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Settling the Great Plains

Settling the Great Plains. Chapter 13.2. The Government Supports Settlements . Homestead Act (1862) – offered 160 acres of free land to any citizen. Only head of households could apply Intended on settling middle America Stay on the land for 5 years Startup US agriculture again Response

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Settling the Great Plains

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  1. Settling the Great Plains Chapter 13.2

  2. The Government Supports Settlements • Homestead Act (1862) – offered 160 acres of free land to any citizen. • Only head of households could apply • Intended on settling middle America • Stay on the land for 5 years • Startup US agriculture again • Response • Many women and freed slaves took advantage of the offer • Exodusters – African-American who moved from the South to Kansas • 1862-1900: 600,000 families received land grants • Corporations bought a majority of the grants for personal gain • 1889 – Act modified to encourage individuals; less businesses • Ended in order to protect the wilderness

  3. Exodusters 1870s 1890s

  4. Settling the Frontier • Hardships for settlers: • Droughts, floods, fires, blizzards • Locust plague • Occasional Native American Raid • Women often did as much manual labor as men • Dugouts and Soddies • Since trees were scarce, settlers built homes from the land • Dugout – House in the side of a ravine or hill • Soddy – Freestanding houses built on blocks of prairie turf • Good for the erratic weather • Bad due to insects and animals

  5. Dugouts & Soddy

  6. Agricultural Education • Morrill Acts (1862 & 1890) – laws enacted to help create agricultural colleges by giving federal land to states • Hatch Act (1887) established experiment stations to inform farmers of new developments. • New techniques, tools, and ideas flourished across the plains, making them the “Breadbasket of the nation” Steel Plow Barbed Wire

  7. Farmers in Debt • Wheat prices dropped making it difficult for farmers to repay their equipment loans • Late 1870s investors come up with Bonanza Farms • Bonanza Farms – An enormous farm where a single crop is grown • These large farms had no flexibility to grow other crops and fail • While smaller farms were able to grow crops, they couldn’t send it anywhere • Railroads eventually extort farmers over shipping prices • Lose - lose situation for everyone • Many Homesteaders bail and head back to the cities.

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