Over half a million farms came into being as a result of the Homestead Act. Heads of family or men over the age of 21, black and white, were allowed to file a claim, as long as they had not borne arms against the United States during the War of Northern Aggression.
My ancestors, part of the almost 75% of southerners who were never slave-owners, were not allowed to homestead. They fought during the unpleasantness because – as the late, great Shelby Foote once put it so well – “the Yankees were down here shooting at us.”
I was allowed an all-too-brief taste of the west, and I know for a fact that my ancestors would have homesteaded if they had been allowed to do so. I’m proud that they didn’t turn tail and go west anyway, but I’m still a little pissed about the Homestead Act.
