2. President Abraham Lincoln signed the Homestead Act on May 20, 1862. On January 1, 1863, Daniel Freeman made the first claim under the Act, which gave citizens or future citizens up to 160 acres of public land provided they live on it, improve it, and pay a small registration fee.
Farmers who had settled in East Texas, rather than Panhandle or West Texas, had the advantage of a relatively moist climate that could support a variety of crops. Also, their land had good access to rivers and streams.
Explanation:
The cities of Philadelphia, Detroit, Chicago, Cleveland, Baltimore, and New York City had some of the biggest increases in the early part of the twentieth century. Tens of thousands of blacks were recruited for industrial jobs, such as positions related to the expansion of the Pennsylvania Railroad.
They were trying to find new land, so they could settle.
