Not only did the act use the land taken away from the Indigenous people in the Pacific Northwest, but the act also barred Black citizens from owning land and real estate. The Oregon Land Donation Act of 1850 had many negative effects on Indigenous people as well as Black people in the Pacific Northwest. After the creation of the Oregon territory in 1848, the US government had passed the most generous land distribution bill in US history. Before it was repealed in 1855, the land was sold for $1.25 per acre. The Oregon Donation Land Claim Act was passed in 1850 and allowed white settlers to claim 320 acres or 640 to married couples between 18 when the act was repealed. The Donation Land Claim Act allowed settlers to claim land in the Oregon Territory, then including the modern states of Washington, Oregon, Idaho and parts of Wyoming. Homestead laws depleted the Native Americans in the United States of much of their land and the associated natural resources as a result of it being taken by the Federal government and sold to settlers. About 40% of the applicants who started the process were able to complete it and obtain title to their homesteaded land after paying a small fee in cash. Homesteading was discontinued in 1976, except in Alaska, where it continued until 1986. This was a total of 10% of all land in the United States. Daniel Freeman became the first person to file a claim under the new act.īetween 18, the federal government granted 1.6 million homesteads and distributed 270,000,000 acres (420,000 sq mi) of federal land for private ownership. After the Southern states seceded from the Union in 1861 (and their representatives had left Congress), the bill passed and was signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln (May 20, 1862). The Homestead Act of 1860 did pass in Congress, but it was vetoed by President James Buchanan, a Democrat. Land-grant laws similar to the Homestead Acts had been proposed by northern Republicans before the Civil War, but had been repeatedly blocked in Congress by southern Democrats who wanted western lands open for purchase by slave-owners. 2.10 Subsistence Homesteads provisions under the New Deal – 1930. ![]() 2.9 Stock-Raising Homestead Act of 1916.Another amended act, the national Stock-Raising Homestead Act, was passed in 1916 and granted 640 acres (260 ha) for ranching purposes. An amendment to the Homestead Act of 1862, the Enlarged Homestead Act, was passed in 1909 and doubled the allotted acreage from 160 to 320 acres (65 to 129 ha) in marginal areas. The Kinkaid Amendment of 1904 granted a full section-640 acres (260 ha)-to new homesteaders settling in western Nebraska. The Timber Culture Act of 1873 granted land to a claimant who was required to plant trees-the tract could be added to an existing homestead claim and had no residency requirement. Historian Michael Lanza argues that while the 1866 law was not as beneficial as it might have been, it was part of the reason that by 1900 one quarter of all Southern Black farmers owned their own farms. The Southern Homestead Act of 1866 sought to address land ownership inequalities in the south during Reconstruction it explicitly included Black Americans and encouraged them to participate, but rampant discrimination, systemic barriers and bureaucratic inertia slowed Black gains. Several additional laws were enacted in the latter half of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Women and immigrants who had applied for citizenship were eligible. ![]() Any adult who had never taken up arms against the Federal government of the United States could apply. ![]() The first of the acts, the Homestead Act of 1862, opened up millions of acres. In all, more than 160 million acres (650 thousand km 2 250 thousand sq mi) of public land, or nearly 10 percent of the total area of the United States, was given away free to 1.6 million homesteaders most of the homesteads were west of the Mississippi River.Īn extension of the homestead principle in law, the Homestead Acts were an expression of the Free Soil policy of Northerners who wanted individual farmers to own and operate their own farms, as opposed to Southern slave-owners who wanted to buy up large tracts of land and use slave labor, thereby shutting out free white farmers. The Homestead Acts were several laws in the United States by which an applicant could acquire ownership of government land or the public domain, typically called a homestead.
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