This image depicts a newly cleared farm site from the early eighteenth century. Land ownership became an increasingly tricky prospect for men living in western Europe and the British Isles by the sixteenth century, driven in large part by the region’s rapidly expanding population and the growing demand for food. The rising cost of wheat incentivized the purchase of land for production, which increased its value and made it nearly impossible for a landless man of limited financial means to compete with wealthy investors. But for those willing to face any number of challenges in a largely unknown, far-off location, land ownership seemed possible in the English colonies of North America.