Homestead Acts: Difference between revisions

The '''Homestead Acts''' were several [[United States federal law]]s that gave an applicant ownership of land, typically called a "[[Homestead (buildings)|homestead]]", at little or no cost. It gave settlers 160 acres (65 hectares). An extension of the ''[[Homestead principle|Homestead Principle]]'' in law, the Homestead Acts were an expression of the "[[Free Soil]]" policy of Northerners who wanted individual farmers to own and operate their own farms, as opposed to Southern slave-owners who wanted to buy up large tracts of land and use slave labor, thereby shutting out free white men.

 

 

Several additional laws were enacted in the latter half of the 19th and early 20th centuries. The '''[[Southern Homestead Act of 1866]]''' sought to address land ownership inequalities in the south during [[Reconstruction Era|Reconstruction]]. The '''[[Timber Culture Act]]''' of 1873 granted land to a claimant who was required to plant trees—the tract could be added to an existing homestead claim and had no residency requirement. The '''[[Kinkaid Act|Kinkaid Amendment]]''' of 1904 granted a full section (640 acres) to new homesteaders settling in western Nebraska. An amendment to the Homestead Act of 1862, the '''Enlarged Homestead Act''', was passed in 1909 and doubled the allotted acreage to 320. Another amended act, the national '''Stock-Raising Homestead Act''', was passed in 1916 and again increased the land involved, this time to 640 acres. In all, more than 270 million acres of public land, or nearly 10% of the total area of the U.S., was given away free to homesteaders.