1 00:00:00,120 --> 00:00:05,080 Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio. 2 00:00:05,800 --> 00:00:09,240 Speaker 1: Hello and Welcome to This Day in History Class, a 3 00:00:09,360 --> 00:00:13,400 Speaker 1: show the tallies, the gains and losses of everyday history. 4 00:00:15,320 --> 00:00:18,520 Speaker 1: I'm Gabe Lusier, and in this episode, we're looking at 5 00:00:18,560 --> 00:00:22,720 Speaker 1: a revolutionary policy that gave almost any person in America 6 00:00:23,120 --> 00:00:25,919 Speaker 1: the chance to own one hundred and sixty acres of 7 00:00:26,040 --> 00:00:36,480 Speaker 1: free land. The day was May twentieth, eighteen sixty two. 8 00:00:37,320 --> 00:00:41,839 Speaker 1: The Homestead Act was signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln. 9 00:00:42,800 --> 00:00:47,200 Speaker 1: Designed to encourage westward expansion, the Act allowed any eligible 10 00:00:47,240 --> 00:00:50,279 Speaker 1: person to claim up to one hundred and sixty acres 11 00:00:50,320 --> 00:00:53,680 Speaker 1: of federally owned land to live on and farm for 12 00:00:53,800 --> 00:00:57,400 Speaker 1: a period of five years, if the homesteader could then 13 00:00:57,560 --> 00:01:00,560 Speaker 1: prove that they had measurably improved the land, and during 14 00:01:00,600 --> 00:01:03,720 Speaker 1: that time, the property would be theirs to keep for 15 00:01:03,840 --> 00:01:08,720 Speaker 1: the total cost of eighteen dollars. The question of how 16 00:01:08,760 --> 00:01:11,920 Speaker 1: to distribute public land in the West had been hotly 17 00:01:11,959 --> 00:01:16,640 Speaker 1: debated in Congress since the American Revolution. The first legislation 18 00:01:16,800 --> 00:01:20,119 Speaker 1: to tackle the subject was the Land Ordinance of seventeen 19 00:01:20,200 --> 00:01:23,320 Speaker 1: eighty five. It laid out a process by which the 20 00:01:23,319 --> 00:01:26,920 Speaker 1: federal government could survey and sell lands west of the 21 00:01:26,959 --> 00:01:31,840 Speaker 1: Appalachian Mountains. However, the plots they drew up were large 22 00:01:31,920 --> 00:01:35,520 Speaker 1: and expensive, which meant that only big time farmers with 23 00:01:35,640 --> 00:01:39,160 Speaker 1: lots of capital could afford to buy them. This led 24 00:01:39,200 --> 00:01:42,279 Speaker 1: to repeated calls to change the system so that small 25 00:01:42,319 --> 00:01:45,920 Speaker 1: family farmers could have a shot as well. Some members 26 00:01:45,959 --> 00:01:48,920 Speaker 1: of Congress pushed for cheaper plots of land, but the 27 00:01:49,000 --> 00:01:53,520 Speaker 1: more radical members proposed offering preemption, the right to settle 28 00:01:53,600 --> 00:01:57,560 Speaker 1: land first and pay for it later. The prospect of 29 00:01:57,600 --> 00:02:01,320 Speaker 1: giving free land to the masses opponents in both the 30 00:02:01,360 --> 00:02:05,560 Speaker 1: North and the south. Northern manufacturers worried that much of 31 00:02:05,600 --> 00:02:08,480 Speaker 1: their workforce would be lured away to try their hand 32 00:02:08,480 --> 00:02:12,559 Speaker 1: at farming, and Southerners feared that once the western territories 33 00:02:12,560 --> 00:02:16,079 Speaker 1: were populated, they would join the Union as free states, 34 00:02:16,440 --> 00:02:21,440 Speaker 1: further strengthening the abolitionist movement. These two lobbies held enough 35 00:02:21,520 --> 00:02:24,960 Speaker 1: sway in Congress to keep the issue gridlocked for decades, 36 00:02:25,400 --> 00:02:29,400 Speaker 1: but then in eighteen sixty one, Abraham Lincoln moved into 37 00:02:29,440 --> 00:02:32,880 Speaker 1: the White House and eleven southern states left the Union. 38 00:02:33,720 --> 00:02:37,639 Speaker 1: Their sudden departure cleared the way for Republicans to finally 39 00:02:37,680 --> 00:02:42,120 Speaker 1: pass legislation that promoted western settlement. It was called the 40 00:02:42,160 --> 00:02:46,320 Speaker 1: Homestead Act after the practice of homesteading, which is when 41 00:02:46,440 --> 00:02:50,080 Speaker 1: someone settles or occupies unused land for the purpose of 42 00:02:50,200 --> 00:02:55,680 Speaker 1: establishing ownership. President Lincoln signed the Homestead Act into law 43 00:02:55,800 --> 00:02:59,120 Speaker 1: on May twentieth, eighteen sixty two, and it went into 44 00:02:59,120 --> 00:03:03,679 Speaker 1: effect on Jamilanuary first of the following year. The homesteading 45 00:03:03,760 --> 00:03:08,919 Speaker 1: law was surprisingly progressive for nineteenth century America. For example, 46 00:03:09,120 --> 00:03:12,200 Speaker 1: it used the gender neutral term heads of household to 47 00:03:12,280 --> 00:03:16,760 Speaker 1: describe who was eligible. This allowed single and widowed women 48 00:03:17,040 --> 00:03:20,280 Speaker 1: to claim land in their own names, and as a result, 49 00:03:20,520 --> 00:03:23,360 Speaker 1: many of them obtained a de facto right to vote, 50 00:03:23,560 --> 00:03:27,079 Speaker 1: more than fifty years before the Nineteenth Amendment would extend 51 00:03:27,120 --> 00:03:31,040 Speaker 1: the right to all American women. The Act also didn't 52 00:03:31,080 --> 00:03:35,400 Speaker 1: exclude homesteaders on the basis of race, so four years later, 53 00:03:35,520 --> 00:03:39,680 Speaker 1: when the Fourteenth Amendment granted full citizenship to formerly enslaved 54 00:03:39,720 --> 00:03:43,280 Speaker 1: African Americans, they too were allowed to claim land in 55 00:03:43,320 --> 00:03:48,240 Speaker 1: the West. The Homestead Act even encouraged immigration by allowing 56 00:03:48,280 --> 00:03:51,400 Speaker 1: immigrants to claim land as long as they became US 57 00:03:51,440 --> 00:03:55,080 Speaker 1: citizens by the end of their five year residency. It's 58 00:03:55,120 --> 00:03:58,640 Speaker 1: important to note, however, that people who were not eligible 59 00:03:58,640 --> 00:04:03,200 Speaker 1: to become US citizens, were excluded from claiming land. This 60 00:04:03,280 --> 00:04:06,800 Speaker 1: blocked the path not only for immigrants from Asian nations, 61 00:04:07,040 --> 00:04:10,160 Speaker 1: but for Native Americans, many of whom had their land 62 00:04:10,240 --> 00:04:15,000 Speaker 1: stolen away and then granted to homesteaders. For those who 63 00:04:15,080 --> 00:04:19,480 Speaker 1: were eligible, the process of filing a claim was fairly straightforward. 64 00:04:19,960 --> 00:04:22,080 Speaker 1: All they had to do was report to the nearest 65 00:04:22,200 --> 00:04:25,520 Speaker 1: land office and file their intentions to claim a specific 66 00:04:25,600 --> 00:04:28,720 Speaker 1: plot of land. Once it was determined that no one 67 00:04:28,800 --> 00:04:32,360 Speaker 1: else had already claimed the coordinates in question, the homesteader 68 00:04:32,360 --> 00:04:35,039 Speaker 1: would pay twelve dollars to claim the land for the 69 00:04:35,080 --> 00:04:40,400 Speaker 1: next five years. Frontier life wasn't easy, though, and not 70 00:04:40,480 --> 00:04:44,280 Speaker 1: everyone lasted the full term. In order for homesteaders to 71 00:04:44,480 --> 00:04:47,560 Speaker 1: prove up and receive the deed for their land, they 72 00:04:47,600 --> 00:04:51,120 Speaker 1: had to satisfy certain requirements like building a home and 73 00:04:51,279 --> 00:04:55,640 Speaker 1: farming crops. Plenty of families called it quits before their 74 00:04:55,680 --> 00:04:58,600 Speaker 1: five years were up, and in those cases, their land 75 00:04:58,720 --> 00:05:02,000 Speaker 1: was forfeited to the government and made available to someone else. 76 00:05:02,880 --> 00:05:05,200 Speaker 1: For those who stuck it out, though, they were able 77 00:05:05,240 --> 00:05:07,960 Speaker 1: to take legal possession of their land by having two 78 00:05:08,040 --> 00:05:12,360 Speaker 1: neighbors sign a document affirming that the necessary improvements had 79 00:05:12,400 --> 00:05:16,640 Speaker 1: been made then, after submitting that form with an additional 80 00:05:16,720 --> 00:05:19,760 Speaker 1: six dollar feet, the homesteader received a deed to the 81 00:05:19,839 --> 00:05:24,320 Speaker 1: land simple as that. The first to complete this process 82 00:05:24,560 --> 00:05:28,400 Speaker 1: was Daniel Freeman, an Illinois native and Civil War veteran. 83 00:05:29,120 --> 00:05:33,160 Speaker 1: He reportedly filed his claim just after midnight on January first, 84 00:05:33,320 --> 00:05:37,160 Speaker 1: eighteen sixty three, right when the Homestead Act went into effect. 85 00:05:37,960 --> 00:05:40,760 Speaker 1: He later got married and raised eight children on his 86 00:05:40,839 --> 00:05:45,720 Speaker 1: homestead near Beatrice, Nebraska, and today the family's land and 87 00:05:45,800 --> 00:05:49,120 Speaker 1: log cabin are now the site of the Homestead National 88 00:05:49,279 --> 00:05:53,240 Speaker 1: Historical Park, a memorial not only to the Freeman's but 89 00:05:53,320 --> 00:05:56,720 Speaker 1: to all of the roughly two million people who successfully 90 00:05:56,800 --> 00:06:01,719 Speaker 1: stake their claims under the Homestead Act. America's great land 91 00:06:01,800 --> 00:06:05,920 Speaker 1: Giveaway lasted all the way until nineteen seventy six, when 92 00:06:05,920 --> 00:06:09,840 Speaker 1: the Homestead Act was officially repealed. By that point, most 93 00:06:09,880 --> 00:06:12,880 Speaker 1: of the primo land out west had already been claimed 94 00:06:12,880 --> 00:06:16,760 Speaker 1: decades earlier. Alaska was one of the few places in 95 00:06:16,800 --> 00:06:19,880 Speaker 1: the country that still had land available for homesteading in 96 00:06:19,880 --> 00:06:24,360 Speaker 1: the latter twentieth century. In fact, the very last homestead 97 00:06:24,400 --> 00:06:28,279 Speaker 1: title was granted there in nineteen seventy nine, when Kenneth 98 00:06:28,320 --> 00:06:33,320 Speaker 1: Dierdorf proved up on his eighty acre claim. In total, 99 00:06:33,640 --> 00:06:37,719 Speaker 1: two hundred and seventy million acres were given away under 100 00:06:37,760 --> 00:06:41,720 Speaker 1: the Homestead Act, the equivalent of about ten percent of 101 00:06:41,960 --> 00:06:49,599 Speaker 1: all US land. I'm gay, Blues, yay, and hopefully you 102 00:06:49,680 --> 00:06:52,760 Speaker 1: now know a little more about history today than you 103 00:06:52,800 --> 00:06:55,960 Speaker 1: did yesterday. If you'd like to keep up with the show, 104 00:06:56,080 --> 00:06:59,440 Speaker 1: you can follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at 105 00:06:59,440 --> 00:07:04,080 Speaker 1: TDI HC Show, and if you have any comments or suggestions, 106 00:07:04,240 --> 00:07:06,560 Speaker 1: feel free to send them my way by writing to 107 00:07:06,640 --> 00:07:11,560 Speaker 1: This Day at iHeartMedia dot com. Thanks to kazb Bias 108 00:07:11,640 --> 00:07:14,200 Speaker 1: for producing the show, and thanks to you for listening. 109 00:07:14,560 --> 00:07:17,520 Speaker 1: I'll see you back here again tomorrow for another day 110 00:07:17,800 --> 00:07:30,000 Speaker 1: in History class.