may 14, 1862 - Homestead Act

Description:

passed by Congress in 1860, the arrangement made available 160 acre tracts of land in the mid-west for about 25 cents an acre. The south opposed it fearing the prairie states would rapidly be filled with free-soilers, President Buchanan vetoed it. A Republican Congress passed it again in 1862 making the 160 acres free to anyone who would farm it for at least 5 years. This legislation went far in speeding the process of populating the plains states.

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