Key topic 2: American civil war and the Homestead act Flashcards
When was the Homestead Act?
1862
How many people had been affected by the end of the civil war in 1865?
-By the time the war ended in 1865, over 600,000 Americans had died and another 400,000 were wounded
What is the significance of the American civil war? (3)
- Many of the southern states were devastated by the war
- US government had to rebuild the USA by repairing the enormous devastation in the South and granting citizenship to former African-American slaves
- the economic and social changes in the South after the war led many people looking to start a new life in the West ( a new wave of settlement to the west)
Why couldn’t the homestead act be passed before the civil war?
the southern states blocked plans to give away family-sized farm plots in the west: they wanted to promote large plantation farms worked by slaves.
When southern states split from the USA ( up until 1865), the Homestead act could be passed by law
Which group of people did the government want to encourage to get a homestead?
and who did they not want to buy up all the land
individual family farmers
they did not want rich landowners buying up all the land in the West
What did the government do to attract individual family farmers?
- land was available very cheaply
- most American citizens could file a claim for land
What were the consequences of the Homestead Act? (5)
- over 6 million acres of federal land was homesteaded by 1876
- ensured parts of the Great Plains were being settled for the first time
- 80 million acres was homesteaded by the end of the Act (1930s)
- the promise of free land was an important pull factor for immigration to the USA ( by 1875, more than half of Nebraska’s population were immigrants and their children)
- significant in encouraging white settlement of the Plains: especially Nebraska: half all settled land in Nebraska was homesteaded which resulted in it becoming a state
Limitations of the homestead act?
- there was a high dropout in homesteading: 60% of claims were never “proved up” often because of problems farming the Plains
- plots were too small for the dry Plains environment
- The government gave 300 million acres to railroad companies, who sold it to settlers = more influential than the Homestead Act in settling the West
- rich landowners found lots of ways to buy up land using the Homestead Act : would make their employees file claims and hand the rights over to the landowners
What was the Homestead Act ?
promoted the settlement of the West by providing the incentives for people to take up unclaimed land in the West and build a new life there
Why did encouraging people to settle west not work before the homestead act?
Before 1862, the government sold 640 acres plots of land for £1 an acre which was too expensive for most ordinary families
Before 1862 land was expensive. How did the homestead act solve this problem?
Homesteads were 160 acres which was enough land to support a family
It cost just $10 to file a claim
why did the government encourage individual farmers to claim land?
because thousands of small farmers all paying property taxes would give a big boost to the US economy
who could buy a homestead?
- head of the family or single
- over 21
- ex-slaves
- single women
- anyone intending to become american citizens
who was not allowed to buy a homestead?
Indians and confederates
What were the rules of the homestead act?
- homesteaders had to live on the land and work the land themselves
- Once someone had lived on the land for 5 years, built a house and planted five acres of crops, they could pay $30 and prove up
- homesteaders weren’t allowed more than one claim
