John, owner of a fee simple in Blackacre conveyed the property "to Michael for life, remainder to Steven, provided that if any person should consume alcohol on the property before the first born son of Steven turns twenty-one, then the property shall go to Walter in fee simple." Assume that neither Michael, Steven, or Walter is an heir of John, and that John's only heir is his son, Edward. Discuss the ownership interests in Blackacre of John, Michael, Steven, Walter and Edward.

Where more than one estate is needed to demonstrate a point — perhaps relating to a dispute over boundaries or riparian rights — a second estate will usually be called Whiteacre, a third, Greenacre, and a fourth, Brownacre.

Jesse Dukeminier, author of one of the leading series of textbooks on property, traces the use of Blackacre and Whiteacre for this purpose to a 1628 treatise by Sir Edward Coke. Dukeminier suggests that the term might originate with references to colors associated with certain crops ("peas and beans are black, corn and potatoes are white, hay is green"), or with the means by which rents were to be paid, with black rents payable in produce and white rents in silver.

Blackacre is also the name adopted by a literary journal at the University of Texas School of Law. The journal is compiled and edited each year by the Texas Law Writers League, an organization co-founded by Meera George, Robert Love, and Michael Matthews in 2004.

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