The Phillipsburg “College Right”: Investigating Harvard and Colonialism

Authors:

Laura Cleves, Kabl Wilkerson, Philip Deloria, Alan Niles

Date Created:

2025-01-01

Course Title:

Professor:

Not specified

About Paper:

Historians have examined Harvard University’s role in the Phillipsburg plantation in southern Maine, home to a 938-acre tract development of colonial Massachusetts, underscoring how known to proprietors as the “College Right”. While it is believed the College benefited from settler-colonial expropriation of that the “College Right” was never in its possession, Harvard Indigenous land during the 17th to 19th centuries. However, derived financial benefit from the lot. This project first provides Harvard’s involvement in the colonial settlement of present-day context on the conditions of the Maine frontier by focusing on Maine has not received the same amount of scholarly attention. settlements in the Saco River Valley. It then traces Harvard’s This project argues that Harvard has demonstrable ties to the connections to the “College Lot” in Phillipsburg from its bequest speculative development of southern Maine, benefiting from to the College in 1678 to its eventual sale circa 1808. It concludes the compensated dispossession of Abenaki communities in the by situating the Phillipsburg case study in the broader context Saco River Valley. Using extensive archival research and newly- of Harvard’s ties to land in Maine, underscoring the need for transcribed documents from Subseries B in the Maine collection of further research into how the University played a role in advancing Harvard’s Records of Land and Property, this project analyzes colonial-era fiduciary colonialism. this history through an investigation of Harvard’s ties to the

Abstract:

Historians have examined Harvard University’s role in the Phillipsburg plantation in southern Maine, home to a 938-acre tract development of colonial Massachusetts, underscoring how known to proprietors as the “College Right”. While it is believed the College benefited from settler-colonial expropriation of that the “College Right” was never in its possession, Harvard Indigenous land during the 17th to 19th centuries. However, derived financial benefit from the lot. This project first provides Harvard’s involvement in the colonial settlement of present-day context on the conditions of the Maine frontier by focusing on Maine has not received the same amount of scholarly attention. settlements in the Saco River Valley. It then traces Harvard’s This project argues that Harvard has demonstrable ties to the connections to the “College Lot” in Phillipsburg from its bequest speculative development of southern Maine, benefiting from to the College in 1678 to its eventual sale circa 1808. It concludes the compensated dispossession of Abenaki communities in the by situating the Phillipsburg case study in the broader context Saco River Valley. Using extensive archival research and newly- of Harvard’s ties to land in Maine, underscoring the need for transcribed documents from Subseries B in the Maine collection of further research into how the University played a role in advancing Harvard’s Records of Land and Property, this project analyzes colonial-era fiduciary colonialism. this history through an investigation of Harvard’s ties to the

Source:

Harvard / Harvard College | Eliot House | Government | 2027 / 2025

Topics:

maine, phillipsburg, right, colonial, land, colonialism, university, role, southern, development, underscoring, lot

Co-authors:

@lauracleves130 , @kablwilkerson131 , @philipdeloria132 , @alanniles133