StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...
Free

The Homestead Act - Essay Example

Cite this document
Summary
From the paper "The Homestead Act" it is clear that the Act was a United States law, which enabled Americans to acquire land ownership at the minimum cost. In order to speed the settlement of the western territories, the first Homestead Act was enacted on May 20, 1862…
Download full paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER96.6% of users find it useful
The Homestead Act
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "The Homestead Act"

Individuals aged 21, including liberated slaves and women, were eligible as long as they supported the government. Based on this law, any adult who never went against the US government could claim 160 acres of land after fulfilling certain conditions (Kutler 122).

Signed into law in February 1881, this act was sponsored by Massachusetts Senator H.L Dawes, to provide for the granting of landholdings to Native Americans for replacing communal tribal holdings. This act aimed at including social divisions in the national society. This act also formed a trust fund to gather and disseminate the proceeds from timber, oil, mineral, and grazing leases on the lands of Native Americans. Legislators hoped to complete the absorption process through the division of reservation lands into privately owned lands (Kutler 220). They wanted to put an end to the communal lifestyle that the Native Americans had been living, by imposing Western values within the small household units. Allotments could be sold after a 25-year period, which was the statutory period, and non-allotted surplus land opened to settlers. After years the act hurt the unity, culture, and self-government of the Native Americans.

Part II

What devices did John D. Rockefeller use to gain control of 90% of the oil refining business by 1890?

Immediately after the discovery of oil, Rockefeller was immediately attracted to this business. In 1863, he joined hands with partners to create a refining business. In 1870, he teamed with his brother to form the Standard Oil Company, which employed several devices to gain control of 90% of the oil business. Rockefeller bought every component demanded for producing oil barrels, and this way, he was able to keep his competitors away because he had monopolized the business. The Standard Oil Company cut its prices to withstand short-term losses. This rate-war strategy ensured that smaller competitors were kicked out of the market since they could not keep pace. Rockefeller also believed in intimidation, and, on one incidence, Standard Oil sent thugs to break the operations of its competitors (Kutler 142). He used both horizontal and vertical integration to acquire all oil refining companies giving Standard Oil immense volume, this way, Rockefeller was able to demand a refund on the railroad’s public rates.

Why did American cities experience explosive growth in the late nineteenth century?

In the late nineteenth century, the Industrial Revolution increased the number of people who moved into cities to seek employment in factories. As factories increased in the U.S., several people left Europe and several parts of the world to America to search for jobs. The Industrial Revolution created a demand for a workforce and several people decided to move from the countryside to the industrialized cities (Kutler 94). In addition, the effects of the 1873-1896 depression encouraged people to proceed to cities and find employment. The industrial expansion changed the face of America’s cities with slums, air pollution, traffic jams, noise, and sanitation problems becoming commonplace. There was demand for mass transit leading to the emergence of cable cars and subways. Commuters traveling in and out of the city increased, and suburbs emerged just beyond the city.

Cause of Gold Speech

After the Coinage Act, the United States began to operate a gold standard, meaning that they would have to abandon the policy of bimetallism. The Democratic Party opposed a monometallic gold standard and wanted to standardize the dollar value to silver. The speech recommended bimetallism and was delivered by William Jennings Bryan in 1896.

It seems Bryan had devoted his speech to responses raised by other speakers that he felt had left a great mark in American history, but whose work had been forgotten. From his argument, he must have belonged to the borrower's or farmers' group because he seemed to oppose the policies of moneylenders. He also advocated for the interests of rural dwellers as opposed to urban dwellers and supported economic nationalists. Bryan seems to be against anyone who supports the U.S. abandoning the gold standard. He played the role of a supporter of economic populism.

Those who supported the monometallic gold standard argued that protecting inflation was of great importance for America, and they settled on the monometallic gold standard as the best way of ensuring such security could be accorded. Inflation would mean that one’s savings lost value and it would be disadvantageous to the creditors due to the change in value. From the arguments, it seems the U.S. economy was experiencing a money shortage, and the currency was based on the gold standard. Bryan was advocating for monetary redistribution, which would mean goods gained value than currency putting debtors and poorer people at an advantage.

Read More
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(“Reading response Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 19”, n.d.)
Reading response Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 19. Retrieved from https://studentshare.org/history/1630419-reading-response
(Reading Response Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 Words - 19)
Reading Response Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 Words - 19. https://studentshare.org/history/1630419-reading-response.
“Reading Response Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 Words - 19”, n.d. https://studentshare.org/history/1630419-reading-response.
  • Cited: 0 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF The Homestead Act

Why did the United States failed to give the freedmen land after the Civil war

Daniel Freeman took the advantage of The Homestead Act of 1962 for the benefit of the slaves.... tml viewed on10th May 2011 The Homestead Act http://www.... Johnson his powers again in 1866 when the Civil Rights act came by.... There have been lots of act and amendments released for the benefits of the blacks which was later seen.... ov/education/lessons/homestead-act/ viewed on 10th May 2011 Constitutional Foundation rights http://www....
4 Pages (1000 words) Essay

Westward Expansion

In 1862, The Homestead Act was signed in by Abraham Lincoln, in an effort of motivating people to proceed to the west and tend new lands and to take effect on the 1st of January 1863.... About 270 million acres of land got claimed as well as settled per The Homestead Act.... Leaders, as well as politicians of the then government used the phrase, “Manifest destiny,” to present an explanation it was the mission and destiny of the United State to extend its boundaries by act of moving westward....
4 Pages (1000 words) Essay

Texas Homestead Exemption Clause

Consequentially, they spend their remaining funds unwisely, making unnecessary purchases and then expect to be allowed to lean on The Homestead Act for support and protection of their remaining assets.... This type of behavior is one of greediness and self absorption, a characteristic that makes other homeowners, struggling to pay their bills, despise The Homestead Act ever being substantiated.... Basically, in the 20th-century era, the only main positive aspect of the homestead Clause....
2 Pages (500 words) Assignment

Westward Migration in 1800s

The United States was able to enact a law granting homestead rights to their citizens, The Homestead Act of 1862.... ov/home/homestead%20Act%20%of%20201862.... Westward migration or the vast expansion of the United States towards the west is a belief prevalent in the nineteenth century that propelled the latter to occupy the nearby countries in the west during that time....
2 Pages (500 words) Essay

The Mexican War and Manifest destiny

This can be related to The Homestead Act of 1862 that encouraged the development of the agricultural west.... They were also confined into reservations; the US president, Andrew Jackson, passed the Indian removal act, which encouraged coercive removal of Indians....
1 Pages (250 words) Essay

Early Chinese-Americans and Manifest Destiny

According to Carlisle (27), the manifest destiny was a concept of a non-official policy in the 1800s that strongly influenced American policy in the 1800s to rapidly expand America from the Atlantic East to the Pacific It led to Constitutional Act like The Homestead Act that.... This period attracted the significant number of Chinese immigrants who provided cheap labor Manifest Destiny Introduction According to Carlisle (27), the manifest destiny was a concept of a non-official policy in the 1800s that strongly influenced American policy in the 1800s to rapidly expand America from the Atlantic East to the Pacific It led to Constitutional Act like The Homestead Act that encouraged Westward colonization and territorial acquisition....
1 Pages (250 words) Essay

The expansion and settlement of the U.S

Indian removal Act 1830 and The Homestead Act 1862 are among the acts that highly shaped the development and settlement in the US (Huntington). ... Indian removal Act 1830 and The Homestead Act 1862 are among the acts that highly shaped the development and settlement in the US (Huntington).... Congress and the slavery act was another reason that the US expanded....
1 Pages (250 words) Essay

The Growth of Business in America

Civilization was also extended and some portions of land were freely given to the immigrants due to The Homestead Act that was introduced in the year 1862 (Landau & Elaine 16).... The Homestead Act.... In the paper 'The Growth of Business in America' the author looks at immigrants as an important source of labor for the growth of business in America....
6 Pages (1500 words) Assignment
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us