Episode 2 of 2

Signing of the Homestead Act

When: 20 May 1862
Where: Washington, D.C.
Part of: Lincoln signs the Department of Agriculture and Homestead Act into law

Lincoln signed the Homestead Act, which opened millions of acres for settlement, following the departure of Southern representatives.

The Homestead Act was signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln on May 20, 1862. The bill passed after Southern states seceded and their representatives left Congress. The act aimed to reduce the cost of homesteading and opened up millions of acres.

Sources

Homestead Acts Wikipedia, revision of 2026-10-01

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.