Even after the United States made the Louisiana Purchase there was not a lot of movement west of the Mississippi River. The government was selling land at one dollar an acre with a minimum of 320 acres. That was eventually reduced to 160 acres but that was still too expensive for most people. One of the roadblocks to passing what was eventually known as the ‘Homestead Act’ was that fact that Southern states were worried that the settling of these lands would lead to slave free states entering the Union and upsetting the balance of power in the Senate. When the Southern states seceded the Republicans found themselves in the  majority and in 1862 the ‘Homestead Act’ was finally passed. This allowed anyone to claim 160 acres of FREE land as long as you farmed the land and built a house on it. The Homestead Act was not repealed until 1979 and Alaska had an extra 10 years. The last homestead was granted in 1976 in Alaska.

(The Great Courses – Turning Points in American History)