Homestead Act
By: Alex Lokken and TC Fletcher
Homestead
Act
The original Homestead Act was a United
By: Alex Lokken and TC Fletcher
States Federal law that gave away 160
acres of land outside of the original 13
colonies. The new law requires three
steps: file for an application, improve land,
and file for deed of title.
Background
The Homestead Act began in order to populate frontier
land that was very under populated and was signed into
law by Abraham Lincoln in 1862. Two men greatly
responsible for the act were George Henry Evans and
Horace Greeley. Evans lobbied the idea of the
Homestead Act and came up with the slogan “Vote
yourself a farm” thus he was given the title Father of the
Homestead Act.
Criticism
The Homestead Act was abused. The idea of the
Homestead Act was to grant land for agriculture.
However, in the areas west of the Rocky Mountains,
640 acres was generally too little land for a farm prior to
major public investments in irrigation projects. In these
areas homesteads were instead used to control
resources such as water.
Criticism
Decline of Homestead Act
The Federal Land Policy and Management
Act of 1976 ended the homestead act.
The government believed the ideal use of
the land was for public use. The only
exception to this policy was in Alaska
where it remained until 1986.
Environmental Harm
Environmental Harm
The Homestead Act was blamed mainly
for the dust bowl in the 1930s. This was
due to the over pasteurization of the land.
The dust bowl helped lead the country into
the “Great Depression”
Eventually 1.6 million homesteads were granted and
270,000,000 acres were privatized between 1862 and 1986,
a total of 10% of all lands in the United States.
Bibliography
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homestead_Act
http://users.rcn.com/deeds/homestead.htm
http://gerald-massey.org.uk/holyoake/images/george_henry_lewes_2.jpg
http://www.historic-lamottpa.com/media/client/photos/lincolnandthelaw/homesteadmap.jpg