Activities

1. Analyzing a Handbill for Free Land

Several decades before the passage of the Homestead Act, there had been agitation in both political circles and the labor press. Below is a handbill which was widely distributed in 1848:


Are you an American citizen? Then you are a joint owner of the public lands. Why not take enough of your property to provide yourself a home? Why not vote yourself a farm

Are you a party follower? Then you have long enough employed your vote to benefit scheming office seekers. Use it for once to benefit yourself: Vote yourself a farm.

Are you tired of slavery? Of drudging for others? Of poverty and its attendant miseries? Then vote yourself a farm.

Would you free your country and the sons of toil everywhere from the heartless, irresponsible mastery of the aristocracy of avarice? ... Then join with your neighbors to form a true American party whose chief measures will be first to limit the quantity of land that any one may henceforth monopolize or inherit; and second to make the public lands free to actual settlers only, each having the right to sell his improvements to any man not possessed of other lands.

After reading this handbill, please answer the following questions:

  1. What was meant by "Vote yourself a farm?"
  2. If you were an industrialist, how would you respond to this propaganda?
  3. Why would a manufacturer be against such a movement? 4.
  4. How effective do you think this type of handbill was?
  5. Using an important issue today, write up a similar handbill.

2. Teenagers Then and Now

During the Civil War, when the Homestead Act was passed, many families moved westward to obtain land, hoping to find a better standard of living. The hornesteaders lived a rugged frontier existence, and were forced to make or grow practically everything they used to make a living.

What was a teenager's life like in those days?

Have the class explore this question by doing an Oprah- or Montel Williams-style interview show on teenage life in the 1860s. Five panelists are chosen to be on stage," representing teenagers from homesteading families. The rest of the class, the "studio audience," represents teenagers from the East Coast of the same time period. Students could pick different regions or cities.

This activity might work especially well after the students have researched the topic, perhaps in conjunction with a term paper. As guides for research, use categories such as schooling, skills needed, roles of boys 8c girls, recreational activities, courtship, religious activities, professional options. An interesting variation on this activity would be to have your "studio audience" interview visitors from a hundred years in the future!

3. Writing an Editorial

After reading about the background of the Homestead Act, have students write editorials advocating or opposing passage of the act. To do this, divide the class into several groups. Each group is to jointly compose and editroial from the position of one of the following periodicals:

After each group has written its editorial, one group member reads it aloud to the class, Coming out of this activity should be the reasons why the Homestead Act was either supported or rejected.

4. Filling Out an Application

Please download the application in Adobe Acrobat format.

Few formalities were necessary to become an independent landowner under the Homestead Act. Even the application was simple, compared to what is required today. Read the application, and:

  1. Fill in the information as if you were applying for land under the Homestead Act.
  2. Obtain any other type of application -- for example, an application for a job or perhaps an application for a college loan. Compare both and discuss why there is such a difference.
  3. To what degree does an application like the one pictured lend itself to fraud?

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