Homestead Act
Definition
The Homestead Act was a law passed by Congress in 1862 allowing any American, including freed slaves, to put in a claim for up to 160 free acres of federal land.
Analogy
Imagine if your school gave away free notebooks at the beginning of each year. All you had to do was show up and claim one. That's what it was like with land under the Homestead Act - except instead of notebooks, it was acres upon acres of land!
Related terms
Land Grant College Act (Morrill Act): An act passed by Congress in 1862 providing grants of land to states for establishing colleges specializing in agriculture and mechanic arts.
Pacific Railway Acts: These acts were passed during Civil War providing federal support for building first transcontinental railroad via issuing government bonds and granting lands directly to railroad companies.
Dawes Act: An act that aimed to assimilate Native Americans into mainstream US society by breaking up reservations and offering individual land allotments.
"Homestead Act" appears in:
Subjects (1)
Practice Questions (13)
- What was the primary purpose of the Homestead Act of 1862?
- What was one effect of the Homestead Act of 1862?
- How did the Homestead Act and Morrill Act, both enacted during the Civil War, differ in their primary objectives?
- What is one of the main impacts of the Homestead Act on American society during Reconstruction?
- What was the main purpose of the Homestead Act of 1862?
- What was the primary goal of the Homestead Act of 1862?
- What was a significant impact of the Homestead Act on westward expansion?
- Who largely benefitted from the Homestead Act during Western expansion?
- If the Homestead Act had not been passed in 1862, what could have been a likely alternative method of promoting westward expansion?
- What was the main purpose of the Homestead Act of 1862?
- What was the primary objective of the Homestead Act during the Industrial Revolution?
- How did the Homestead Act influence patterns of migration in America during the late nineteenth century?
- What would have been the likely economic outcome if the United States had decided not to implement the Homestead Act during its westward expansion?
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