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The Homestead Acts (Homestead Act of 1862 (After the South seceded,…
The Homestead Acts
Homestead Act of 1862
After the South seceded, Republicans and other Homestead supporters passed the Homestead Act of 1862
Southern Democrats opposed the laws, fearing it would attract European immigrants and poor white Southerners to potential plantation land
Usually filed in single families, while others filed in small communities
After 5 years on the land, you would be able to own the land for free, besides a small registration fee
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You had to own a household while being 21, pay 18$ dollars (or 10$ for temporary reservation), and be willing to use the designated land to create a settlement for 5 years 
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Other Acts
The Southern Homestead Act of 1866 allowed sharecroppers and poor farmers to own land, but the fees were too expensive for the target people
The Timber Culture Act in 1873 said that a homesteader would gain another 160 acres of land if they put aside ¼ of their original land to plant trees
East and South Asians were not eligible until 1898 because of noncitizenship, which by then most of the good land was gone
The Kinkaid Act of 1904 allowed people in Western Nebraska to gain 1 mi2 for free, excluding a small fee
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Critics and Abusers
Many people abused the laws by taking control of water sources and natural resources
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In large families, although it was not illegal, children applied as soon as they were eligible, giving the family a sizeable estate in a couple generations
“...much of the rain forest west of Portland, Oregon was acquired by the Oregon Lumber Company by illegal claims under the Act” (Wikipedia)
Free Soil Party
Was a short-lived political party from 1848 to 1854 that opposed slavery’s spread to the West
The Free Soil Party later merged with the Whigs and Democrats that denounced the Kansas-Nebraska Act to form the Republican Party
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