The Homestead Act of 1862 made surveyed lands obtainable to homesteaders. The act stated that men and women over the age of 21, unmarried women who were head of households and married men under the age of 21, who did not own over 160 acres of land anywhere, were citizens or intended on becoming citizens of the United States, were eligible to homestead. This paper will show how the Homestead Act came to be enacted, who the homesteaders were and the effects of the Homestead Act on the pioneers. II WHAT EVENTS LEAD TO THE HOMESTEAD ACT? The distribution of Government lands had been an issue since the Revolutionary War. Early methods for allocating unsettled land outside the original 13 colonies were chaotic. Boundaries were established by stepping off plots from geographical landmarks. As a result, overlapping claims and border disputes were common.
The Land Ordinance of 1785 finally implemented a standardized system of Federal land surveys that eased boundary conflicts. Territories were divided into a 6-mile square called a township prior to settlement. The township was divided into 36 sections, each measuring 1 square mile or 640 acres each. Sale of public land was viewed as a means to generate revenue for the Government rather than as a way to encourage settlement. Initially, an individual was required to purchase a full section of land at the cost of $1 per acre for 640 acres. The investment needed to purchase these large plots and the massive amount of physical labor required to clear the land for agriculture were often insurmountable obstacles.
The Essay on Homestead Act West Land Government
... year called the Homestead Act. The Homestead Act offered American citizens and immigrants who planned to be citizens 160 acres of public land each for only ... of the West began with distribution of government land through many acts such as the Homestead Act of 1862, and by mechanization of farming. ...
According to all available indexes of growth, the United States grew enormously between 1840 and 1860. The continental limits of the nation were reached, with the exception of Alaska, by 1854 through the acquisition of the Mexican Cession territory and the Gadsden Purchase. The population continued its upward spiral, moving from slightly over seventeen million in 1840 to over thirty-eight million in 1860. New canals, steamboats, turnpikes, and railroads knit the nation together into an integrated economic unit. Hundred of thousands of people crossed the Atlantic to take up residence in the dynamic nation, while other hundreds of thousands moved into the Western regions of the country. Legislative efforts to improve homesteading laws faced opposition on multiple fronts. Southern majorities in Congress consistently blocked legislation called for by the other sections of the country because they worried that rapid settlement of western territories would give rise to new states populated by small farmers opposed to slavery. Others were concerned that factories in the East would lose their supply of cheap labor if workers were lured westward by the availability of small blocks of land at low prices.
Congressmen from the West argued that settlers were performing a patriotic service when they tamed the wilderness and advanced the frontier. For decades, the halls of Congress echoed with debates about the minimal price at which land should be sold and the minimal acreage that a buyer should be required to purchase. Gradually, Congress decreased the minimum unit from 640 acres in 1785 to 320 acres in 1800, 160 acres in 1804, 80 acres in 1820, and 40 acres from 1832 until 1862, when the Homestead Act gave 160 acres free to anyone who would live on the land and cultivate it for five years. III PASSAGE OF THE HOMESTEAD ACT The Pre-emption Act of 1841 legitimized squatting by letting farmers claim unsurveyed plots and later buy them from the government. Pre-emption became the national policy, but supporting legislation was blocked. Senator Andrew Johnson of Tennessee took up the cause in 1840. Southerners opposed Johnson’s land giveaway as benefiting working-class whites who were unlikely to vote slavery into the new states. Three times the House of Representatives passed homestead legislation (1852, 1854, and 1859) but on each occasion, the Senate defeated the measure. In 1860, a homestead bill providing Federal land grants to western settlers was passed by Congress only to be vetoed by President Buchanan.
The Essay on The Homestead Act
To my understanding, and from what I have read in the book and throughout the course links, I believe that the intent of the Homestead Act was to defeat land monopoly. Many farmers, however, lacked the economic means to move west and manage a farm. . By this, fewer still understood the new type of agriculture, in which technology was used to farm the land that the Great Plains required. Instead, ...
With the secession of the Southern states from the Union and the removal of the slavery issue, finally in 1862, the Homestead Act was passed and signed by President Abraham Lincoln. The new law established a three-fold homestead acquisition process: filing an application, improving the land, and filing for deed of title. Any U.S. citizen, or intended citizen, who had never borne arms against the U.S. Government could file an application and lay claim to 160 acres of surveyed Government land. For the next 5 years, the homesteader had to live on the land and improve it by building a 12 by 14 dwelling and growing crops. After 5 years, the homesteader could file for his patent (or deed of title) by submitting proof of residency and the required improvements to a local land office. Local land offices forwarded the paperwork to the General Land Office in Washington, DC, along with a final certificate of eligibility.
The case file was examined, and valid claims were granted patent to the land free and clear, except for a small registration fee. Title could also be acquired after a 6-month residency and trivial improvements, provided the claimant paid the government $1.25 per acre. After the Civil War, Union soldiers could deduct the time they served from the residency requirements. Before the Act was repealed in 1934, over 1.6 million homestead applications were processed and more than 270 million acres – 10 percent of all U.S. lands – passed into the hands of individuals. The Homestead Act was amended many times over the years.
It was repealed on October 21, 1976, except that the effective date for public lands in Alaska was extended ten years to October 21, 1986. IV HOMESTEADERS The Homestead Act of 1862 was largely irrelevant in the Midwest, where most of the land had been bought and paid for before the act was passed. Much of the eastern Midwest was purchased during the land boom of the 1830’s, and most of Iowa and Wisconsin during the land boom of the 1850’s. By 1862, most of the land that was still available for homesteaders was in Minnesota, the Dakotas, Nebraska, and Kansas. In the early days, few people bought more than the minimal acreage required by law, because farm machinery was primitive, and a man with horses could not cultivate more than 40 to 80 acres even if he had a large family of husky sons. Some settlers bought larger blocks, but most of the eastern Corn Belt was divided into parcels of 40 to 80 acres and even today few farmers own as much as 160 acres, although they farm far more because they rent land from their neighbors.
The Term Paper on The Land Registration Act 2002
This essay shall aim to provide an explanation as to whether or not the passage of the Land Registration Act 2002 has fundamentally changed any area of property law in England and Wales. To do this, it shall be necessary to examine the Land Registration Act of 1925, which was the precursor to the 2002 Act, as well as the history of land and property law in this country, including the ‘feudal’ ...
After the war with Mexico, a number of developments supported the growth of the homestead movement. Economic prosperity drew unprecedented numbers of immigrants to America, many of whom also looked westward for a new life. New canals and roadways reduced western dependence on the harbor in New Orleans, and England’s repeal of its corn laws opened new markets to American agriculture. The main occupation of most people in the late 1800’s was farming. An offer of free land meant that citizens of all races and both sexes could establish farms of their own. Prior to 1862 it was nearly impossible for middle or lower class women to acquire land in the United States because they had few chances for employment and therefore, they were unable to save enough money to purchase land. Women were also forbidden, by law or by custom, to work at many of the same kinds of jobs that men did.
Prevailing material and social relations effectively prevented women from accumulating wealth, capital, power, and prestige. By virtue of the Homestead Act of 1862, however, many unmarried, widowed, and divorced women were able to claim land as the heads of households. In 1869, the first of many Bohemians started to file claims in Dakota Territory. Several years later, German settlers began to arrive, along with Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, Polish, Netherlander and Swiss settlers. Many were fleeing poor economic conditions, as well as European wars. During the 1870’s, a number of Hutterites established colonies in Dakota. Similar to the Amish, Hutterites practice an agricultural-based, communal lifestyle. By 1890, there were more than five times as many African Americans living in the western United States as there had been in 1870. The Homestead Act of 1862 did not require an applicant to indicate his or her race.
The Term Paper on Role Of Women In World War
Introduction Prior to the outbreak of the First World War, people regarded war as a male affair. In fact, right up to the occurrence of the war, women on either side of antagonism vowed themselves to peace, in global harmony. However, within several months into the war, major feminist groups gave a new vow to support their respective countries. Most of the women who served in the war ...
It is not known exactly how many homestead applications African Americans filed or how many fulfilled their claims. Following the Civil War, however, thousands of newly freed men and women left the South and traveled west. Some land speculators took advantage of a legislative loophole caused when those drafting the law’s language failed to specify whether the 12 by 14 dwelling was to be built in feet or in ….
