Homesteading

Synonyms

Back to the land movement; Self-sufficiency; Simplicity; Sustainable living

Introduction

Homesteading originally refers to the Homesteading Act of 1862

which provided public land grants of 160 acres to any adult citizen who paid a small registration fee and agreed to live on the land continuously for 5 years, after which they would be granted a deed to the land. The program formally ended in 1976 under the Federal Land Policy and Management Act. But its unofficial end was in 1935 when President Franklin Roosevelt withdrew the public domain lands in order to institute a nationwide land conservation program. During the life of the Homestead Act, 783,000 men and women ‘proved up’ their claim and were granted title to the land. (Hunt 2007)

In the 1970s the term “homesteading” became synonymous with self-sufficiency, and since then homesteading has come to be seen as a self-sufficient mode of life where individuals attempt to provide for themselves by growing, raising, and...