Date of Award
2024
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts in History
Department
History
First Advisor
Rod Mather
Abstract
The Morrill Act of 1862 granted states thousands of acres of federal land, or land scrip for those states that did not have sufficient available public land, for the development of higher education institutions throughout the United States. Rhode Island was granted 120,000 acres of scrip to be located, sold, and then invested in stocks to create an endowment. The mismanagement of this allocation caused Rhode Island to earn the lowest cents/acre payout from the scrip lands. Land dispossession occurred on many levels, over many years, and the scars of these historic policies are still seen and felt today. However, some scars remain invisible in public acknowledgement and understanding, such as the Indigenous land dispossession that funded land-grant institutions through the Morrill Act. Contemporary land-grant colleges and universities must go beyond simple land acknowledgements in order to partially remedy these injustices.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Sullivan, Jenny, "CONTESTED LANDSCAPES: THE ORIGINS AND CONSEQUENCES OF RHODE ISLAND’S LAND-GRANT INSTITUTIONS (1862-1892)" (2024). Open Access Master's Theses. Paper 2480.
https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/theses/2480