[I]t has been the Opinion of all the several Legislative Bodies, both of Great-Britain and her Colonies, that peaceable Possession, especially of back waste vacant Lands, is a Kind of Right, always looked upon quite sufficient to entitle them to the Preference or Refusal of a farther [legal] Title. . . . This method has been used from New-England to Georgia, some Hundreds of Years Past. . . .

Now the Earl of Granville’s Office, shut in such a manner, that no one in the Province knew but it would open again every year. . . . [B]ut four or five years being now elapsed, there is so much of the Lands seated under these Circumstances [cleared and cultivated], that Individuals in Power, and who has Money, are Marking them out for a Prey. . . .

It is to be feared too many of our Rulers have an eye to make a Prey of these poor People, because an Opinion seems to be propagated, that it is Criminal to cut a Tree down off the vacant Lands. Whether this Notion took its Rise from the great Men’s making Tar and Turpentine on vacant Lands . . . or from the Motive’s above mentioned [powerful men seeking improved lands], I would advise no honest Man to suffer such an Opinion to take Place with him; for the Thing is so inhuman and base, that you will not find a man but he will deny and clear himself, or hide such a Design as long as he can. . . .

Who can justify the Conduct of any Government who have countenanced and encouraged so many Thousands of poor Families to bestow their All, and the Labour of many Years, to improve a Piece of waste Land, with full Expectation of a Title, to deny them Protection from being rob[b]ed of it all by a few roguish Individuals, who never bestowed a Farthing thereon?

Source: Hermon Husband, Impartial Relation of the First Rise and Cause of the Recent Differences in Publick Affairs, in the Province of North Carolina; and of the Past Tumults and Riots that Lately Happened in that Province (North Carolina, 1770), 74, 77–78.