The Homestead Act
In the year 1862, on approximately May 20, Abraham
Lincoln signed an extremely important act towards westward expansion. This act was called the Homestead Act. The Homestead Act allowed any head of the
house, even newly freed slaves, a chance to own 160 acres of land out west by
paying a small fee, building a dwelling, and cultivating the land for at least
five years. Nothing like this had ever
happened in the United States, so many people were excited to start a new life
out west. With women and African
Americans finally shown some freedom to do what they please, this act was the
first of its kind.
The
new, uncultivated land out west was like a gold mine for many people. If a family wanted to take this extraordinary
opportunity to move out west, the first thing they had to do was get the head
of the household to file their intentions at their closest Land Office. They then had to pay a small ten dollar fee
to claim their land, and then pay two dollars to the land agent. After this easy process, the land was almost
theirs, but work still had to be done.
Once the family moved to their newly acquired land the first thing to be
done, was of course build a house. Once
a house was built the land around it had to be properly farmed and maintained
for at least five years to keep their land.
After a couple weeks on the new land, the land agent had to ask a couple
neighbors of the newcomers to vouch for their treatment of the land. If all the rules were followed and everything
went per code, six dollars was to be paid to the land agent and the process was
finally over.
The
act was obviously trying to promote the United States’ manifest destiny, or
westward expansion. With the act only
having good intentions, some bad things came out of it. Not to say that the act was a completely
terrible failure, some good things certainly came out of it, but sometimes
those things are unfortunately over looked by the bad things it brought. The act did successfully add to westward
expansion. The act also caused the
discovery of coal, gold, silver, timber, and oil, all of which were located in
the western region of the United States.
The act bringing people to all corners of the United States also helped
increase the railroad and how far things could be shipped. Not all people were jumping up and down with
enthusiasm to take part in this act.
Some people were very skeptical about what and who was out there because
of the little knowledge we had of the west in 1862.
Unfortunately for many
people who took this chance to move out west, they got hit hard by unexpected
weather, disease, and famine. Moving
through the western states in January of 183, when the act was in full swing,
was not an easy thing to do. The
blizzards, intense winds, and sometimes even tornadoes taking lives of many of
the homesteaders made many more people want to stay where they were on the east
coast. The requirement of cultivation of
the newly acquired land seemed like an easy thing to do, but the homesteaders
had no idea about western farming. Many
of the crops planted either died or produced very little. With no other way of making money and putting
food on the table, many of the women had to turn to prostitution for their
source of income. Not to mention the
disturbance of the Indians, many of the buffalo were being killed off for their
fur and meat, and are nearly extinct today.
Only 80 of the 500 million acres of land actually went to homesteaders
and their families, the rest went to cattlemen, miners, timber men, and
railroad builders.
All of the bad things
that happened to some families make people think this act was a terrible
idea. Those people need to understand
that the Homestead Act spread the population of the United States to all
corners of its borders. The act also
spread the railroad through the whole country, making it possible to ship good
across the entire country. Yes there
were some loses in this feat but it is just like a war, you cannot save
everyone from dying in a war, but it has to be done for the good of the
country. The Homestead Act truly
stretched our great country to its full potential by spreading people to all of
its corners, and made the United States more advanced than it had ever been
before.
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| Advertisement of the Homestead Act |
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| Signed by President Lincoln on May 20, 1862 |
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| Family moving west to take advantage of The Homestead Act |
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| Famous painting by John Gast depicting westward expansion |
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| Land held by whites vs. Indians over time |
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| Actual states and land included in The Homestead Act |
Homestead Act- Sources
I used this source as a primary source and I also used it to
find other primary sources since it had many different links at the bottom of
the page.
This source helped me with almost all of my research aspects
(all information, dates, people, how to acquire land, etc.) and even had
pictures and scanned copies of the actual document.
I used this source to find out how one could acquire land
during the Homestead Act.
I used this source to define and understand the word
“homesteader”.
I used this word press site to put the positive and negative
effect of the Homestead Act side by side.
This source came from a different view point than all the
others, it had more of how and why the act was unsuccessful and what actually
happened and what didn't work.
This source is the actual Homestead Act document, I used it
to read and better understand the act. (Primary Source)
Mason, I really thought you did a great job with this essay, especially your introduction paragraph
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