The Homestead Act

1. VaShon Williams Leah Crenshaw Jordan Jacobs Jessica Emerson Chelsea Villanueva The Homestead Act

2. The desire to move West was always strong in American culture. “The spirit for emigration is great.” –George Washington By the 1850’s the continental United States stretched from sea to sea after large land acquisitions. People longed to move West and fill in the vast empty space. The Beginning

3. The Pre-emption Act in 1841 let farmers claim un-surveyed land and later purchase it. Congressman Andrew Johnson believed people should get the land free. Southerners opposed him because they said it favored people who would vote against slavery. Roots

4. On May 20, 1862, the Homestead Act was passed. It declared that any citizen or person who was going to become a citizen could claim land. Each land grant was 160 acres, one quarter-mile of surveyed land. After five years, if the original filer had improved the land and still lived on it, the land became their property. The Homestead Act of 1862

5. The Act allowed citizens as well as immigrants who would become citizens to own the land. Many of the people who claimed land were immigrants as well as cattlemen, lumbermen, miners, and speculators. There were no requirements as to the amount of equipment a person needed to have. The Homesteaders

6. Daniel Freeman and his wife, Agnes, were the first people to claim land in the West. Rumor is that he went to the office in Saint Louis at midnight, January 1, 1863, just so he could be the first one to claim land. When her husband was away, Agnes was known to have given Native Americans food and goods in order to keep the peace on their farm. The Original Homesteader

7. Many homesteaders had no experience in farming. They would often abandon their farms, leaving the land open for speculators to claim. Speculators would buy or claim land then sell it for a profit. They would also hire false claimants to claim the land. Speculators

8. There were many difficulties ion trying to create a farm out of wilderness. Farmers suffered from drought, hailstorms, prairie fires, blizzards, and scarcity of water. Swarms of locusts would completely black out the sky and eat everything in their path. Problems

9. It may not have been the paradise that it was advertised as, but it become home to a special group of people. The people who came to settle the plains became a breed of settles that was more than willing to cope with adversity. One English emigrant guide advised, “You must make up your mind to rough it.” Paradise?