Homesteaders and Exodusters Homestead Act The Great Plains

Homesteaders and Exodusters

Homestead Act • The Great Plains were also known as the Great American Desert because it was so flat, treeless, and dry. • Pioneers were new settlers to the Great Plains. • In 1862, Abraham Lincoln signed the Homestead Act to encourage people to start farms on the Great Plains. • We needed more farms to feed our growing population. • Many wanted to homestead because it provided a chance to have land, home, freedom, & prosperity.

How to qualify for Homesteading: • Men over 21 (or women who were head of the family- single or widowed) • Claim 160 acres of land for a small fee of $10. • Farm the land live there for 5 years. • Before the Civil War, many traveled to their land claims by covered wagon. After the Civil War, more and more people moved west by train.

Sodbusters and Exodusters • Sodbusters were homesteaders who had to bust up sod (grass and soil) to build their homes (no trees for building). • Exodusters were freed slaves who moved to the Plains to get the same things sodbusters wanted: land, home, freedom, and prosperity. • http: //www. americaslibrary. gov/jb/civil/jb_ci vil_homested_1. html

What made life difficult? • Harsh weather and natural disasters- floods, droughts, tornadoes, hailstorms, blizzards • Insects- grasshoppers could eat an entire crop in a day • Sod houses- snakes and dirty conditions

Technology • New inventions and farming techniques made life better for the homesteaders. • Steel plow- stronger, didn’t break like iron plows • Windmills- pumped water from underground wells • Barbed wire- fences were cheap and easy to build, kept cattle and wild animals from trampling crops • Dry farming- dug long, narrow ditches to plant crops, reduces need for rain