The Homestead Act (May 1862)

• The Homestead Act

  encouraged more people to settle and farm in the West. The government offered 160-acre plots of land called homesteads – a house with enough land to support a family.
• • Registering for a homestead plot cost $10, so it was affordable for ordinary people (e.g. ex-slaves).
  • Homesteaders had to live on and work the land themselves, and there was a limit on how many claims one person could file. The government didn’t want rich businessmen buying up all the land for profit.
  • As long as they were the head of a family, or single and over-21, anyone could file a claim for a plot. American Indians could not.
  • Once someone had lived on and worked the land for 5 years, they could buy it outright for $30 (known as “proving up”).
• Achievements:

  • By 1876, over 6 million acres of government land had become homesteads.
  • Parts of the Plains were settled for the first time.
  • In Nebraska, the population grew so much that it became a state in 1867.
  • It encouraged immigration from Europe.

  
• Limitations:

  • Only 16% of public land was homesteaded. Far more was sold to railroads or cattle ranchers.
  • 60% of homesteads were never “proved up”.
  • More homesteads were formed by railroad companies and squatting than by the Homestead Act.
  • Rich landowners still found ways to abuse the system: e.g. by filing claims in employees’ names.
  • Many people filed claims in order to sell it on for a profit afterwards.
• Although the adverts made it sound easy, homesteaders faced challenges:

  • They needed savings of around $1000 to get started
  • They quickly ran out of money during spells of no rain