History of the Homestead Movement in the United States

Homestead movement took place in the United States of America from 1831 until 1862. This event began in order to encourage the citizens with free ownership of land in the Midwest, Green Plains wherein the people along with colonizing that area, wanted to do cultivation on it too.

  • The movement once started, concluded into Homestead Movement.
  • In opposite to their perspective, the viewpoint of the federal government of that time that the land shouldn’t be given for free ownership but instead it should be used in a productive way in order to generate revenue.
  • It was indeed difficult to change the whole thought process of the system and therefore there came a lot of petition from the western farmers.
  • They wanted that the farmers as well as the settlers, who wished to work, shouldn’t charge for the land.
  • Till the year 1830, this whole drive was closely similar to the Homestead movement.
  • Eventually, in that decade onwards, the farmers from the eastern part also joined this event in full fledge. Hence, the Homestead movement got support from almost everywhere.
  • Their hard efforts definitely did not go in vain as in 1848; the Free Soil Party brought a variation in their own party showcasing how the public land as per the need should be given free.
  • In spite of gaining a strong support from everywhere, this drive like every other drive was not free from the opposition party.
  • This Homestead movement was truly a difficult drive for the Eastern employers who did want to fall short of their workers who were leaving at a fast-paced rate for a farm to themselves in the Western area.
  • This whole movement posed a danger even to the landowners of East who were constantly threatened to lower their prices as well as losing their land to someone who actually wanted to settle on that particular land.
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