National Park Service
Adeline Hornbek and the Homestead Act: A Colorado Success Story
New ReviewLearners examine how the Homestead Act impacted the economic opportunities of women. They research the Homestead Act, define Manifest Destiny, and prepare an exhibit featuring an outstanding woman living in their community.
NET Foundation for Television
1850-1874 Homestead Act Signed: Who were the Settlers?
Life in the great, wide-open spaces of the West! Scholars analyze the reasons behind the vast movement to the Great Plains after the passing of the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the Homestead Act. Using photographic, document, map, video, and...
NET Foundation for Television
1850-1874 Homestead Act Signed: The Challenges of The Plains
Start a whole new life in a land known as the Wild Wild West! Learners analyze maps, personal accounts, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, songs, and video clips to uncover life under the Homestead Act. Using their new skills, class members role...
Curated OER
The Homestead Act of 1862
Learners, in groups, study the Homestead Act. Each group studies a region of the country in the 1840s: the North, the South, and the West. Ask each group to research and write their region's position on the homestead issue.
Curated OER
Women and the Homestead Act: Creating a Place for Themselves In the West
Eighth graders examine basic elements of the Homestead Act, describe gender make-up of the West before and after the Homestead Act, connect the Homestead Act with women's suffrage, and create a modern day business propaganda pamphlet.
Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media
The Homestead Act
To understand how the Homestead Act of 1862 changed the US and the lives of the people during that time, class members examine primary source materials including letters, broadsides, and images. They then assume the voice of a...
Curated OER
Busting the Prairie: Planning a Homestead Community
Students research, design and advertise a homestead community. This is an extensive instructional activity with a variety of ativities and learning experiences.
Stanford University
Great Plains Homesteaders
"Westward, ho!" may have been their cry in spite of the hardships. Using a series of photographs by Solomon D. Butcher of those who ventured west, class members consider what life was like in the 1800s for those who embarked on the...
Curated OER
Discovering and Covering the Battle of Homestead
Students examine the general events of the Homestead strike through reading comprehension of a one-page synopsis. They locate the events of the Homestead Strike. Comprehend multiple perspectives of the reasons, relationships and results...
Curated OER
Homesteaders Push and Pull
In this American West worksheet, students review the factors that made the homesteaders leave their homes in the East to live in the plains. Students sort the factors into push and pull factor categories.
Curated OER
Free Land
Students investigate the impact of the passage of the Homestead Act. In this Westward Expansion lesson, students visit selected websites to examine the lives of Americans who settled the American frontier.
NET Foundation for Television
1850-1874 Native Americans and Settlers
Did Western settlers receiving free land from the Homestead Act realize it wasn't really free at all? Scholars investigate the impact Western expansion had on Native American culture in the mid-1800s. They use documents, timelines, and...
NET Foundation for Television
1850-1874 African American Settlers
Go West, young man! Scholars investigate the impact of African American settlers moving to the Nebraska territory, following the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act in the mid 1800s. Using primary sources, timelines, maps, and...
Curated OER
The Land Promised: African-American Homesteaders
Young scholars explore the story of African Americans with agricultural backgrounds who migrated west following the Civil War and availed themselves of the opportunity to homestead. They access a multi-media narrative imbedded in this plan.
Curated OER
Discovering and Converting the Battle of Homestead
Students study and explore the Homestead strike and locate where the events took place. In this investigative lesson students use several perspectives to write an objective newspaper article on the event.
Student Handouts
Major Strikes in the American Labor Movement
Have your class organize information about strikes in a handy chart. Pupils take notes on the Homestead Strike, the Lawrence Strike, and the Pullman Strike. Along the left side of the chart are six questions for learners to answer about...
NET Foundation for Television
1850-1874 Beef Moves to Nebraska
Just how long was the Long Drive? Learners investigate the movement of cattle in the Great Plains during the mid-1800s. They incorporate photographic, newspaper, video, and primary source evidence into their posters, artwork, and written...
Curated OER
The Homestead Act
Eighth graders analyze the Native American's viewpoint of the Homestead Act. Using one Native American group who lived in Nebraska, they write a letter to the editor of a local newspaper discussing the Homestead Act and how it affected...
Curated OER
Why did the Homestead Strike turn violent?
Fifth graders practice reading skills while looking at different accounts of The Homestead Strike. In this reading skills lesson, 5th graders practice sourcing, close reading, and corroboration through reading a timeline and primary...
Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media
What Brought Settlers to the Midwest?
Drawn by promises of fertile land, thousands of settlers poured West because of the Homestead Act of 1862. By examining images of the ads that drew them westward, learners consider the motivations for movement. They also consider how the...
Curated OER
The Railroads and Settlement of the Great Plains
Enhance your American literature unit with this resource, in which readers access the Nebraska Studies website and read about "Railroads and Settlement." They search for a photograph of some aspect of the railroad from the Prairie...
Curated OER
Uncle Sam is Rich Enough to Give Us All a Farm:
Students examine websites and video clips to become familiar with tenets of the Homestead Act, challenges faced by settlers and misconceptions about settlers. They role-play colonists on the Planet XR-38 and make choices similar to...
Curated OER
Utah Becomes a State—1890
Students read about and discuss the geography and statehood of Utah. In this Homestead Act lesson, students read the Homestead Act and discuss its effects. Students analyze a precipitation map and work in pairs to answer discussion...
Curated OER
Leaving Home for the West - Why?
Young scholars examine primary sources regarding American movement to the west. In this westward expansion lesson, students create broadside posters based on the Homestead Act primary sources they research.