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Our worksheet bundle includes a fact file and printable worksheets and student activities. Perfect for both the classroom and homeschooling! The Homestead Act of 1862 and later homestead legislation provided the mechanism for transferring federal land to private ownership. The act was applied in Oklahoma after 1889. A popular movement for distributing free land in the West had begun in the 1850s and resulted in the passage of the Homestead Act in May 1862. According to statute, a citizen over twenty-one years of age and head of a family could claim up to 160 acres of surveyed, unclaimed public domain. Title to the land could be established after the homesteader resided on the land for five years, made certain improvements, and paid claim registration fees. The Homestead Act and subsequent laws that amplified it regulated the disposition of millions of acres of unoccupied federal land west of the Mississippi River. Through 1890 more than 1.6 million homesteads were patented in the West, but much of the public domain was granted to railroads or purchased for speculative purposes. Homestead Act regulations generally governed the process of distributing land by "run" in territorial Oklahoma. After the Civil War ended, treaties between American Indian nations and the U.S. government rearranged tribal holdings in Indian Territory. Later negotiations removed millions of acres from Native control and placed the land in the public domain. Beginning with the opening of the Unassigned Lands of Oklahoma Territory on April 22, 1889, a series of land runs took place in the western portion of the present state through 1895. Other methods of land openings, including distribution by lottery, auction, legislation, allotment, and court order, did not fall under the Homestead Act. By 1905 all surplus Indian holdings in present Oklahoma had been placed in the public domain and opened to settlement. Dianna Everett BibliographyBerlin B. Chapman, "Federal Management and Disposition of the Lands of Oklahoma Territory, 1866–1907" (Ph.D. diss., University of Wisconsin, 1931). Paul W. Gates, History of Public Land Law Development (Rev. ed.; Holmes Beach, Fla.: Gaunt, 1987). CitationThe following (as per The Chicago Manual of Style, 17th edition) is the preferred citation for articles: © Oklahoma Historical Society Copyright and Terms of Use No part of this site may be construed as in the public domain. Copyright to all articles and other content in the online and print versions of The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History is held by the Oklahoma Historical Society (OHS). This includes individual articles (copyright to OHS by author assignment) and corporately (as a complete body of work), including web design, graphics, searching functions, and listing/browsing methods. Copyright to all of these materials is protected under United States and International law. Users agree not to download, copy, modify, sell, lease, rent, reprint, or otherwise distribute these materials, or to link to these materials on another web site, without authorization of the Oklahoma Historical Society. Individual users must determine if their use of the Materials falls under United States copyright law's "Fair Use" guidelines and does not infringe on the proprietary rights of the Oklahoma Historical Society as the legal copyright holder of The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and part or in whole. If you're seeing this message, it means we're having trouble loading external resources on our website. If you're behind a web filter, please make sure that the domains *.kastatic.org and *.kasandbox.org are unblocked. Unfortunately, the migration was also fueled by false rumors. One common misconception was that the government would pay for passage to Kansas as well as provide land plots free of charge, leaving many stranded in the middle of their passage, unable to farm their claimed land upon arrival. Exclusively Black SettlementsSeveral exclusively black settlements began to emerge in Kansas after the Homestead Act. The most well-known was a town called Nicodermus, established in 1877. Founded by land prospector W.R. Hill and advertised by black minister W.R. Smith to black communities throughout the south, the town steadily increased in size, and by 1880 over 100 people had settled there. As African Americans slowly became disheartened and disillusioned by the difficulty of homesteading, migration numbers tapered off. However, between the years of 1869 and 1879, 27,000 blacks moved to Kansas, and though few found the success they had been hoping for, a considerable number stayed, finding it a better alternative to the South. 10 An 1879 issue of the Topeka Colored Citizen stated: “Our advice…to the people of the South, Come West, Come to Kansas…in order that you may be free from the persecution of the rebels. If blacks come here and starve, all well. It is better to starve to death in Kansas than to be shot and killed in the South.” (24:41) In the end, the challenges of African American homesteaders mirrored those of other settlers: some persevered and stayed, while others went into debt and left, discouraged by an Act that they had hoped would bring them prosperity or, at the very least, a small pocket of land and a home to call their own. “Unused” Land?: Native Americans, The Homestead Act, and the 1887 Dawes Severalty ActAs land was claimed and turned into private property, arriving settlers aggressively encroached on Native American territory, and began to agitate for the expansion of territory into sovereign Native land, sometimes with violent results. The Indian Appropriations Act (1851) relegated Indians to reservations in the West. For Indians, reservation life was restraining, and the land Natives were forced to occupy were often too small to raise animals or hunt on and not viable agriculturally. Still, many settlers believed that Indians had gotten the choicest land, and pressed for their availability to claim. The government responded to this crisis in favor of the white settlers and land speculators, stripping Indians of the last semblance of sovereignty they had by abolishing the reservation system as well as their honoring of tribes as separate entities from the United States. The 1871 Dawes Act stated that “hereafter no Indian nation or tribe within the territory of the United States shall be acknowledged or recognized as an independent nation, tribe, or power with whom the United States may contract by treaty.” It also marked the beginning of increased efforts to integrate Indians into American society rather than cordoning them off into isolated reservations. This was continued to a larger extent with the 1887 Dawes Severalty Act (also called the General Allotment Act), which was a Homestead Act directed at breaking up Indian reservation holdings as well as tribes themselves. Henry Dawes and “Civilizing Indians”Congressman Henry Dawes believed his second namesake act had a “civilizing effect on Indians because it forced them to cultivate land, live in European-inspired houses, ride in Studebaker wagons…[and] own property.” 11 Under the act, lands were broken up into 160-acre allotments, and any individual who agreed to claim a plot and leave reservation lands would become an American citizen. Indians not only lost bargaining power as united tribes, but they lost considerable land holdings, as unused tribal land that had not been doled out to individuals was sold off in parcels to speculators and railroad companies. Moreover, many Indians who had taken individual plots through the 1887 act went into debt due to a lack of starting funds and eventually lost their claims to speculators. The breaking up of tribal lands, coupled with the loss of individual plots, ultimately caused Indians to lose much their remaining landholdings without fair compensation. 12 Below Humboldt State University Professor Joseph Giovannetti, a member of the Tolowa tribe, discusses how the Dawes Act of 1887 impacted Native Americans: Goals of the Homestead ActThe Homestead Act had two main goals: to assist the government in selling off its land to ordinary citizens, and to use the land in what they considered to be an economically efficient manner. The act was meant to favor the ordinary American, and to make assimilated citizens out of immigrants, African Americans, and, through later legislation in the form of the Dawes Act, the forced assimilation of Indians, thought to be for their own good. The realities of the plains – unfavorable climate, the proliferation of railroads, bad crop years and debt – meant that many settlers either lived sparsely or moved around constantly in search of better conditions. Despite these hardships, many settlers prevailed or felt they would not get better opportunities anywhere else. Subsequently, plots of land slowly grew into small collections of farms, then into towns, and finally, with the help of railroads, into permanent, economically productive settlements that easily connected people and goods all across the Western region. The Homestead Act’s lasting legacy is the regional development and demographic changes it sparked through encouraging migration, creating a distinct and oft-romanticized Western culture on the last great frontier in American history. What was a major result of the Homestead Act of 1862?To help develop the American West and spur economic growth, Congress passed the Homestead Act of 1862, which provided 160 acres of federal land to anyone who agreed to farm the land. The act distributed millions of acres of western land to individual settlers.
What was one result of the passage of the Homestead Act?Passed on May 20, 1862, the Homestead Act accelerated the settlement of the western territory by granting adult heads of families 160 acres of surveyed public land for a minimal filing fee and five years of continuous residence on that land.
What was the impact of the Homestead Act of 1862 on the West quizlet?Households gained 160 acres of land that they were required to improve. Western migration was more affordable. Immigrants moved west and settled together in communities. When southern states seceded from the Union, northern Republicans controlled Congress and they were able to pass expansion laws.
What were the 3 parts of the 1862 Homestead Act?The new law established a three-fold homestead acquisition process: file an application, improve the land, and file for deed of title. Any U.S. citizen, or intended citizen, who had never borne arms against the U.S. Government could file an application and lay claim to 160 acres of surveyed Government land.
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