History of the United States II / Unit 2 USH2 0151 short lesson, about 20 seconds
The Homestead Act
Captions available
The idea
The Homestead Act of May twentieth, eighteen sixty-two, offered up to one hundred sixty acres of federal land to settlers who would live on it and improve it.
In practice
A head of a family, or anyone twenty-one or older, citizen or declared future citizen, filing a claim.
Where people slip
The law's text says he or she, so unmarried women could claim land too.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
Builds on
- Nothing. This is a starting point.
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