A qualifying settler could claim 160 acres under the Homestead Act of 1862.
President Abraham Lincoln signed the law on May 20, 1862, and it took effect on January 1, 1863. It allowed an adult who had not fought against the United States to claim surveyed public land, live on it, improve it, and eventually receive ownership. Women and immigrants who had declared an intention to become citizens were eligible under the act.
Claimants generally had to establish residence and cultivate the land for five years before receiving a patent. The policy reflected the ideal of independent farming and opened millions of acres, especially west of the Mississippi River, to settlement. It also contributed to the displacement of Indigenous peoples and the transformation of western landscapes.
The Homestead Act is often confused with other land laws that offered different acreage or terms. More than 1.6 million homesteaders ultimately received land, and the federal homesteading system continued in limited form until the last claim was completed in Alaska in the twentieth century.