The Homestead Act of 1862 was one of three public-land acts advocated by the Republican Party and passed during the Civil War. Like the other two, the Land Grant Act and the Pacific Railway Act, this act had to await the secession of the Southern states before it could be enacted. Destined to draw large numbers of settlers to the West, an area that had proven itself resistant to slavery, the act was seen by the South as antithetical to its best interest.

The Homestead Act provided for free grants of up to 160 acres of contiguous, surveyed, unreserved public lands to bona fide settlers. To be eligible, an applicant had to be the head of a family or twenty-one years of age and a U.S. citizen, or an alien who had filed for citizenship. Women could qualify under the head-of-household provision. All applicants had to live...