Homestead Act of 1862

Examples of Homestead Act of 1862 in the following topics:

• Early Farm Policy

  • This was finally accomplished through the Homestead Act of 1862, which opened vast tracts of western land to easy settlement.
  • The endowment of public colleges and universities through the Morrill Act led to new opportunities for education and training in the so-called practical arts, including farming.
  • Before the Civil War (1861-1865), large plantations of hundreds, if not thousands, of hectares were established for large-scale production of tobacco, rice, and cotton.
  • Most of the farm workers were slaves.
  • Many of the workers in the nation's new mills and factories were sons and daughters of farm families whose labor was no longer needed on the farm as a result of these inventions.

• Women and the Law

  • The Married Women's Property Act of 1839 was an act of statute in the state of Mississippi that significantly altered the law regarding property rights granted to married women, allowing them to own and control their own property.
  • This was the first of a series of Married Women's Property Acts issued in the United States.
  • The Married Women's Property Act of 1848 was a statute in New York State.
  • The Married Women's Property Act set a precedent for women's property rights that is thought to have influenced legislators' decision to maintain gender-neutral language in the Homestead Act of 1862, allowing any individual to file an application for a federal land grant.
  • One of Elizabeth Cady Stanton's many accomplishments for women's rights was the Married Women's Property Act of 1839.

• The End of the Open Range

  • With the Homestead Act of 1862, more settlers came west to set up farms.
  • Barbed wire, invented in 1874, gradually made inroads in fencing off privately owned land, especially for homesteads.
  • The invention of barbed wire allowed cattle to be confined to designated areas to prevent overgrazing of the range.
  • This was particularly true during the harsh winter of 1886–1887, when hundreds of thousands of cattle died across the Northwest, leading to collapse of the cattle industry.
  • However, being a non-native species, the grazing patterns of ever-increasing numbers of cattle slowly reduced the quality of the rangeland; this was in spite of the simultaneous massive slaughter of American bison that occurred.

• The End of the Frontier

  • Following the victory of the United States in the American Revolutionary War and the signing Treaty of Paris in 1783, the United States gained formal, if not actual, control of the British lands west of the Appalachians.
  • The question of whether the Kansas frontier would become "slave" or "free" was a spark of the American Civil War.
  • The Southerners resisted Homestead Acts because they supported the growth of a free farmer population that might oppose slavery.
  • When the Republican Party came to power in 1860, it promoted a free land policy—notably the Homestead Act of 1862—coupled with railroad land grants that opened cheap (but not free) lands for settlers.
  • These areas contained plenty of unoccupied land, as did the territory of Alaska.

• Land Ordinances and the Northwest Territory

  • Therefore, the immediate goal of the ordinance was to raise money through the sale of land in the largely unmapped territory west of the original states acquired in the Treaty of Paris.
  • The Land Ordinance of 1785 laid the foundations of land policy until passage of the Homestead Act in 1862.
  • The primary effect of the Northwest Ordinance was the creation of the Northwest Territory as the first organized territory of the United States out of the region south of the Great Lakes, north and west of the Ohio River, and east of the Mississippi River.
  • The actual legal mechanism of the admission of new states was established in the Enabling Act of 1802.
  • A significant portion of Minnesota was also part of the territory.

• Government During the War

  • With the establishment of the Confederacy, Republicans in Congress enacted sweeping federal changes, including implementation of the Morrill Tariff and passage of the Homestead Act, Pacific Railroad Act, and National Banking Act.
  • The Pacific Railroad Act of 1862 promoted the construction of the transcontinental railroad in the United States.
  • The 1862 Homestead Act opened up public-domain lands for family farms at no cost.
  • The government also sponsored agricultural training programs during this period, through the newly established Department of Agriculture and the Morrill Land Grant College Act.
  • The permanent Confederate Congress began its first session on February 18, 1862.

• Union Finances

  • The Morrill Tariff and the Homestead Act were among the far-reaching changes enacted by Congress in this period to fulfill the Republican vision of an industrial nation.
  • The United States required more than three billion dollars to pay for the immense armies and fleets raised to fight the Civil War and more than $400 million in 1862 alone.
  • The Union also levied the nation's first income tax with the Revenue Act of 1862.
  • The Legal Tender Act of 1862 was enacted in February 1862 to issue paper money to finance the war.
  • Describe how the Union financed the war through taxes, printing money, the sale of government bonds, and the creation of a national banking system

• Territorial Government

  • In 1862, Congress passed three important bills that impacted the land system.
  • The Homestead Act granted 160 acres to each settler (whether a citizen or noncitizen, and including squatters and women) who improved the land for five years, for no more than modest filing fees.
  • The Pacific Railway Acts of 1862 provided for the land needed to build the Transcontinental Railroad.
  • The land given to the railroads alternated with government-owned tracts saved for distribution to homesteaders.
  • Summarize the level of federal involvement in the governance of the West

• Higher Education

  • The Morrill Land Grant Colleges Act of 1862 provided for the establishment of public colleges for "liberal and practical education".
  • The Morrill Land-Grant Acts are United States statutes signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln on July 2, 1862 that allowed for the creation of land-grant colleges.
  • After the war, however, the 1862 Act was extended to the former Confederate states; it was eventually extended to every state and territory, including those created after 1862.
  • The 1862 Morrill Act allocated 17.4 million acres (70,000 km2) of land, which, when sold, yielded a collective endowment of $7.55 million.
  • Though the 1890 Act granted cash instead of land, it granted colleges under that act the same legal standing as the 1862 Act colleges; hence, the term "land-grant college" properly applies to both groups.

• Higher Education

  • The Morrill Land-Grant College Act was a U.S. statute signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln on July 2, 1862, that allowed for the creation of land-grant colleges.
  • Aided by the secession of many states that did not support the plans, this reconfigured Morrill Act was signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln in 1862.
  • After the war, however, the 1862 Act was extended to the former Confederate states; it was eventually extended to every state and territory, including those created after 1862.
  • The 1862 Morrill Act allocated a total of 17.4 million acres of land, which, when sold, yielded a collective endowment of $7.55 million.
  • Kansas State University was the first college funded by land grants under the Morrill Act of 1862.