What is the role played by America in relation to Locke's notion of property?
Locke was always extremely interested in America, but he was especially interested around the time of the Second Treatise. He would often study accounts of explorations and colonial stories, for example, presumably because he understood America to be an unprecedented opportunity for individual liberty. This certainly applied to his understanding of property, which centered on the individual subject's autonomous right to his or her own labor.
