“We'll All Start Even”: White Egalitarianism and the Oregon Donation Land Claim Act

Abstract

Kenneth R. Coleman examines the 1850 Oregon Donation Land Claim Act, a bill unprecedented in its generous land distribution and unique in that it was the only federal land-distribution act that specifically limited land grants by race. Oregon's early political leaders “repeatedly invoked a Jacksonian vision of egalitarianism rooted in White supremacy to justify their actions” and successfully lobbied Congress to allow White settlers to seize Indigenous lands before they were ceded through federal treaties. The DCLA allowed privatization of over 2.5 million acres of Oregon land and influenced future land-distribution legislation, such as the 1863 Homestead Act. In using land as a tool of racial exclusion, Coleman argues that “Oregon's early political leaders initiated a pattern that continued well into the twentieth century,” and “any serious attempt to challenge White supremacy in Oregon must engage with the economic legacy of institutionalized racism limiting access to real estate and, as such, wealth and social power.”