The Homestead Acts were several laws in the United States by which an applicant could acquire ownership of government land or the public domain, typically called a homestead. In all, more than of public land, or nearly 10 percent of the total area of the United States, were given away free to 1.6 million homesteaders; most of the homesteads were west of the Mississippi River.
An extension of the 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 farmers.
For a number of years individual Congressmen put forward bills providing for homesteading,Some Political Aspects of Homestead Legislation by John Bell SanbornChapters in the History of Social Legislation in the United States to 1860 By Henry Walcott Farnam, 2000, P.138 but it was not until 1862 that the first homestead act was passed. The Homestead Act of 1862 opened up millions of acres. Any adult who had never taken up arms against the federal government of the United States could apply. Women and immigrants who had applied for citizenship were eligible. Most homesteading occurred during the period of 1900–1930. As of 2017, around 93 million Americans were descendants of people who received land through the Homestead Acts.
Background Land-grant laws similar to the Homestead Acts had been proposed by northern Republicans prior to the Civil War, but they had been repeatedly blocked in Congress by Democrats who wanted western lands open for purchase by slave owners. The Homestead Act of 1860 passed in Congress but was vetoed by President James Buchanan, a Democrat. After the Southern states seceded from the Union in 1861 (and their representatives had left Congress), the bill passed and was signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln (May 20, 1862). Daniel Freeman became the first person to file a claim under the new act.
Between 1862 and 1934, the federal government granted 1.6 million homesteads and distributed of federal land for private ownership. This was a total of 10% of all land in the United States.The Homestead Act of 1862; Archives.gov Homesteading was discontinued in 1976, except in Alaska, where it continued until 1986. About 40% of the applicants who started the process were able to complete it and obtain title to their homesteaded land after paying a small fee in cash.US Department of the Interior, National Park Service. "Homesteading by the Numbers", accessed February 5, 2010.
Homestead laws depleted Native American resources as much of the land they relied on was taken by the federal government and sold to settlers. Native ancestral lands had been limited through history, mainly through land allotments and reservations, causing a gradual decrease in this Indigenous land. Many of these land-grabs occurred during and after treaty negotiations between Indigenous tribes and the United States. Native Americans often traded their land in exchange for citizenship and civil rights. Due to the United States' economic power, these tribes had little leverage and millions of acres of land were transferred from their ownership. It was difficult for Indigenous people to legally challenge this infringement because they lacked legal rights and legal standing. These treaties were used to naturalize and civilize Native Americans.Rollings, William Hughes (2004). "Citizenship and Suffrage: The Native American Struggle for Civil Rights in the American West, 1830-1965". Nevada Law Journal. 5 (1): 126–140. Native Americans were not allowed to file land claims under the Homestead Acts unless they renounced their tribal citizenship.
As an indirect, de facto way to secure the dispossessed land, the US government allowed late homesteading during the early twentieth century. This acted as a way to solidify settlements and permanently disrupt tribal land practices in the face of backlash.
The Homestead Acts also resulted in tensions between settlers and Indigenous people, partly due to settlers moving onto Indigenous territory while it was still occupied. Settlements excused Indian removal and culminated in multiple wars waged by settler militia.Wilm, Julius (2020). ""The Indians Must Yield": Antebellum Free Land, The Homestead Act, and the Displacement of Native Peoples". German Historical Institute. 67 (2): 17–39.
Also involved in the acts were Buffalo soldiers, African-American soldiers who were key in building the American frontier in the West. They often engaged in wars with Native Americans, led by the government, to take over Indigenous land.
Some settlers in the Dakota Territory, and later in South Dakota and North Dakota, who gained land through the Homestead Acts were Jewish or Muslim. Jewish homesteaders were largely Russian Jews fleeing pogroms in the Russian Empire. 1200 settled in North Dakota. After they acquired farms they soon moved to town.Janet E. Schulte, " 'Proving up and Moving up': Jewish Homesteading Activity in North Dakota, 1900-1920." Great Plains Quarterly (1990): 228-244., online Syro-Lebanese Muslim settlers who gained land through the Homestead Acts created a settlement in Ross, North Dakota, where they would later found the first mosque in the United States.
Some homesteaders were Hispanics and Latinos. Hispanic and Latino homesteaders included Chilean immigrants, Mexican immigrants, and US-born Latinos. Some US-born Latinos from New Mexico moved north to Colorado to become homesteaders.
Few homesteaders were Asian during the 1800s, as the Naturalization Act of 1870 denied citizenship to Asians. The Supreme Court's decision in United States v. Wong Kim Ark (1898), which affirmed birthright citizenship for Chinese Americans, opened the Homestead Acts to Asian Americans.
History
Preemption Act of 1841
The Preemption Act of 1841 allowed settlers to claim up to 160 acres of federal land for themselves and prevent its sale to others including large landowners or corporations; they paid only a low fixed price of $1.25 per acre ($3.09 per hectare). To qualify, a person had to be either 21 years old or a "head of household" (such as a parent or surviving sibling supporting a family), a citizen or an immigrant declaring to become a citizen, and a resident on that land for a minimum of 14 months. To get permanent title to the land, the person had to accomplish certain actions, such as continue to reside on it or improve it for at least five years; they could not leave or abandon it for more than six months at a time.Land Acts (2014). National Archives and Records Administration. https://www.archives.gov/files/calendar/genealogy-fair/2014/other-land-acts.pdf
Donation Land Claim Act of 1850
After the creation of the Oregon territory in 1848, the US government had passed the most generous land distribution bill in US history. The Oregon Donation Land Claim Act of 1850 allowed settlers to claim land in the Oregon Territory, then including the modern states of Washington, Oregon, Idaho and parts of Wyoming. Until its repeal in 1855, the Act allowed individual white settlers to claim 320 acres, or 640 to married couples, at a price of $1.25 per acre.
The Donation Land Claim Act had many negative effects on Indigenous people as well as Black people in the Pacific Northwest. Not only did the act use the land taken away from the Indigenous people in the Pacific Northwest, but the act also barred Black citizens from owning land and real estate. The act guaranteed land for White settlers and "half-breed" Indian men to the Oregon territory. This act followed the passing of the 1848 territorial organic act which allowed any white settler to claim a maximum of six hundred and forty acres. The Land Donation Act, however, also acknowledged women's property rights due to Congress allowing the donation of four hundred acres to settlers—land that could be claimed by heads of households—including women. This act differed from the Homestead Act of 1866 due to the ineligibility of Black citizens from applying.
Homestead Act of 1862
The "yeoman farmer" ideal of Jeffersonian democracy was still a powerful influence in American politics during the 1840–1850s, with many politicians believing a homestead act would help increase the number of "virtuous yeomen". The Free Soil Party of 1848–52, and the new Republican Party after 1854, demanded that the new lands opening up in the west be made available to independent farmers, rather than wealthy planters who would develop it with the use of slaves forcing the yeomen farmers onto marginal lands.Eric Foner; Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men: The Ideology of the Republican Party before the Civil War; 1970. Southern Democrats had continually fought (and defeated) previous homestead law proposals, as they feared free land would attract European immigrants and poor Southern whites to the west.Charles C. Bolton; Poor Whites of the Antebellum South: Tenants and Laborers in Central North Carolina and Northeast Mississippi; 1993; p. 67...
The intent of the Homestead Act of 1862 was to reduce the cost of homesteading under the Preemption Act; after the South seceded and their delegates left Congress in 1861, the Republicans and supporters from the upper South passed a homestead act signed by Abraham Lincoln on May 20, 1862, which went into effect on Jan. 1st, 1863..Hannah L. Anderson, 'That Settles It: The Debate and Consequences of the Homestead Act of 1862', The History Teacher 45.1 (2011), p. 101 Its leading advocates were Andrew Johnson,. George Henry Evans,. and Horace Greeley."Horace Greeley" ; Tulane University; August 13, 1999; retrieved 11-22-2007 George Henry Evans famously coined the phrase "Vote Yourself a Farm" in a bid to garner support for the movement.Felix Rohayton, 'Five: The Homestead Act' in Bold Endeavours: How Our Government Built America, And Why It Must Rebuild Now (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2009), p. 87
In addition to the previous requirement in the Preemption Act of being either 21 years old or the head of a family, the 1862 act also allowed for persons under 21 who had served in the regular or volunteer forces of the U.S. army or navy for at least 14 days during "the existence of an actual war domestic or foreign".
The new act also required that the person "has never borne arms against the United States Government or given aid and comfort to its enemies"; unlike the 1848 and 1850 laws, it did not have any provision mentioning race. The act gave citizens or intended citizens 160 acres of surveyed public land if they improved their plot by cultivating the land.
The Homestead act expanded, rather than changed, the 1841 Preemption Act. The claimed homestead could include the same land which they had previously filed a preemption claim (on up to 160 acres at $1.25 per acre, or up to 80 acres of subdivided and surveyed land at $2.50 per acre), and they could expand their current ownership to contiguous adjacent land up to 160 acres total.
The homestead application must be "made for his or her exclusive use and benefit, and that said entry [onto public land] is made for the purpose of actual settlement and cultivation, and not either directly or indirectly for the use or benefit of any other person or persons whomsoever". The acquired land would not be liable for any debts incurred prior to the issuance of the patent for it.
The time requirement for residence or cultivation was set at 5 years; if it was proven "after due notice" that they moved residence or abandoned the land for more than six months at a time, then the land reverted to the government. A homesteader could also pay the $1.25 (or the current rate) per acre price after proof of the less-stringent requirements set in the Preemption Act.