The Homesteaders Flashcards
What were the two other Acts that followed the Homesteader Act?
When were they?
What did they give to the settlers?
The Timber Culture Act 1873
The Desert Land Act 1877
TTCA-Is gave settlers a further 160 acres of free land, provided they planted 40 acres with trees
TDLA-This gave settlers the right to buy 640 acres cheaply in areas where lack of rainfall was a particular problem
What were the three reasons to why so many people wanted to settle on the plains?
1) The actions of the government
2) The end of the American Civil War
3) The building of the transcontinental railroads
What was the Homestead Act?
When was it?
Who recognised the need to populate the west?
What did it allow families?
It was intended to encourage people to settle in the West
It was passed in 1862
It was passed by the US government
It allowed each family 160 acres of land for free provide they lived on it for five years
Why did the US government want to build the transcontinental railroad?
To link the East and West
Who first started building the railroad and when?
Where did they meet?
Two companies, one from the east (Central Pacific Railroad Company), and the other from the west (Western Pacific Railroad Company) in the 1860s
In Utah
Name four pull factors for why homesteaders moved West?
Pull
The offer of free land
Chance of a new start
Advertising by the railroad companies and by the territories and states
Letters home from those who had already gone west, and who were successfully farming encouraged people to move
Name one push factor each for Europe, the eastern states and the southern states explaining why homesteaders moved West
Europe
Jews and other religious groups were looking to escape religious persecution at home
The eastern states
Wanted farming land or opportunities to get on that were no longer available in the settled eastern states
The southern states
The after effects of the Civil War: black ex-slaves were persecuted in the South and many southerners lost their land and income
Name three enabling factors for why homesteaders moved West?
The early homesteaders travelled by wagon, by riverboat or on foot
Later homesteaders travelled on the new railroads
The Indians were cleared from these lands, defeated by the US army and confined to reservations or pushed further West
What did they live in?
Sod houses
Why were they called ‘Sod’ houses?
Because they were made out of blocks of earth called ‘sods’ which were cut out by hand or with a special plough
What jobs did women do? Name eleven
1) Planted crops
2) Shot buffalo
3) Fished
4) Killed snakes
5) Cooked
6) Washed clothes
7) Drove cattle away from land
8) Dug cellars
9) Making clothes
10) Feed animals
11) Apply medical remedies
12) Collect cattle chips
