The Homestead Act (1862)

The Homestead Act

To help develop the American West and spur economic growth, Congress passed the Homestead Act of 1862, which provided 160 acres of federal land to anyone who agreed to farm the land. The act distributed millions of acres of western land to individual settlers.

The effects of the Homestead Act

* it triggered the largest migration
* participants (native born white Americans, landless men and women from the East, single women, African Americans, immigrants)
* Exodusters - group of African American; they moved to the West; under the leadership of Henry Adams (white person) - he wanted to establish the black colony

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Impact

* so much land being discovered and utilized
* new resources became popular such as gold, silver, timber, and oil
* people began building towns and starting businesses, allowing the economy to grow and thrive
* the demise of Native American tribes

Sources of westward expansion

* Population growth due to the rise of immigration and the natural increase
* Terretorial acquisitions
* The detailed accounts of the explorers
* the raising demand for grain and corn
* plantation holders forced these poor farmers to make their own plantations and make them larger and they moved West because they thought it would be a better oportunity to them

Lewis and Clark

explorers who reached the Pacific Coast

John C. Fremont

a pot finder

Zebulon Pike

explored New Mexico and Texas

The Gold Rush 1849

Due to the rise of the cotton kingdom poor farmers went West

Manifest Destiny

became a popular phrase to explain the westward expansion; comes from the statement by WIlliam Gilpin (explorer, politician, writer); americans need to explore the whole continent

The Pacific Railway Act (1862)

led to building the transcontinental railroad

Morrill Land Grant College Act (1862)

encouraged the sale of federal lands and used the profits to establish agricultural colleges