-
Helping Farmers
THe U.S Department of Agriculture was created in 1862. -
Public land to Private property
After the Southern states seceded from the Union, Republicans passed a series of acts in 1862 to turn public lands to private property.
Homestead Act- Permitted any citizen or intended citizen to select any surveyed land up to 160 acresand to gain title to it after 5 years if the person cultivated the land.
Pacific Railway Act- gave lands to railroad companies to develop a railroad line linking the West and East coast
Morrill Act- Granted a tota of 17 million acres of federal land to the states. -
Period: to
Rairoads were built
Railroad companies lured settlers to the west. Between 1869 and 1883, four rail lines were built across the West -
Chinese Farmer
In 170, one Chinese farmer from Sacramento County, earned $9,500 from farming. -
Problems farmers faced
In the 1870's, farmers faced swarms of grasshoppers that devoured everything in their path. -
Moving West
For African Americans, moving west offered a chance to escape the violence and persecution they faced following the withdrawal of federal troops in 1887. -
fleeding south
Some 20,000 to 40,000 African Americans fled south where violence had broken out during elections in 1878. -
Kansas Fever
The biggest exodus, or mass departure, of black settlers with so-called Kansas Fever occured in 1879. -
Chinese Immigrants
Many of the Chinese immih=grants who had come to the united States during the California Gold Rush had also turned to farming by 1880. -
Competition was fierce
competition for land was firce and by 1889 president Benjamin Harrisson announced that land would be available to the first takers beginning at noon on April 22nd. -
Oklahoma Homesteads
In October 1889 a flood of prospective settlers responded to a government offer of inexpensive homesteads in Oklahoma.