • Legal focus on individualized acts obscures systemic issues of racial capitalism and dispossession.

Dispossession and Land

• Discusses David Harvey's concept of "accumulation by dispossession" and critiques its limitations.

• Robert Nichols argues for a clearer relationship between land, labor, and dispossession:

  • Land as dynamic, connected to labor, not solely an object of property.

Colonization and Property

• Early agricultural colonization intertwined with capitalist conceptions of property transformation.

• The historical association between land ownership and agricultural improvement:

  • John Locke's view: land tilled as rightful property.

  • Colonization justified through the moral and economic rationale of agriculture.

Impact of Allotment Policies

• The Dawes Severalty Act (1887) aimed to individualize Native lands, parallel to the goal of assimilation:

  • Resulted in significant land loss (from 138 million acres to 52 million acres by 1934).

  • Shift from communal land to individual ownership deepened colonial control and undermined Native sovereignty.

Racial Taxonomies and Land Ownership

• Racialization plays a central role in contemporary land rights and property law:

  • Policies such as the Dawes Act were enmeshed with racial categorizations.

  • Controversies over tribal citizenship were amplified post-Emancipation.

Legacies of Displacement and Migration

• The interconnections between agricultural production and racialized labor practices:

  • Increase in agricultural mechanization led to the outmigration of Black laborers.

• 1900s: Extensive Black migration to urban areas in search of better opportunities amidst oppression.

USDA's Role and Subsequent Settlements

• Continued discrimination within USDA programming leading to systemic land dispossession:

  • Class action lawsuits showcase racial disparities within federal aid.

  • Significant settlements like Pigford (1999) addressed abuses by the USDA.

• Challenges in achieving racial equity in agricultural support continue to resonate with historical injustices.

Indigenous Agriculture Today

• Ongoing struggles for Native sovereignty in the context of agricultural production.

• Environmental exploitation through agriculture, such as the Garrison Dam project, intensified dispossession.

• Need to acknowledge the connection between land dispossession and racial capitalism when discussing Indigenous agricultural sovereignty.

Conclusion: The Not Given

• Emphasizes the complex relationship between land, labor, and identity, and how historical contexts shape current agricultural policies.

• Calls for understanding and dismantling the legacies of dispossession and the interests they serve.