Mine and Thine: John Locke and Private Property
How one chapter by John Locke turned shared land into private property — and justified fences, colonies and capitalism.
How one event spilled into the next
Labour makes property
Locke publishes his theory in the Second Treatise.
The great enclosures
Parliament fences English commons; landless villagers move to factory towns.
Exported to the colonies
Allotment and colonial land laws impose private title worldwide.
Land titles and land fights
From Nigerian land-use law to Amazon deeds, Locke's idea still shapes who owns the earth.
Did you know?
Locke argued that when you 'mix your labour' with land, it becomes your property.
England's Enclosure Acts fenced off millions of acres of common land that villagers had shared for centuries.
Colonists used Locke's logic to claim Native American and African land was 'unused' and free to take.
Many African societies held land communally through lineages — the land belonged to the ancestors and the unborn.
Key figures
- John LockeSecond Treatise, Chapter V: Of Property
- Jean-Jacques RousseauBlamed the first fence for inequality
- Adam SmithBuilt markets on private ownership
Where this comes from
- John Locke, Second Treatise, ch. V 'Of Property' (1689)
- J. M. Neeson, Commoners (1993)
- Allan Greer, Property and Dispossession (2018)
Dates marked by tradition or legend are given as approximate.
Other sides of the story
Gathering perspectives…
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Every border, every spillover
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