--- title: Homestead Act: Settling the American West author: Harrison W. Mark source: https://www.worldhistory.org/Homestead_Act/ format: machine-readable-alternate license: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0) updated: 2026-07-24 --- # Homestead Act: Settling the American West _Authored by [Harrison W. Mark](https://www.worldhistory.org/user/harrisonwmark/)_ The Homestead Act was a policy enacted by the United States government on 20 May 1862 to encourage westward expansion. Passed during the [American Civil War](https://www.worldhistory.org/American_Civil_War/) (1861-1865), the act offered 160 acres (65 ha) of public domain land to any citizen who had never taken up arms against the federal government. Though the land did not cost any money, it was not completely free. Prospective farmers were required to live on and 'improve' the land for five years before the property would legally become theirs. Though a large percentage of farms would fail, the Homestead Act encouraged hundreds of thousands of American families to move out West. Before it was discontinued in 1976, the act led 270 million acres of land to be claimed and settled by US citizens. ### Background: Westward Expansion Even before the inception of the United States as a nation, Americans had dreamed of the West. In 1763, King [George III of Great Britain](https://www.worldhistory.org/George_III_of_Great_Britain/) had to pass a royal proclamation barring American colonists from settling west of the Appalachian Mountains to prevent future conflicts with [Native Americans](https://www.worldhistory.org/Native_Peoples_of_North_America/) already living there. This restriction of westward movement enraged the colonists and was one of the first grievances that led to the [American Revolution](https://www.worldhistory.org/American_Revolution/) (1775-1783). In the years after the United States had gained its independence, the Founders laid out the first groundwork for westward expansion in the [Northwest Ordinance](https://www.worldhistory.org/Northwest_Ordinance/) of 1787. This ordinance turned out to be of monumental importance. It not only created the first organized territory of the US – the Northwest Territory – but laid the legal precedent for the settlement of the West and established how new states could be added to the Union. Of course, the Northwest Ordinance also led to bloody fighting between the Euro-American settlers and the Indigenous peoples of the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley regions. [ ![Map of Westward Exploration and Settlement of the USA c.1855](https://www.worldhistory.org/img/r/p/750x750/17202.png?v=1771927860-1771927890) Map of Westward Exploration and Settlement of the USA c.1855 Simeon Netchev (CC BY-NC-ND) ](https://www.worldhistory.org/image/17202/map-of-westward-exploration-and-settlement-of-the/ "Map of Westward Exploration and Settlement of the USA c.1855")The precedent set by the Northwest Ordinance – both in terms of settlement and violence against Native Americans – informed the next several decades, as US settlers streamed Westward to seek their fortunes and fulfill the promise of Manifest Destiny. The [Mexican-American War](https://www.worldhistory.org/Mexican-American_War/) (1845-1848), overseen by the expansionist administration of President [James K. Polk](https://www.worldhistory.org/James_K._Polk/), added 525,000 square miles of territory to the US, and the subsequent discovery of [gold](https://www.worldhistory.org/gold/) in California helped incentivize thousands more settlers to move West. But as the West became more heavily populated, the nation was forced to grapple with the question of slavery – would it be allowed to expand into these new lands? The slave-holding aristocracy of the Antebellum South strongly supported the expansion of slavery. Not only would the creation of new 'slave states' increase their political power, but many of the newly acquired Western lands were ripe for cotton plantations. By forcing enslaved people to shed their blood and sweat toiling over the virgin soil of the West, the slave-holding elite would increase their fortunes, and the rich would get richer. The expansion of slavery was opposed not only by abolitionists but also by 'free soil' Northerners who believed in the value of wage labor performed by free workers. Many of these free soilers supported the ideal of the virtuous yeoman farmer, which they defined as a hardworking American man who owned his own farm, tilled his own soil, and reaped the rewards of his labor for himself and his family. This idealized vision of the West, populated by a myriad of small farms, was fundamentally at odds with the slaveholders' vision of a West filled with sprawling slave plantations. During the Presidential Election of 1860, the new anti-slavery Republican Party added a conceptual version of the 'Homestead Act' to its platform. The goal was to offer land to potential settlers and their families, incentivizing them to go and set up farms before the slaveholding elites could get their hands on the land. The Republican candidate, [Abraham](https://www.worldhistory.org/Abraham,_the_Patriarch/) Lincoln, supported the idea. In February 1861, shortly after his election to the presidency, he proclaimed that "the wild lands of the country should be distributed so that every man should have the means and opportunity of benefiting his condition" (quoted by history.org). By this point, several Southern slave states had already seceded from the Union. Two months later, Confederate cannons fired on Fort Sumter, triggering the American Civil [War](https://www.worldhistory.org/disambiguation/War/). ### The Act: Implementation & Effects The Homestead Act was passed by a Republican-controlled Congress on 20 May 1862, a little over a year after the war had broken out. The intention was to test this idea of the free soil, yeoman farmer by inviting men to take their families, go West, and 'improve' the land. The act was open to any adult citizen not in open rebellion against the United States – all they had to do was file a claim. After paying a small registration fee, the claimant would be given a 160-acre plot of land. If the claimant could live on the land and successfully cultivate it for a period of five years, the title to the property would become his. Claimants had the option to expedite the process by paying the government $1.25 an acre after a six-month period. Additionally, after the end of the Civil War, returning Union soldiers were allowed to deduct the time they had served in the army from the residency requirements. [ ![Map of the United States on the Eve of Civil War, 1861](https://www.worldhistory.org/img/r/p/750x750/20390.png?v=1783347916-1765364192) Map of the United States on the Eve of Civil War, 1861 Simeon Netchev (CC BY-NC-ND) ](https://www.worldhistory.org/image/20390/map-of-the-united-states-on-the-eve-of-civil-war-1/ "Map of the United States on the Eve of Civil War, 1861")Of course, after the end of the Civil War and the Thirteenth Amendment made the question of slavery irrelevant, the primary purpose of the Homestead Act was to facilitate and accelerate the settlement of the West. Farmers were therefore encouraged to bring their families and make permanent homes for themselves. As historian Richard White explains, > the unstated assumption \[of the Homestead Act\], usually correct, was that the successful development of this tract demanded the labor of both men and [women](https://www.worldhistory.org/disambiguation/women/) and thus the creation of a home and family. At the end of five years, labor on the land would have created a home, family, a competence, and independence. > (142) Throughout the 1860s and '70s, hundreds of thousands of American families filed claims, and many headed West to settle on their new plots of free land. But although the land itself was free, the life that these settlers were signing up for was fraught with toil and hardship. White notes that for every four families that succeeded in setting up farms and 'improving' the land, another six failed; in these instances, the land claimants would end up "abandoning the land, selling their right to others, or choosing to purchase the claim rather than waiting five years for the title" (*ibid*). According to White, the success of the act "varied over time and space" but was most immediately successful in the lands east of the 100th meridian, and in places like the Dakotas. Two-thirds of the homestead claims made in Minnesota between the years 1863-75 proved successful. In Kansas, only 40% of claims filed between 1863 and 1890 yielded a successful result. Yet this was still no small feat, amounting to 94,448 farms, demonstrating just how many people were taking advantage of the act. To further exhibit the varied success of the Homestead Act, White looks at the numbers. In the 1860s, he notes that Americans created 615,908 new farms; of these, only 142,410 were established by homesteaders. White writes that "even if every application proved successful – and only a minority in fact succeeded – the act accounted for fewer than 25 percent of new farms created" (143). The 1870s saw similar results. 1,348,985 new farms were created, out of which 318,572 were homestead entries. It was not until the 1880s that homesteaders made up a majority of new farms, but this was counterbalanced by the fact that many of them would eventually fail. One large obstacle to the homesteaders was [railroad](https://www.worldhistory.org/disambiguation/Railroad/) companies and other large speculators, who received massive land grants that otherwise would have gone to small farmers. Of course, the Homestead Act also had a horribly negative effect on Native Americans, who were often pushed from their lands and onto reservations. The arrival of the homesteaders led to a marked decrease in the buffalo population, as well as the introduction of unsustainable farming methods which also hindered Indigenous ways of life, not to mention the bouts of violence and bloodshed that inevitably broke out. The Homestead Act remained in effect until 1976, when it was repealed by the Federal Land Policy and Management Act, which stipulated that "public lands be retained in Federal ownership"; nevertheless, homesteading was still authorized in Alaska until 1986 (history.org). During the 124 years it was in effect, it resulted in 270 million acres (110 million hectares) – about 10% of all US land – being claimed and settled. Though the act certainly had its negative impacts, including the high probability of failure and the displacement of Native peoples, it did have its upsides, allowing large numbers of Americans – including both men and women, White and Black – to become landowners. [ ![Early Homestead, Nicodemus, Kansas](https://www.worldhistory.org/img/r/p/500x600/21962.jpg?v=1784868241-1784876534) Early Homestead, Nicodemus, Kansas Unknown Photographer (Public Domain) ](https://www.worldhistory.org/image/21962/early-homestead-nicodemus-kansas/ "Early Homestead, Nicodemus, Kansas")### Transcript The following is a full transcript of the Homestead Act, passed by the US government on 20 May 1862: > CHAP. LXXV. —An Act to secure Homesteads to actual Settlers on the Public Domain. > Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That any person who is the 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, as required by the naturalization laws of the United States, and who has never borne arms against the United States Government or given aid and comfort to its enemies, shall, from and after the first January, eighteen hundred and sixty-three, be entitled to enter one quarter section or a less quantity of unappropriated public lands, upon which said person may have filed a preemption claim, or which may, at the time the application is made, be subject to preemption at one dollar and twenty-five cents, or less, per acre; or eighty acres or less of such unappropriated lands, at two dollars and fifty cents per acre, to be located in a body, in conformity to the legal subdivisions of the public lands, and after the same shall have been surveyed: Provided, That any person owning and residing on land may, under the provisions of this act, enter other land lying contiguous to his or her said land, which shall not, with the land so already owned and occupied, exceed in the aggregate one hundred and sixty acres. > SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That the person applying for the benefit of this act shall, upon application to the register of the land office in which he or she is about to make such entry, make affidavit before the said register or receiver that he or she is the head of a family, or is twenty-one years or more of age, or shall have performed service in the army or navy of the United States, and that he has never borne arms against the Government of the United States or given aid and comfort to its enemies, and that such application is made for his or her exclusive use and benefit, and that said entry is made for the purpose of actual settlement and cultivation, and not either directly or indirectly for the use or benefit of any other person or persons whomsoever; and upon filing the said affidavit with the register or receiver, and on payment of ten dollars, he or she shall thereupon be permitted to enter the quantity of land specified: Provided, however, That no certificate shall be given or patent issued therefor until the expiration of five years from the date of such entry; and if, at the expiration of such time, or at any time within two years thereafter, the person making such entry; or, if he be dead, his widow; or in case of her [death](https://www.worldhistory.org/disambiguation/Death/), his heirs or devisee; or in case of a widow making such entry, her heirs or devisee, in case of her death; shall. prove by two credible witnesses that he, she, or they have resided upon or cultivated the same for the term of five years immediately succeeding the time of filing the affidavit aforesaid, and shall make affidavit that no part of said land has been alienated, and that he has borne rue allegiance to the Government of the United States; then, in such case, he, she, or they, if at that time a citizen of the United States, shall be entitled to a patent, as in other cases provided for by [law](https://www.worldhistory.org/disambiguation/law/): And provided, further, That in case of the death of both father and mother, leaving an Infant child, or children, under twenty-one years of age, the right and fee shall ensure to the benefit of said infant child or children; and the executor, administrator, or guardian may, at any time within two years after the death of the surviving parent, and in accordance with the laws of the State in which such children for the time being have their domicile, sell said land for the benefit of said infants, but for no other purpose; and the purchaser shall acquire the absolute title by the purchase, and be entitled to a patent from the United States, on payment of the office fees and sum of money herein specified. > SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That the register of the land office shall note all such applications on the tract books and plats of, his office, and keep a register of all such entries, and make return thereof to the General Land Office, together with the proof upon which they have been founded. > SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That no lands acquired under the provisions of this act shall in any event become liable to the satisfaction of any debt or debts contracted prior to the issuing of the patent therefor. > SEC. 5. And be it further enacted, That if, at any time after the filing of the affidavit, as required in the second section of this act, and before the expiration of the five years aforesaid, it shall be proven, after due notice to the settler, to the satisfaction of the register of the land office, that the person having filed such affidavit shall have actually changed his or her residence, or abandoned the said land for more than six months at any time, then and in that event the land so entered shall revert to the government. > SEC. 6. And be it further enacted, That no individual shall be permitted to acquire title to more than one quarter section under the provisions of this act; and that the Commissioner of the General Land Office is hereby required to prepare and issue such rules and regulations, consistent with this act, as shall be necessary and proper to carry its provisions into effect; and that the registers and receivers of the several land offices shall be entitled to receive the same compensation for any lands entered under the provisions of this act that they are now entitled to receive when the same quantity of land is entered with money, one half to be paid by the person making the application at the time of so doing, and the other half on the issue of the certificate by the person to whom it may be issued; but this shall not be construed to enlarge the maximum of compensation now prescribed by law for any register or receiver: Provided, That nothing contained in this act shall be so construed as to impair or interfere in any manner whatever with existing preemption rights: And provided, further, That all persons who may have filed their applications for a preemption right prior to the passage of this act, shall be entitled to all privileges of this act: Provided, further, That no person who has served, or may hereafter serve, for a period of not less than fourteen days in the army or navy of the United States, either regular or volunteer, under the laws thereof, during the existence of an actual war, domestic or foreign, shall be deprived of the benefits of this act on account of not having attained the age of twenty-one years. > SEC. 7. And be it further enacted, That the fifth section of the act entitled "An act in addition to an act more effectually to provide for the punishment of certain crimes against the United States, and for other purposes," approved the third of March, in the year eighteen hundred and fifty-seven, shall extend to all oaths, affirmations, and affidavits, required or authorized by this act. > SEC. 8. And be it further enacted, That nothing in this act shall be so construed as to prevent any person who has availed him or herself of the benefits of the first section of this act, from paying the minimum price, or the price to which the same may have graduated, for the quantity of land so entered at any time before the expiration of the five years, and obtaining a patent therefor from the government, as in other cases provided by law, on making proof of settlement and cultivation as provided by existing laws granting preemption rights. > APPROVED, May 20, 1862. #### Editorial Review This human-authored definition has been reviewed by our editorial team before publication to ensure accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards in accordance with our [editorial policy](https://www.worldhistory.org/static/editorial-policy/). ## Bibliography - [Foner, Eric. *Reconstruction.* Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2014.](https://www.worldhistory.org/books/0062354515/) - [Homestead Act (1862) | National Archives](https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/homestead-act "Homestead Act (1862) | National Archives"), accessed 20 Jul 2026. - [Homestead Act: 1862 Date & Definition | HISTORY](https://www.history.com/articles/homestead-act "Homestead Act: 1862 Date & Definition | HISTORY"), accessed 20 Jul 2026. - [Meacham, Jon. *And There Was Light.* Random House, 2022.](https://www.worldhistory.org/books/0553393960/) - [Native Americans and the Homestead Act - Homestead National Historical Park (U.S. National Park Service)](https://www.nps.gov/home/learn/historyculture/native-americans-and-the-homestead-act.htm "Native Americans and the Homestead Act - Homestead National Historical Park (U.S. National Park Service)"), accessed 20 Jul 2026. - [Sinha, Manisha. *The Rise and Fall of the Second American Republic.* Liveright, 2024.](https://www.worldhistory.org/books/1631498444/) - [White, Richard. *The Republic for Which It Stands: The United States During Reconstruction and the Gilded Age, 1865-1896.* Oxford University Press, 2017.](https://www.worldhistory.org/books/0199735816/) ## About the Author Harrison Mark is a historical researcher and writer for World History Encyclopedia. He holds degrees in history and political science from SUNY Oswego. - [Facebook Profile](https://www.facebook.com/harrison.mark.5/) - [Linkedin Profile](https://www.linkedin.com/in/harrison-mark-b56213197/) ## Cite This Work ### APA Mark, H. W. (2026, July 24). Homestead Act: Settling the American West. *World History Encyclopedia*. [https://www.worldhistory.org/Homestead\_Act/](https://www.worldhistory.org/Homestead_Act/) ### Chicago Mark, Harrison W.. "Homestead Act: Settling the American West." *World History Encyclopedia*, July 24, 2026. [https://www.worldhistory.org/Homestead\_Act/](https://www.worldhistory.org/Homestead_Act/). ### MLA Mark, Harrison W.. "Homestead Act: Settling the American West." *World History Encyclopedia*, 24 Jul 2026, [https://www.worldhistory.org/Homestead\_Act/](https://www.worldhistory.org/Homestead_Act/). ## License & Copyright Submitted by [Harrison W. Mark](https://www.worldhistory.org/user/harrisonwmark/ "User Page: Harrison W. 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