Homestead Act

American  

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.

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Homestead Act British  

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

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Homestead Act Cultural  

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.

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Homestead Act

The Homestead Act settled Americans in large numbers in the trans-Mississippi West.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 27, 2025

As a high school student in San José, Chavez-Garcia knew none of this history — “we learned more about the Homestead Act in the Midwest,” she joked.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 5, 2025

The Homestead Act gave 160 acres to the adult head of a household provided they improved the land with farming and ranching and stayed there for five years.

From Seattle Times ● Aug. 25, 2023

"His vision of the Union meant opportunity for all — hence homestead acreage for the many," Lincoln historian Harold Holzer told Salon about the 1862 Homestead Act during an interview last year.

From Salon ● Aug. 14, 2022

Up to 1906, under the Homestead Act of the 20th of May 1862, the number of entries, both final and pending, covered 185,385,000 acres.

From The Project Gutenberg Encyclopedia Volume 1 of 28 by Project Gutenberg