Homestead Act of 1862

The Homestead Act of 1862 let qualifying settlers claim 160 acres of surveyed public land in the American West and keep it by living on and farming it. President Abraham Lincoln signed it on May 20, 1862, and it took effect on January 1, 1863.

How it worked

An applicant paid a $10 filing fee and signed an affidavit, then lived on and cultivated the land for five years. To get title, the settler brought two neighbors or other credible witnesses to swear to the claim and paid an $8 fee. A settler could also buy the land outright for $1.25 an acre. Claimants had to use the land for themselves and could not leave it for more than six months at a time.

Daniel Freeman filed the first claim. About 40 percent of applicants completed the process.

Who could claim land

Eligible applicants were adults who had never borne arms against the United States, including women and immigrants who had applied for citizenship. The act did not mention race, so freedpeople could apply, but discrimination and bureaucratic hurdles limited how many did. Native Americans could not file under the 1862 act unless they gave up their tribal citizenship.

In 1866 Congress passed the Southern Homestead Act, which explicitly included Black Americans and encouraged them to claim land. Obstacles remained, and later homestead laws did little for African Americans.

The scale

Between 1862 and 1934 the federal government granted about 1.6 million homesteads, roughly 10 percent of the land in the United States. Estimates of the acreage vary by source, from more than 160 million acres to about 270 million. Historians still debate how widespread fraud was.

The end of homesteading

The Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 ended homesteading, except in Alaska, where it continued until 1986. The last title under the acts was issued in 1988.

References

1. Homestead Acts, Wikipedia (see its cited sources).
2. Black homesteaders, Wikipedia.