Homestead Act of 1862

Abraham Lincoln spearheaded the Homestead Act of 1862 to incentivize westward expansion among citizens and settlers, granting deeds up to 160 acres of land so long as they could prove residency and improvement projects.

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Today's Daily Dose short history film covers the Homestead Act of 1862, which opened up the mid-west and western lands for settlement. The filmmaker has included the original voice over script to further assist your understanding:

Today on The Daily Dose, The Homestead Act of 1862.

During a February 1861 speech in Ohio, President Abraham Lincoln said that a homestead act was “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 benefiting his condition.” At Lincoln’s behest, Congress signed the Homestead Act into law on May 20th, 1862, which would stand for the next 124 years, resulting in 10% of the nation’s land claimed and settled by American pioneers and speculators.

Open to all U.S. citizens and prospective citizens, the Homestead Act allowed settlers to obtain no more than 160 acres of land, which eventually saw 1.6 million deeds awarded, in the process forcing Native Americans onto designated reservations to make room for the flood of western-bound settlers. Homesteaders paid $12 up front—$10 for a temporary claim on their chosen land, plus a $2 commission to a land agent—followed by a final $6 payment for a clear title, after certain conditions had been met.

Before a clear land deed could be obtained, homesteaders required two neighbors or friends to attest that the homesteader in question was 21 years of age, had lived continuously on the land for five years, while building a home and other structures to improve the land. Union soldiers, on the other hand, could circumvent and shorten the five-year residency requirement by serving in the Civil War. Land titles could also be purchased outright for $1.25 per acre after six months of verified residency.

In the end, due to ambiguous clauses in the Homestead Act and its congressional revisions, most of the land went to land speculators, cattlemen, miners, lumbermen and railroads, which was allowed to flourish due to a shortage of investigators. Of the 500 million acres dispersed by the General Land Office between 1862 and 1904, only 80 million acres went to homesteaders.

For the most part, homesteading ended with the signing of the Taylor Grazing Act of 1934, while the Homestead Act was finally repealed in 1976, with the signing of the Federal Land Policy and Management Act, which mandated that “public lands be retained by the Federal government. Homesteading was allowed to continue in Alaska for a decade more, making the Homestead Act an important instrument in westward American expansion.

And there you have it, the Homestead Act of 1862, today on The Daily Dose.

[alfsleftnut]

Fun fact, the last person to claim land under this act was a man named Ken Deardorff who claimed 80 acers in stoney river alaska

[mycents]

By the way, the value of that $1.25 is now about $35.60 now in 2022. It's still insanely cheap, but when videos mention prices from a long time ago it's helpful to mention modern costs to give people an idea of what they're seeing. Inflation (prices) go up and down, with costs being higher when the dollar isn't as valuable and costs going down when the dollar gains value.

These numbers aren't perfect, but calculators give the following numbers for how much you can buy with a dollar as time goes on....
A dollar in 1800 was worth more than today (I'm writing this in 2022), so you could buy about $17 worth of stuff with just one dollar.
In 1900 the dollar was worth even more, so it could buy $33.70 worth of stuff in that year instead of just $17. The dollar has lost value ever since then, which is why prices go up so it keeps costing more and more dollars to buy the same amount of stuff.

Part of the reason an acre of land was so cheap back then, costing just $35-36 in today's money while we pay tens of thousands of dollars, was because there wasn't a lot of competition for the land in the 1800's. The land was empty because Natives had either died of disease or been driven out, and the government needed people to fill it up to keep other nations from moving in. The land hadn't been built on or farmed before (at least not the American way), so everyone had to do it completely from scratch on wild land, which was a huge amount of work. Buying a piece of land that already has electricity and water hood-ups, a house, a field that has been dug up before, etc. at least gives you something to work with, but most people don't want to live in a mud hut while they build their property like the people in the video did. So the government sold the land dirt cheap to get back some money, while making sure Americans would want to live on it to keep other invaders out.

[pyroheadsmalaysia]

0:44 what constitutes prospective citizens ? Those who wished and proved intention to become one I presume .

[shiynenn]

This was not open to the American Negro. The correction needs to be made.

[getbusydrizzy]

Forcing Copper Colored to be pushed out

[cfroi]

With the French Republic it was land and wealth from The Church and Nobility, with the Roman Republic it was Sabine women, with the Russian Republic it was the property of the wealthy. Republics are founded by redistributing wealth and resources to create a state.

[shiynenn]

Throughout North American history, the federal and state governments fostered white unity/white supremacy with policies and laws, such as Native American displacement, slavery, Jim Crow laws, and biased education. This has led to a distorted sense of patriotism for many white Americans.

1. **Native American Displacement:** The Indian Removal Act of 1830, signed by President Andrew Jackson, forced indigenous peoples from their ancestral lands, furthering the idea of white supremacy and expansion.
2. **Slavery:** The institution of slavery was legally supported by the U.S. government through laws like the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 and the Dred Scott decision, reinforcing racial hierarchies.
3. **Jim Crow Laws:** Post-Civil War, Southern states enacted segregation laws known as Jim Crow, perpetuating racial segregation, disenfranchisement, and unequal treatment.
4. **Biased Education:** Curricula often emphasized Eurocentric history and downplayed the contributions of marginalized groups, shaping a skewed understanding of American identity.

5..** The Homestead Act of 1862, while ostensibly offering land to settlers, was an open betrayal to Black Americans. Discriminatory practices, including racial exclusion, made it nearly impossible for them to access the benefits, perpetuating systemic inequalities in land ownership and opportunity.