Which political party was the primary advocate for the Homestead Act during the mid-19th century?
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Correct answer: The Republican Party
The newly formed Republican Party campaigned on a 'Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men' platform. They viewed the Homestead Act as a way to populate the West with independent small farmers rather than expanding the plantation slave system.
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More Homestead Act questions
- What was the primary reason the Homestead Act did not pass until 1862?
- The 'Exodusters' were a specific group of homesteaders who moved to Kansas in the late 1870s consisting primarily of:
- Due to the lack of timber on the Great Plains, many homesteaders built their first homes out of:
- Which technological innovation was most essential for homesteaders to fence their land on the treeless plains?
- The Timber Culture Act of 1873 was an amendment to the Homestead Act that allowed settlers to claim more land if they:
- A major criticism of the Homestead Act's effectiveness was that much of the best land was actually acquired by: