Homestead Act


noun

a special act of Congress (1862) that made public lands in the West available to settlers without payment, usually in lots of 160 acres, to be used as farms.

British Dictionary definitions for homestead act

Homestead Act

noun

an act passed by the US Congress in 1862 making available to settlers 160-acre tracts of public land for cultivation
(in Canada) a similar act passed by the Canadian Parliament in 1872

Cultural definitions for homestead act

Homestead Act

A law passed in the 1860s that offered up to 160 acres of public land to any head of a family who paid a registration fee, lived on the land for five years, and cultivated it or built on it.