The Southern Homestead Act and African American Opportunity
The Southern Homestead Act and African American Opportunity
By Sylvester Felder
During the decade or so after the civil war there were many policies and reforms enacted to literally rebuild the infrastructure of Southern states destroyed during the war. War in general has a tremendous impact on the populace, infrastructure, and economy of the affected areas. Rationing and food shortages, the destruction of telegraph lines and rail lines to disrupt communications and logistics, and the burning of several towns, in addition to the battles themselves left the South in tatters and its people both White and Black in a desperate situation. The Reconstruction period was designed to rebuild the South in physical terms but also economically. It was also a period which experimented with social reforms to increase and encourage participation of African Americans in the political sphere. Part of the reforms and policies enacted during this period was the 1866 Southern Homestead Act. The purpose of this act was to facilitate the process of land acquisition and ownership of African Americans both freed and the formerly enslaved as to elevate their socioeconomic status and transition them into mainstream society. However as history would show some old prejudices and competition from White Southerners severely limited the aim of the act. It is worth investigating the accessibility of the American Dream for African Americans at the time and the economic advantages held therein.
To begin, a search into the Southern Homestead Act of 1866 by starting with the National Archives and other such databases. The information found within such digital archives would be used to come to a reasonable conclusion based on primary sources and official government records. If one were to research the homestead act of 1866 they would be directed to the Homestead Act of 1862 which as the archives site mentions has “very similar legislation”. In effect the Homestead Act granted to any citizen the right to apply for a land grant so long as they were in good standing and having never taken up arms against the United States, it is important to remember that this is after the start of the war. The Federal government sought out Westward expansion but, naturally, would not have wanted to reward those who fought against Federal authority. The Archives displays a digital copy of the document for citing precise wording. Several more articles can be found on the Senate's official website granting further perspective of the Federal government. Scholarly sources have also been found on the Jerry Falwell Library website as well as JSTOR by typing in key search terms such as Homestead Act and the year 1866. With the information thus far researched it is possible to paint a picture of a typical scenario and circumstances under which a Black person living in the period of Reconstruction could go about potentially owning land.
The overall goal of any Homestead was to apply for the grant, live on the land for five years improving it as they went along. At the end of the five years the government issued the deed to the tenant making them the owner so long as they met the requirements. In regards to the Southern Homestead Act (SHA) which was tailored towards free Blacks and ex-slaves 46 million acres of land in many of the Southern states was to be made available. Research from this article found that 35% of African American applicants were awarded a deed compared to 25% of White applicants. This was hypothesized that the practical farming skills and unique “x factor” of never owning anything pushed the Black citizens just a bit further. The article also notes that it was also due to many of them being local to the area, Louisiana in this case and possessing local knowledge. There was also some indication that there was a preference for local Blacks to receive these grants as not many were from outside of Louisiana. Elsewhere the SHA was met with mismanagement, fraud, and as one can image threats of violence or intimidation from White Southerners. This would have led some African Americans to seek their fortunes further out West. “Blacks who migrated to homesteads in the Great Plains were themselves quite diverse. Some, like the Exodusters who came from Louisiana, Mississippi, and east Texas in 1879 and 1880, were fleeing extreme violence.” (Edwards) Many Black people who applied and were granted deeds would gather into so-called “Black Homestead Colonies”. According to a study done by the University of Nebraska and funded by the National Park Service, Most black homesteaders, about seventy percent, settled in clusters or “colonies” with other black families. The most substantial colonies were Nicodemus (Kans.); Dearfield (Col.); Sully County (S. Dak.); DeWitty (Neb.); Empire (Wy.); and Blackdom (N.M.). (NPS) All together some 3,500 titles were awarded granting an estimated 15,000 Black people ownership of over 650,000 acres of land out West.
With land ownership came the economic advantages of being able to take out loans or receive credit for further advancements such as opening up a business or passing down generational wealth. Land ownership gave greater access to education and perhaps even more importantly a sense of pride and accomplishment. Though there were some cases of Blacks being given less than desirable land and not having the capital to rent suitable farm equipment they still made it work and a few achieved that American dream. As for the SHA it was repealed by Congress in 1877 which led to many, especially those who faced intimidation to move to the “colonies” in the West. So what was it like for the typical Black person, difficult but possible especially during the period of Reconstruction when Federal troops were still stationed in the South to ensure the safety and prosperity of all.
References:
Canaday, Neil, Charles Reback, and Kristin Stowe. "Race and Local Knowledge: New Evidence from the Southern Homestead Act." Review of Black Political Economy 42, no. 4 (12, 2015): 399-413, http://ezproxy.liberty.edu/login?qurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.proquest.com%2Fscholarly-journals%2Frace-local-knowledge-new-evidence-southern%2Fdocview%2F1732759605%2Fse-2%3Faccountid%3D12085.
Edwards, Richard. "African Americans and the Southern Homestead Act." Great Plains Quarterly 39, no. 2 (Spring, 2019): 103-29, http://ezproxy.liberty.edu/login?qurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.proquest.com%2Fscholarly-journals%2Fafrican-americans-southern-homestead-act%2Fdocview%2F2215488955%2Fse-2%3Faccountid%3D12085.
National Park Service. “African American Homesteaders in the Great Plains.” In association with the University of Nebraska.
https://www.nps.gov/articles/african-american-homesteaders-in-the-great-plains.htm
In my research into Galvin Wright's book, the Old South, New South: Revolutions in the Southern Economy Since the Civil War were comments and concerns about the homestead action by the slaves and slave owners. It seemed that after the slaves were free, the slave owners would take their slaves and migrate to another place increasing their own wealth at the expense of the slaves. At first, discrimination prevented the Blacks from higher education or on-the-job training, but over time this was corrected as they went further west in the United States. Wright also included the series of New Deal Actions, the National Industrial Recovery Act, along with the Southern Homestead Act helped make fundamental changes in the wages of the southern Blacks through these government interventions. In the article, "One Kind of Freedom: Reconsidered," by
ReplyDeleteRoger Ransom and Richard Sutch, suggested that the Black farmers who had farms in the South received a variety of constraints with their land. They were forced to have less land, which was less fertile, with less human help, and were restricted to access to farm credit. The Blacks lacked assets, education, and skills, and when possible violence prevented these three advantages from the Blacks. The Southern people placed these free slaves in a "failure position" from the first. Possessing their land also took much longer than the white population. By the age of 30, the white population had acquired their farms, but the age of the Blacks was 45. It was many years later before the difference could be seen between the Blacks and the Homestead Act. Their success was limited then and it has taken many years to change it.