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The claimed homestead could include the same land which they had previously filed a preemption claim (on up to 160 acres at $1.25 per acre, or up to 80 acres of subdivided and surveyed land at $2.50 per acre), and they could expand their current ownership to contiguous adjacent land up to 160 acres total. The homestead application must be "made ...
The rural acre allotment is doubled for a family: 200 acres (81 hectares) can be shielded from creditors in Texas for a rural homestead. [ 3 ] In Kansas and Oklahoma, exemptions protect 160 acres (65 hectares) of land of any value outside of a municipality's corporate limits and 1 acre (0.40 hectares) of land of any value within a municipality ...
But to encourage more sales and make them more affordable, Congress also reduced both the minimum price (from $2.00 to $1.25 (equivalent to $27 in 2023 [1]) per acre ($495 to $309/km 2)) and the minimum size of a standard tract (from 160 to 80 acres (647,000 to 324,000 m 2)). The minimum full payment now amounted to $100, rather than $320. [2]
In all, more than 160 million acres (650 thousand km 2; 250 thousand sq mi) of public land, or nearly 10 percent of the total area of the United States, were given away free to 1.6 million homesteaders; most of the homesteads were west of the Mississippi River. These acts were the first sovereign decisions of post-war North–South capitalist ...
The result was the Southern Homestead Act, which opened 46,398,544.87 acres of land in Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Arkansas to homesteading; initially 80-acre parcels (half-quarter section) until June 1868, and thereafter 160-acre parcels (quarter section). Johnson signed this bill and it went into effect on June 21, 1866.
Farmers could buy land within the 20 mi (32 km) zone, but at a much higher price of $2.50 per acre ($6.2/ha). In 1879, the exclusion zone was shrunk to only 10 miles (16 km) from the tracks; and in 1882 it was finally eliminated. Less than half of the arable land in the West was ever open to farmers for homesteading under the Act.
The land was initially in parcels of 80-acre (0.32 km 2) (half-quarter section) until June 1868, and thereafter parcels of 160-acre (0.65 km 2) (quarter section, or one quarter of a square mile), and homesteaders were required to occupy and improve the land for five years before acquiring full ownership.
[10] [11] Eleanor Roosevelt took personal interest in the project, and became involved in setting up the first community, Arthurdale, WV after a visit to the stranded miners of Scotts Run. [12] There was strong opposition to the idea of subsistence homesteads, as undercutting agricultural prices, unions, and the labor supply for manufacturing.