Homestead Laws in the United States

Homestead Laws Definition

Homestead Laws may be defined as a collective name for a series of enactments by the United States Congress allowing settlers without capital to acquire homesteads.

Background

Although sentiment supporting the idea of free land for homesteaders existed from the early days of the U.S., the law was not passed until the American Civil War had begun. The South was antagonistic to the free-land movement, because it feared homesteaders would be against slavery. When the Republican Party was formed in 1854 it absorbed the free-land sentiment of the Free-Soil Party.

The secession of the Southern states left the way open for enactment of “the complete and satisfactory homestead measure” called for in a Republican preelection declaration of 1860. The homestead law was enacted by Congress in 1862. It provided that anyone who was either the head of a family, 21 years old, or a veteran of 14 days of active service in the U.S. armed forces, and who was a citizen or had filed a declaration of intent to become a citizen, could acquire a tract of land in the public domain not exceeding 65 hectares (160 acres, equal to a quarter section).

Federally owned land

The public domain, or federally owned land, included land in all states except the original 13 and Maine, Vermont, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Texas. To acquire title to the land, the homesteader was obliged to settle on or cultivate the homestead for five years. The law expressly declared that no land so acquired could be levied against by creditors for the satisfaction of debts contracted prior to the issuance of the land grant.

Other federal homestead laws, enacted by subsequent congresses, were essentially modifications of the act of 1862. The federal homestead laws provided an incentive, in the form of easily obtainable land, for the settlement of the West. Largely because the supply of suitable public land was exhausted, remaining public lands were withdrawn from homesteading in 1935. Occasionally since then, small areas in Alaska have been opened to veterans for homesteading.

Homestead National Monument of America

Homestead National Monument of America, northwest of Beatrice, Nebraska, is the site settled by Daniel Freeman and his family, who were the first to make a claim under the act on January 1, 1863, when the law went into effect.

Source: “Homestead Laws,” Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia