The Homestead Act of 1862

The Homestead Act was signed into law by Abraham Lincoln on May 20, 1862, during the Civil War. It was an outgrowth of the demand for western lands as the population grew. Adult heads of families were allowed one hundred sixty acres of surveyed public land for a small filing fee and five years of continued residency on the land. This included freed slaves. Those claiming the land were required to improve it by building a dwelling and cultivating the land. The Union soldiers in the Civil War could claim credit for time served to meet the requirements for residency; however the stipulation was that no soldier or citizen who had borne arms against the United States could claim such land.

Most of the land was already occupied by Native American tribes but the government pushed them onto barren lands unsuited for the lifestyle they had been accustomed to. This led to increased tensions and fighting between the Native Americans and the United States government as well as citizens who settled on the newly opened lands.

The tensions and fighting were not limited to the Native Americans; each regional interest had plenty to say about the Homestead Act. The northern factory owners were afraid it would drain the supply of laborers from the factories and mills, forcing them to pay more money for workers. In the south, the large plantation owners feared that the government policy would result in more free states that were opposed to slavery.

It was the poorer folk that needed the land most but most were unable to take advantage of the Homestead Act because it cost too much money to travel that far and build up a farm with the limited resources they had. Most who did claim land did not travel a great distance from their previous homes but moved to adjoining states.

The land and climate itself had challenges for the homesteader to face. Drought, hail, grasshoppers, limited amounts of fuel available for the settlers to use all were obstacles to overcome. In such a large expanse of land, the people who survived best and succeeded in proving up on their homesteads were those who persisted despite the dangers and challenges to survival. One hundred sixty acres was often not enough land for the Midwestern or Western rancher or farmer to support himself and his cattle on. Crops that flourished in the eastern states were not suited to the western lands.

The Homestead Act was a good idea but it did not have the oversight that it should have had. Bribery and corruption was common especially in the areas where water was scarce; speculators would homestead sections, claim to find water or mineral rights and often sell quickly. Other people would use the Homestead Act as a means to control the water rights and larger chunks of land for the cattle companies, mining interests or the railroads, who sold the land at inflated prices to eager settlers.

In 1909, an amendment to the Homestead Act was passed, this Enlarged Homestead Act was meant to encourage dry land farmers to claim land that did not have easy access to water. This was followed by the Stock-Raising Homestead Act in 1916, in an effort to use public lands for ranching or farming purposes; however, less than half of those who applied were able to prove up on their claims. Homesteading was discontinued in the United States, except for the state of Alaska with the last homesteader filing in 1986.