Preview

The Homestead Act (1862): The Homestead Act Of 1880

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
418 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Homestead Act (1862): The Homestead Act Of 1880
The Homestead Act (1862):
On May 20, 1862 President Abraham Lincoln signed the Homestead Act to provide travelers with 160 acres of public land. In return, the settlers would have to live there and improve the land for at least five years. This Act caused distribution of about eighty million acres of land to the public. With this great offer hundreds of people decided to pack their bags and move to the west.

Sand Creek Massacre(1864):
The Homestead Act persuaded many settlers to move West in hopes of starting a simpler life then those who decided to stay in the city. Soon the discovery of gold caused settlers to flood into the western side of the United States. Consequently, most settlers believed that the Native American tribes like the

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    * In 1862 the government passed the Homestead Act that for a small fee people could file for a homestead and get up to 160 acres they could own after 5 years…

    • 498 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Long Drive Research Paper

    • 574 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The Homestead Act of 1862 signed into law by Abraham Lincoln, promised 160 acres of free land to any citizen who settled on it for five years. The purpose of this act was to encourage Western migration in hopes that these newly arrived tenants would improve the area by building a home and cultivating the land.…

    • 574 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The Massacre of Sand Creek is a tragedy that occurred due to the greed of American’s. American’s have been trying to take away the Indian American’s land for years to expand the United States and it isn’t new for American’s to burst in on the Indian’s territory and remove their rights. This isn’t the first time the American’s have taken control of the Indian’s land for the purpose of pursuing something that is on or in their lands, such as gold in the Rocky Mountains. This gold found in the mountains of Colorado in 1858 caused American’s to feel that they had the right to push the Indian’s out of their territory, take over, and mine their gold. After several events of the Indian’s fighting for their land a treaty was made, revoked, and rewritten.…

    • 1266 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Lincoln furthered his support for the lower classes with measures like the Homestead Act, the creation of the Department of Agriculture, and the Morrill Land Grant Act. The Homestead Act specifically gave citizens or immigrants 160 acres of western land once they had lived on it for five years (Richardson,…

    • 3089 Words
    • 13 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    AFRAS 170B Ch. 12 Notes

    • 1421 Words
    • 6 Pages

    • Southern Homestead Act, 1866 - provided land for white southerners who always remained loyal to the Union and also to blacks…

    • 1421 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Homestead Act of 1862 was one of the most significant and enduring events in the westward expansion of the United States. It gave 160 acres of western land to anyone who promised to work the land for five years. This encouraged many immigrants to come to the United States and help settle the West. But the land was too arid for a homesteader to manage 160 acres. Life was hard in the west because of the harsh environment. They had sand storm and droughts, made impossible for farmers to farm. Very few actually made it work and managed to keep their homesteads.…

    • 366 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    During the Western Expansion, white settlers moved west for numerous reasons. They were motivated to find new land, Gold, and Stuck upon the belief of Manifest Destiny. This attitude helps fuel western settlement, Native American removal and war with Mexico. In doing so, Native Americans faced harsh conditions and were treated horribly. The Great Plain Indians endured the Wounded Knee massacre of 1890, killing of the Buffalo, and many acts such as the Dawes act and Homestead.…

    • 437 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Offers of free land under the Homestead Act of 1862 that promised 160 acres to any citizen who settled for a period of 5 years. The construction of the transcontinental railroad facilitated the migration of settlers into the territories. Increasing industrial consolidation occurred between 1870 and 1900. Blizzards, tornadoes, grasshoppers, hailstorms, drought, prairie fires, accidental death, and disease were a few of the many struggles that settlers faced in their migration to the west. The railroads were granted huge swaths of land by both the federal and state governments and actively sold the land for profit to speculators. Speculators made buying land difficult for settlers heading west as they inflated the price of the best quality land.…

    • 221 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    id the homestead Act

    • 291 Words
    • 2 Pages

    A.) The government and the white men settlers that were moving west was involved in the homestead act.…

    • 291 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    During the early 19th century, Americans poured into the backcountry of the south and began to move toward and into what is now Alabama and Mississippi, due to the Homestead Act. This act provided 160 acres of free land to any settler willing to live on it and improve it for five years. (Pg.440) However, during these times Indian tribes lived there and they appeared to be the main obstacle to the westward expansion. White American settlers petitioned to the federal government to remove the Native Americans.…

    • 895 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The Western Crossroads

    • 605 Words
    • 3 Pages

    A.1.b) Sand Creek Massacre-Attack by U.S Army troops in which some 200 peaceful Cheyenne were killed in Colorado…

    • 605 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    American West Expansion

    • 871 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The two most important components in the development of the American West that took place in the second half of the nineteenth century were the expansion of the West and the decline of Native Americans. In the middle of the Civil War, Congressional Northerners were looking to populate the West with free labor and they developed the Homestead Act of 1862. This Act would promise settlers 160 acres of land to populate and develop and after five years, the land would become theirs. Almost 400,000 farms were developed and populated between 1862-1890. Although the settlers were dealing with locusts, tornadoes, hailstorms, and extreme heat, the success of these farms began to develop as corporate farming covered 13,000 acres. Many of the people began…

    • 871 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The western territory settled when the Homestead Act took place. The United States government was giving away land to settlers who met requirements. The government plan was that, “any person who is head of a family, or who has arrived at the age of twenty-one years, and is a citizen of the United States, or who shall have filed his declaration of intention to become such… shall... be entitled to enter one quarter-section or…

    • 368 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The government purchased almost 4 million acres of land, which was later re-grown into permanent grasslands (PBS). The grass fell victim not only to the government for the military, but also to the Homestead Act. The Homestead Act required that the homesteader had to pay a small fee and then live on the land for 5 years. Although five years may seem like a long time today, it was a small price to pay for the people who wanted to live on the…

    • 666 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Many of these tribes lived in territories in which the transcontinental railroad plowed through resulting in sometimes violent conflicts with workers and settlements along the railroad. One notable example is the Massacre at Sand Creek. In the autumn of 1864, a group of Cheyenne Indians were beginning to set up camp for the winter when US troops at Fort Lyon attacked. On November 29, Colonel John Chivington ordered the attack “Kill and scalp all, big and little; nits make lice”. However, if the Native Americans did not cause conflict prior to the massacre, the soldiers would have no reason to attack.…

    • 918 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays