Homestead Act Essays

In a bid to encourage people onto the Plains advertisements told success stories of those who had claimed land under the terms of the Homestead Act and had become successful. It divided 2.5 million acres of Plains land into sections or homesteads of 160 acres. People could now claim 160 acres of land. The only requirement on their part was that they paid a small charge and built a house or added something to the land such as a house or a well and lived on the land for at least 5 years.

However, there were many positive economic aspects for American citizens who were moving westward. The Homestead Act of 1862 was an incentive for people to move

America’s westward expansion really affected the lives of the Native Americans in several ways. Since Americans were wanting land for farming, ranching, and mining, it took away the Native Americans land for hunting and gathering. In general, this dramatically changed the face of American history.

Cotton still played a big part in the growth of farming in the south. There was a high demand for textiles and cotton mills increased production of cotton bales up to 1,479,000 bales per year. While these changes were occurring in the South, many changes in farming were also taking place in other parts of the nation. The government wanted to encourage settlement in the vast areas of the country not yet populated. The Homestead Act helped shape the western landscape. This act allowed farmers to claim up to 160 acres of land. Farmers would stake a claim to a parcel of land and by living on it for five years would be free and clear to take title of the land. Or the farmer could buy

As Document I shows Native Americans were being cheated out of their land, actually most of their land was being sold. In 1887, the Dawes Severalty Act was passed by congress. The Dawes act divided small plots for each family. But the farmers got their fill as well. On the reservation there were another 90 million acres which were fertile and was often sold to white settlers. As Native American lands went down White settlers land increased. As shown in Document B. Land trades and began to pop up all around the country.

The Indians were ridiculed and manipulated because of many different bills passed in the 1800’s and their land was decreasing in size and amount of food sources and land. The effects of the Indian Removal Act, Westward expansion, and the Dawes Act on the Native Americans in the 1800’s were abundant.

It was originally opposed by Northern manufacturers, who feared the loss of inexpensive labor; and Southern slaveholders, who feared the development of free soil. It was intended to branch Western immigration, but numerous frontiersmen would fail and arrive home. The Homestead Act provided settlers with 160 acres of surveyed public land. By living on the property for five years and improving it, a small fee would grant the settler the land. This served as a way to encourage the development of the family farm and fill in the normally unoccupied region in the Great Plains in which railroads facilitated this growth. Because of the severe environmental circumstances of the Great Plain region, the Homestead Act turned out to be less effective than anticipated.

American started writing to the president,” We want Homesteads; we were promised Homesteads by the

Now that thousands of people had claimed their 160 acres, the government had to sustain the land's fertility so it would remain cultivatable for years to come. It would also reduce any chances of the settlers moving again and coming in conflict with the Natives. The government encouraged the development of the area by constantly aiding the frontiers with the Timber Culture Act and the Newland Reclamation Acts. The Timber Culture Act was produced to help the farmers successfully grow crops on their land for long periods of time by keeping the soil fertile and preventing erosion. The Timber Culture Act gave away free land to people who would plant forty acres of trees on it. They believed planting more trees would increase humidity and increase rainfall, which was beneficial for farmers. The Newland Reclamation Act of 1902 funded irrigation projects for the dry land of the west. Congress passed many laws to protect the west from harm.

With many farmers having such high yields, there was an abundance of crops so the prices fell and a farmer had to plant more in order to have enough money to support their families. The Enlarged Homestead Act guaranteed 320 acres of land to farmers who were willing to take land that were considered to be marginal and could not be irrigated well. They plowed up the virgin soil and planted acres and acres of golden wheat, leaving the land vulnerable to the elements after the yearly harvest. The farmers also implemented the use of fossil fuel ran machinery that made it easier to plow up hundreds of acres in a short period of time, which exposed even more soil than what would have been open to the elements had the farming been done by an animal pulled plow. The massive influx of farmers because of that act caused major soil erosion which was made worse by the Dust Bowl of the 1930s.

The government offered cheap land and property rights in the East, along with funding railroads that headed West. This government aid acted as a strong incentive to make people move west.

“An allusion has been made to the Homestead Law. I think it worthy of consideration, and that the wild lands of the country should be distributed so that every man should have the means and opportunity of benefitting his condition”- Abraham Lincoln, February 12, 1861 (www.nps.gov). The Homestead Act not only brought free land and opportunities, it also brought a change for man to improve their life or start new in America. There were many other factors that played in opening the west but the Homestead Act provided the opportunity for individuals that ultimately opened up the West.

Opportunity defined the Unassigned lands. Two attorneys, T.C. Sears and Elias C. Boudinot, found within the old treaties, land titles, and other various documents that 14 million acres of land were unclaimed, which would later be promoted Oklahoma district (Baird and Goble, p 141). The drive behind the Sears and Boudinot were primarily monetary reasons. Sears was an attorney for the Katy Railroad, which sought to settle the unassigned lands to increase the revenue from the empty region; Boudinot a Cherokee Attorney seeking fortunes (Baird and Goble, p 142). Yet, the Federal government protected the unassigned lands, which had been previously taken from the Creek and Seminole Nations (Baird and Goble, p 142). Although the opening of the Unassigned Lands in 1889 would require pressure from various sides on the Federal government, but to change Federal government’s stance of zero homesteading would require the pressure of the powerful railroads, the Boomer movement, and other major parties.

People had badly mistreated American-Indians in the period of the 1800s. When it came to the dilemma of who gets the land of whom. In this specific case of "The Indian Removal Act'' it authorized the president to grant unsettled lands west of the Mississippi in exchange for Indian lands within existing state borders. This was also an Act to

Historically, land ownership in America has been basing on the racial disparity and it still applies even now at the post-slavery periods. Though some groups of Americans have associated land ownership with American promise of liberty, equality and democracy, the promise of achieving liberty through this was not open to all. This is because earlier in history the black Americans had no right to own land and later when they were allowed to own, they were not allowed to do what they wanted with it. They were used as source of labor in the whites’ farms. They tended to be tenants of wealthy white landowners where they worked for sub-poverty wages and practiced subsistence farming. The government also imposed heavy taxation to the blacks who bought