When people hear the word “reparations” today, it’s usually in a context of compensating African-Americans or Indians for damages they suffered, including forced and unpaid work, or for theft of their land and livelihoods among other harms. As a reminder, Japanese-Americans received reparations after they were deprived of their liberty (internment) and for property that was confiscated from them during WWII. Today, we broaden that lens and look at the instances when Ohio was carved up as a form of reparations to Revolutionary War veterans and other classes of people who Congress wanted to “restore to good condition,” before Ohio became a state.Before we go to this month’s trivia, let’s get clear on the definition of the word reparation(s). I lifted this directly from Dictionary.comReparation: noun* the making of amends for wrong or injury done:In reparation for the injustice, the king made him head of the agricultural department.* something done or given to make amends:The prosecutor has requested a reparation of $32 million to victims of the crime.Synonyms: compensation, satisfaction, atonement, indemnification* Usually reparations.* compensation in money, material, labor, etc., payable by a defeated country to another country or to an individual for loss suffered during or as a result of war:The U.S. government eventually disbursed reparations to Japanese Americans who had been interned during World War II.* monetary or other compensation payable by a country to an individual for a historical wrong:The article is about reparations to Black people for the enslavement of their ancestors.* restoration to good condition.Synonyms: repair, renovate, renewalREMINDER: It’s the rare person who can answer all ten trivia questions without any prep. I couldn’t answer them without a significant amount of research, either! Do your best and enjoy learning something new. Answers in the footnotes.QUESTIONSAll questions refer to this district map. For this quiz, try thinking of Ohio as a clock face. The districts in question start at the 12:00 position with the district labeled “The Fire Lands 1792.” We’ll move clockwise from there. All answers are in the footnotes.* Moving to the 1:00 position on the map, we find The Connecticut Western Reserve 1786. When King Charles II granted Connecticut’s 1662 Charter, he defined it broadly and ambiguously. Settlers in the newly-chartered colony seized upon the ambiguities to make the largest claims possible, which stretched from the East Coast through Ohio all the way to the Pacific (which is also what Virginia did earlier). They refused to concede this little patch in The Ohio Country after a series of concessions to other colonies and countries for their western lands until forced to do so by Congress in 1786. Which of the following is true about the Connecticut Western Reserve? More than one may apply.* Connecticut yielded claims to the region to Congress in 1786 so that Congress could establish the Northwest Territory. * Connecticut drove a hard bargain when yielding its claims in 1786. When the Continental Congress created the Northwest Territory the year after the Connecticut cession, it was assumed that Connecticut, not the territory, was empowered to exercise political jurisdiction over the Reserve. The ambiguity lasted until the Constitutional Congress approved the "Quieting Act" in 1800, whereby Connecticut surrendered all governing authority. * The Fire Lands (at 12:00) were carved out of the Connecticut Western Reserve in 1792, and the rest was sold to the Connecticut Land Company in 1795 to fund public education. If this is true, the only lands from the Connecticut Western Reserve that were given in reparation were The Fire Lands.* How did the Fire Lands 1792 district get its name? More than one may apply.* It’s the shortened version of Fire Suffers’ Lands.* It was set aside for anyone who owned Connecticut property that had been burned by the British during the Revolutionary War.* Working for the British, Benedict Arnold raided and burned 140-plus buildings in New London, Connecticut, along with ships docked in the port. Those who suffered in this attack were eligible for land in Ohio as reparation.* The Seven Ranges (at about 3:00), is sometimes referred to as the Old Seven Ranges, and was established the same year as the Connecticut Western Reserve (1786). The Continental Congress needed a survey system for a systematic expansion into Ohio, so the Seven Ranges was a demonstration project of sorts. The ranges were surveyed in what became the Public Land Survey System, still in use today (discussed in May ‘24 Trivia). After the survey was complete, the Secretary of War was to choose (by lot) one seventh of the land to compensate veterans of the Continental army. The rest of the lots were to be sold at auction in New York. Which of these lands were excepted from the New York auction? More than one may apply.* A wealthy merchant, ...
