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May 20, 1862: President Abraham Lincoln signed the Homestead Act into law. Designed to give small farmers 160 acres at low cost, applicants only need be 21 years-old, the head of a household and willing to settle on the land for five years to qualify. Although the Act was proposed in the 1850s, it wasn’t signed into law until 1862 due to southern congressmen’s fear that small farmers would offer an alternative to the slave system. By the end of the Civil War, approximately 15,000 land claims had been made.