Patricians vs. plebians

The town green in Douglas, Mass. Town greens (or “commons”) are town-owned land in New England.

“There arose … in every New England village community the same strife between old resident and newcomers as that between the patricians and plebians of ancient Rome; the old settlers claimed a monopoly of the public land and the newcomers demanded a share.

— Herbert Baxter Adams (1850-1901), historian and educator, in The Germanic Origins of New England Towns

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