Homestead Act

The Homestead Act is a law of the the United States of America, signed by the president Abraham Lincoln the May 20th 1862. It allows each family being able to justify that it has occupied a ground for 5 years to assert the Private property of it, and this within the limit of 160 acres (either 65 hectares). If the family lives there since at least 6 months, it also can without waiting to buy the ground at a relatively weak price of 1.25 dollar per acre (either 308 dollars for 1 km ²).

This law played an eminent role in the Conquête of the American West and took part in the myth of the Frontier . She encouraged in addition million Europeans to emigrate towards the United States and contributed to the importance of the concept of private property in American mentality.

However curiously, measurement was not a total success: thus, it is estimated that approximately half of the homesteaders did not arrive has to live of their ground. The reasons are multiple, and in particular (but not exaustivement): climate, lack of agricultural knowledge, lacks of means, displacement of the hearth (often while following the railways),…

This law was definitively repealed by the Federal Land Policy and Management Act in 1976, the government estimating that the best means of managing national grounds was to keep them under governmental control. However, the Alaska acted as exception, having been able to concede grounds free with private individuals until in 1986.

Context

The ideal of the yeoman farmer (young farmer) always was very pregnant in the American political history and a certain number of policies were undertaken to increase of it the number through Homestead Act in the years 1850. The South was then opposed there by fear that the increase in the number of free farmers does not threaten slavery of the plantations. They are George Henry Evans and Horace Greeley which was the large defenders of this Homestead Act and who allowed his adoption. The fights against the free distribution of the grounds started in 1844 when several bills were introduced without success with the Congress. After the secession of the South and the withdrawal of their delegates of the Congress in 1861, the way was free and the law was adopted. At the end of the 19th century, more than 2,3 million km ² were still available but very little were still cultivable. With the displacement of the border towards the West on the level of the Large arid Plains, the maximum surface authorized by family was increased to 2,6 km ².

Results

Homestead Act made it possible the new arrivals to create more: 372000 farms. In 1900, the new arrivals had filled: 600000 requests, representing an total surface area of more than: 320000 km ². The first request was that of Daniel Freeman for a farm beside Beatrice with the Nebraska, on January 1st, 1863; it is today about a site preserved by the Homestead National Monument off America. In 1871: 29000 requests had been made in Kansas; in 1876, this number had reached them: 43000 requests.

The last request was that of Kenneth Deardorff for a surface of 32 hectares on Stony River in the South-west of the Alaska. It filled all the requirements envisaged by Homestead Act of 1979 but accepted its due only in May 1988. Thus, he was the last person to receive the documents of title under the principles of Homestead Act.

Frauds and various uses

The goal of Homestead Act was to distribute the ground to allow agriculture. However, in the arid grounds in the West of the Rocky Mountains, 640 acres were generally too little to allow the installation of a viable farm. In these places, the distribution of the grounds rather made it possible to guarantee the control of the natural resources, in particular of water (generally the men acquired these grounds and claimed owners of the resources which were on these grounds, while making pay the access to the other farmers). If that could go for grounds rich in water, wood or oil, the provisions of Homestead Act do not apply to minerals such as gold and the money whose exploitation is governed by other federal laws.

For as much, there was no systematic jurisprudence which made it possible to evaluate the requests related to Homestead Act. Controls rested on more or less reliable testimonys that the farmers had lived on the ground of which he asked attribution. In practice, the witnesses were generally dependant with the applicants or remunerated by those, but in all the cases, the grounds were given to the farmers.

Other laws

In 1906, the Forest Homestead Act was adopted. Homestead Act of 1912 made spent the duration of necessary presence on the grounds was reduced to three years. Although there remained still some grounds isolated in the years 1950, the majority of the viable grounds had been acquired in 1910.

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