Talk:Homestead Act
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I've heard that something similar to the Homestead Act is being conducted now (as of early 2004) in Kansas; that if people are willling to live in certain towns, they can have land and a house to put on it. Anybody know what I'm talking about? Rhymeless 18:34, 17 Aug 2004 (UTC)
The Homestead Act was repealed by Congress. It is no longer active. See [1] (http://www.pueblo.gsa.gov/cic_text/fed_prog/landsale/LandForSale.html)
- Yes, the original homestead act was repealed. However there has been discussion of instituting some sort of new version to encourage people to move to sparsely populated areas that have been losing population recently. I have not heard whether any such proposals have been implemented. [[User:Bkonrad|]] 12:19, 12 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Why exactly was Andrew Johnson known as "Father of the Homestead Act"?--Pharos 15:06, 2 Jan 2005 (UTC)
About a dozen communities in Kansas are offering incentives to new residents including free lots to reverse recent population drains. Most lots are less than an acre in size. Atwood, McDonald, Marquette, Minneapolis, Kanopolis, Holyrood, Plainville, Wilson, and Ellsworth County are among those offering such deals. [[2] (http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/0304/134313.html)] Great Scott 10:59, 2 Feb 2005 (UTC)
More info on free land in Kansas: KansasFreeLand.com (http://www.kansasfreeland.com) 16 Mar 2005
This article seems to contradict itself. In one paragraph "Usually, the land that was available [through the Homestead Act] was in too poor a shape to farm on", while in another, "Homestead tracts were often excellent farmland and provided subsistence and a steady income. Homestead farmers in time became the agricultural producers to the nation as a whole".
Obviously one is false, but it's not something I know enough about to determine...
Added the NPOV tag because the article hardly acknowledges the impact the Homesteading Act had on Native Americans. As homesteading was also allowed on reservation land and especially the Plains Indians had little experience farming, the Settlers often took the best land, leaving the indigenous population with scraps to work on and depriving them of the little land that was alotted to them by the treaties.
- In the "legacy" section is a paragraph that appears to be gratuitously anti-settler. For one thing, most of the native tribes had already been moved off of their historical lands before the homestead act came into being.
- True, but I wasn't talking about historical land. Even the Reservations were opened to Homesteading, after they were given specifically to the Native Americans in the Treaties (which can, and imo should be interpreted as binding contracts).
- Furthermore it is pretty wishy-washy about who is to blame (the Government of that time, if you ask me), and not "gratuitously anti-settler". It just states that "primarily" white settlers prospered from the Act. Who else prospered after the Act? Black settlers?
- I well imagine that a few scattered Indians themselves probably tried invoking the act by settling... of course, their odds probably weren't much better than anyone else's. Sweetfreek 21:51, 22 Jun 2005 (UTC)
