The Homestead Act never delivered free land to ordinary settlers

Evidence

Public-​land law was a hopeless and inconsistent jumble. There was free land for settlers, but also land for sale. The federal government wanted to sell some of its land to the highest bidder; at the same time, it used public land to cajole entrepreneurs to build railroads, and it gave other land to the states to fund the so-​called land-​grant colleges. Administration was extremely feeble. The homestead principle, if that meant land for worthy settlers, never worked as it was supposed to. The government continued to sell land for cash, and the best land was “snapped up” by speculators. As Paul Wallace Gates describes it, settlers arriving in Kansas between 1868 and 1872 were greeted with advertisements announcing that the choicest lands in the state had been selected by the State Agricultural College, which was now offering 90,000 acres for sale on long-​term credits. The Central Branch of the Union Pacific Railroad offered 1,200,000 acres for prices ranging from 1 to 15 per acre; the Kansas Pacific Railroad offered 5,000,000 acres for 1 to 6 per acre; the Kansas and Neosho Valley Railroad offered 1,500,000 acres for sale at 2 to 8 per acre; the Capital Land Agency of Topeka offered 1,000,000 acres of Kansas land for sale; Van Doren and Havens offered 200,000 acres for 3 to 10 per acre; T. H. Walker offered 10,000 (or 100,000) acres for 5 to 10 per acre; Hendry and Noyes offered 50,000 acres; the federal government itself advertised for bids on approximately 6,000 acres of Sac and Fox Indian lands. The homesteader was shut out from all of this choice land, which government and private enterprises held. In addition, the Homestead Act seemed to presuppose the sort of rich, well-​watered land of the Middle West. But much of the West was the “Great American Desert.” — Lawrence M. Friedman, A History of American Law, 2414

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s Trees/land as infrastructure thread and this book’s own land-marketability theme from ch34-founding colonial dispossession claims. — connects to: Homestead Act claims were affordable for ordinary settlers with little money down — Dorothy A. Brown, Getting to Reparations: How Building a…, 332; Fewer than one percent of commuted homestead lands ever became homes — Lawrence M. Friedman, A History of American Law, 2418; The 1857 citizenship ruling excluded black people from Homestead Act land — Dorothy A. Brown, Getting to Reparations: How Building a…, 330 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Homestead Act claims were affordable for ordinary settlers with little money down #contradicts (0.90) — Dorothy A. Brown, Getting to Reparations, 332
• Homestead land was nearly free to acquire and built generational wealth #contradicts (0.90)
• The 1857 citizenship ruling excluded black people from Homestead Act land #qualifies (0.85) — Dorothy A. Brown, Getting to Reparations, 330
• The Homestead Act left 46 million white descendants with land, blacks landless #contradicts (0.85)
• The Homestead Act marked the end of using public land to raise federal revenue #contradicts (0.80) — Lawrence M. Friedman, A History of American Law, 2394
• The Homestead Act gave 160 acres each to white settlers and immigrants #qualifies (0.80) — Dorothy A. Brown, Getting to Reparations, 328
• Fewer than one percent of commuted homestead lands ever became homes #exemplifies (0.75) — Lawrence M. Friedman, A History of American Law, 2418
• Andrew Johnson championed the Homestead Act explicitly for poor whites. #corroborates (0.75)