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Homestead Act
Homestead Act
The Enlarged Homestead Act of 1909 gave 320 acres (1.3 km2) to farmers who accepted more marginal lands which could not be irrigated. A massive influx of new farmers eventually led to massive land erosion and the Dust Bowl of the 1930s.[12][13]
The end of homesteading
The Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 ended homesteading;[4][14] the government believed that the best use of public lands was for them to remain in government control. The only exception to this new policy was in Alaska, for which the law allowed homesteading until 1986.[4] The last claim under this Act was made by Ken Deardorff for 80 acres (32 hectares) of land on the Stony River in southwestern Alaska. He fulfilled all requirements of the Homestead Act in 1979, but he did not actually receive his deed until May 1988. Therefore, he is the last person to receive the title to land claimed under the provisions of the Homestead Act.[15]
Certificate of homestead given under the Homestead Act in Nebraska, 1868. The Homestead Act was a United States Federal law that gave an applicant freehold title to 160 acres (one quarter section or about 65 hectares)-640 acres (one section or about 260 hectares) of undeveloped land outside of the original 13 colonies. The new law required three steps: file an application, improve the land, and file for deed of title. Anyone who had never taken up arms against the U.S. Government, including freed slaves, could file an application and improvements to a local land office. The Act was signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln on May 20, 1862.[1][2][3][4] Eventually 1.6 million homesteads were granted and 270,000,000 acres (1,100,000 km2) were privatized between 1862 and 1986, a total of 10% of all lands in the United States.[5]
Criticism
Fraud and corporate use
The Homestead Act was much abused.[4] The intent of the Homestead Act was to grant land for agriculture. However, in the arid areas east of the Rocky Mountains, 640 acres (2.6 km2) was generally too little land for a viable farm (at least prior to major public investments in irrigation projects). In these areas, homesteads were instead used to control resources, especially water. A common scheme was for an individual acting as a front for a large cattle operation to file for a homestead surrounding a water source under the pretense that the land was being used as a farm. Once granted, use of that water source would be denied to other cattle ranchers, effectively closing off the adjacent public land to competition. This method could also be used to gain ownership of timber and oil-producing land, as the Federal government charged royalties for extraction of these resources from public lands. On the other hand, homesteading schemes were generally pointless for land containing "locatable minerals", such as gold and silver, which could be controlled through mining claims and for which the Federal government did not charge royalties. There was no systematic method used to evaluate claims under the Homestead Act. Land offices would rely on affidavits from witnesses that the claimant had lived on the land for the required period of time and made the
Background
The Homestead Act was intended to liberalize the homesteading requirements of the Preemption Act of 1841. The "yeoman farmer" ideal was powerful in American political history, and plans for expanding their numbers through a homestead act were rooted in the 1850s. The South resisted, fearing the increase in free farmers would threaten plantation slavery.[6][7] Two men stood out as greatly responsible for the passage of the Homestead Act: George Henry Evans and Horace Greeley.[8][9] The agitation for free land became evident in 1844, when several bills were introduced unsuccessfully in Congress.[10] After the South seceded and their delegations left Congress in 1861, the path was clear of obstacles, and the act was passed.[3][4][11]
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required improvements. In practice, some of these witnesses were bribed or otherwise collaborated with the claimant. In any case the land was turned into farms. Although not necessarily fraud, it was common practice for all the children of a large family who were eligible to claim nearby land as soon as possible. After a few generations a family could build up quite sizable estates.
Homestead Act
Further reading
• Dick, Everett, 1970. The Lure of the Land: A Social History of the Public Lands from the Articles of Confederation to the New Deal. • Gates, Paul W., 1996. The Jeffersonian Dream: Studies in the History of American Land Policy and Development. • Hyman, Harold M., 1986. American Singularity: The 1787 Northwest Ordinance, the 1862 Homestead and Morrill Acts, and the 1944 G.I. Bill. • Lause, Mark A., 2005. Young America: Land, Labor, and the Republican Community. • Phillips, Sarah T., 2000, "Antebellum Agricultural Reform, Republican Ideology, and Sectional Tension." Agricultural History 74(4): 799-822. ISSN 0002-1482 • Richardson, Heather Cox, 1997. The Greatest Nation of the Earth: Republican Economic Policies during the Civil War. • Robbins, Roy M., 1942. Our Landed Heritage: The Public Domain, 1776-1936. • Smith, Henry Nash. Virgin Land: The American West as Symbol and Myth. New York: Vintage, 1959.
Environmental harm
The Homestead Act has been blamed for contributing to the dust bowl. Since the Act limited claims to 160-640 acres when the West was settled between 1880 and 1925, it resulted in a preponderance of small farms whose poor practices led to erosion.[16] According to Hansen and Libecap, if farms had been 100 acres (0.40 km2) in size rather than their actual 500 acres (2.0 km2), farmers individually would have adopted the very practices that were subsequently imposed by soil conservation districts.[17] It should be noted that working a farm of 1,500 acres (6.1 km2) would not have been feasible for a homesteader using 19th century animal-powered tilling and harvesting. The acreage limits were reasonable when the act was written.
Related acts in other countries
The act was later imitated with some modifications by Canada in the form of the Dominion Lands Act. Similar acts—usually termed the Selection Acts—were passed in the various Australian colonies in the 1860s, beginning in 1861 in New South Wales.
References and Notes
Popular culture
• In the writings of Laura Ingalls Wilder (Little House on the Prairie series), she describes her father claiming a homestead in Kansas, and later Dakota Territory. • The Homestead Act is used as the ruse to allow The Amazing Screw-On Head to investigate paranormal activities west of the Mississippi River without arousing Confederate suspicion.
See also
• • • • • • • Land Act of 1804 Military Tract of 1812 Preemption Act of 1841 Donation Land Claim Act of 1850 Public Land Survey System Land grants Land patent
• McElroy, Wendy (2001). "The Free-Soil Movement, Part 1". The Future of Freedom Foundation. http://www.fff.org/ freedom/0501e.asp. Retrieved on 2007-11-22. • McPherson, James M. (1998). Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era. Oxford University Press. pp. 193–195. ISBN 019516895X. http://books.google.com/books?id=uuEA7xIUHUC&pg=PA194&lpg=PA194&dq=southern+opposition+homestead IKDYU-EEyxkmONceL8s. [1] "Our Documents - Homestead Act (1862)". http://www.ourdocuments.gov/ doc.php?flash=false&doc=31. [2] "Homestead Act: Primary Documents in American History". Library of Congress. 2007-09-21. http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/ Homestead.html. Retrieved on 2007-11-22. [3] ^ McPherson. - pp.450-451. [4] ^ "The Florida Homestead Act of 1862". Florida Homestead Services. 2006. http://www.netside.net/~c3i/ act.htm. Retrieved on 2007-11-22. (paragraphs.3,6&13) (Includes data on the U.S. Homestead Act) [5] The Homestead Act of 1862. - Archives.gov [6] Phillips. - p.2000. [7] McPherson. - p.193. [8] McElroy. - p.1. [9] "Horace Greeley". - Tulane University. - August 13, 1999. - Retrieved: 2007-11-22. [10] McPherson. - p.194. [11] McElroy. - p.2. [12] List of Laws about Lands. - The Public Lands Museum
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Homestead Act
[13] Hansen, Zeynep K., and Gary D. Libecap. - "U.S. Land Policy, Property Rights, and the Dust Bowl of • Homestead Act. - Library of Congress the 1930s". Social Science Electronic Publishing. • Homestead National Monument of America. September, 2001. National Park Service [14] Cobb, Norma (2000). Arctic Homestead: The True Story of • "About the Homestead Act". - National Park Service a Family’s Survival and Courage..... St. Martin’s Press. • Homestead Act of 1862. - National Archives and pp. 21. ISBN 0312283792. http://books.google.com/ Records Administration books?id=-3xliUQx6boC&pg=PA21&lpg=PA21&ots=btm1lqK_1Z&dq=end+homesteading&sig=JR9VHjkWCBUgThCRUakxFjRbEnw. • Homesteaders and Pioneers on the Olympic Retrieved on 2007-11-22. Peninsula. - Olympic Peninsula Community Museum. [15] "The Last Homesteader". National Park Service. 2006. - University of Washington. - Online museum exhibit that http://www.nps.gov/home/historyculture/ documents the history of several families who moved to the lasthomesteader.htm. Retrieved on 2007-11-22. Olympic Peninsula following the Homestead Act of 1862 [16] Benjamin, Daniel K. - "The Dust Bowl • "Adeline Hornbek and the Homestead Act: A Reconsidered". - Property and Environment Colorado Success Story". - National Park Service Research Center. - PERC Reports: Volume 22, No.4. Teaching with Historic Places (TwHP) lesson plan. December 2004. National Park Service [17] Hansen, Zeynep K., and Gary D. Libecap. "Small Farms, Externalities, and the Dust Bowl of the 1930s". - Journal of Political Economy. - Volume: 112(3). - pp.665-94. - November 21, 2003
External links
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homestead_Act" Categories: 1862 in law, Economic history of the United States, American Old West, United States federal public land legislation, History of the United States (1849–1865), Agriculture in the United States, 1862 in the United States This page was last modified on 15 May 2009, at 20:52 (UTC). All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. (See Copyrights for details.) Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a U.S. registered 501(c)(3) tax-deductible nonprofit charity. Privacy policy About Wikipedia Disclaimers
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