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Description

Absentee landowning has long been tied to economic distress in Appalachia. In this important revisionist study, Barbara Rasmussen examines the nature of landownership in five counties of West Virginia and its effects upon the counties' economic and social development.

Rasmussen untangles a web of outside domination of the region that commenced before the American Revolution, creating a legacy of hardship that continues to plague Appalachia today. The owners and exploiters of the region have included Lord Fairfax, George Washington, and, most recently, the U.S. Forest Service.

The overarching concern of these absentee landowners has been to control the land, the politics, the government, and the resources of the fabulously rich Appalachian Mountains. Their early and relentless domination of politics assured a land tax system that still favors absentee landholders and simultaneously impoverishes the state.

Class differences, a capitalistic outlook, and an ethic of growth and development pervaded western Virginia from earliest settlement. Residents, however, were quickly outspent by wealthier, more powerful outsiders. Insecurity in landownership, Rasmussen demonstrates, is the most significant difference between early mountain farmers and early American farmers everywhere.

Barbara Rasmussen is an Appalachian historian.

"A thought-provoking and frequently insightful work that will contribute significantly to the ongoing scholarly debate concerning the roots of Appalachian dependency."—Journal of Appalachian Studies

"The book is consistently and appropriately engaged in present-day political concerns and ends with a prescription to revise West Virginia tax codes. Both activists and scholars can benefit from Rasmussen's research."—Register of the Kentucky Historical Society

Publication Date

1994

Publisher

The University Press of Kentucky

Place of Publication

Lexington, KY

ISBN

9780813118802

eISBN

9780813149356

Keywords

West Virginia, Virginia, Absenteeism, Land use, Land tenure, Appalachia

Disciplines

United States History

Absentee Landowning and Exploitation in West Virginia, 1760-1920
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