Homestead Act

noun

1. a special act of Congress (1862) that made public lands in the West available to settlers without payment, usually in lots of 160 acres, to be used as farms.

Homestead Act

noun

1. an act passed by the US Congress in 1862 making available to settlers 160-acre tracts of public land for cultivation
2. (in Canada) a similar act passed by the Canadian Parliament in 1872

Homestead Act

1. A law passed in the 1860s that offered up to 160 acres of public land to any head of a family who paid a registration fee, lived on the land for five years, and cultivated it or built on it.

Example Sentences

In The Americans, the historian Daniel Boorstin traced the madness of the farmers to the Homestead Act of 1862.

From The Daily Beast

He also enacted the Homestead Act, which supplied aspiring settlers with a gift: 160 acres of federal land.

From The Daily Beast

Furthermore, the Homestead Act of 1862 gave new and cumulative impetus to the immigration which sought farming lands.

From Project Gutenberg

The government was to extend to the producer "free capital" in addition to free land which he received with the Homestead Act.

From Project Gutenberg

By about 1890 most of the desirable land available under the Homestead act had disappeared.

From Project Gutenberg

Having done this, he went and pre-empted it under the Homestead Act, at the government price.

From Project Gutenberg

The Homestead Act of May 20, 1862, opened vast areas of public lands to a new immigration.

From Project Gutenberg