Homestead Movement, promoted the free ownership of land, mostly in the 18th- and 19th-century U.S., culminating in the Homestead Act of 1862. The movement was based on the philosophy that the public domain belonged to the people and that each head of a family was entitled to a home or farm, the possession of which should be protected against seizure for debt. This theory developed gradually for half a century after 1785. Earlier laws were intended primarily to procure revenue for the federal government, but the main result was encouragement of sales of public land in large blocks for the benefit of speculators. By 1835 the sales had extinguished the public debt, and thereafter an increasing clamour arose for legislation to relieve the condition of tenant farmers and hard-pressed city labourers through the adoption of a general homestead law. Up to 1856 the contest was essentially between Western farmers seeking easy expansion and Eastern landlords or industrialists eager to preserve high rents and cheap labour. But in 1856 the Eastern Republicans, in a move to cement relations with Western Republicans, gave up opposition to a homestead law and combined free farms with the issue of banning the expansion of slavery. Thus the contest became one between North and South.

BR> The Homestead Act of May 20, 1862, passed by Congress (after the secession of the South) dominated by free-soil advocates, provided for 160 acres (65 hectares) to any person willing to occupy and cultivate the land for five years. This act failed to relieve labour pressure in the cities. Most of the fertile land was already in private hands and no longer part of the public domain. Many tracts were remotely located, and there were no provisions for training in even elementary farm techniques. Furthermore, farmers found it difficult to acquire the necessary capital for a successful beginning and usually failed the five-year residency requirement to gain full title. By 1890 only one out of three homesteaders had managed to remain long enough to obtain deeds to their land. Modifications in the Homestead Act over the next 40 years included exemption laws forbidding seizure of a homestead for debts incurred prior to patenting.
Homestead laws of lesser importance were enacted throughout the 20th century, and by the l950s the government had patented about 250,000,000 acres (101,000,000 hectares), much of which had fallen into the hands of large estate owners. Similar laws were passed in Canada.


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