Homestead Roots Deep In The South

Are you a Homestead Descendant? Share your Story!

Homestead National Historical Park works to discover and preserve stories of homesteading. If your ancestor was a homesteader, we invite you to help us save these stories for future generations. You can do so by telling us about your ancestors. Guidance on how to write a homestead story from homestead Land Entry Case Files.

Have questions? Contact us to learn more and to Share Your Homesteading Stories.

Duration:

23 minutes, 54 seconds

Many formerly enslaved people and their descendants became landowners through the Homestead Act of 1862. Race was not recorded on homestead Land Entry case files. It is not yet widely known how many black homesteaders never left the South and became landowners via the Homestead Act. Explore with two families from Maryland, as they go on a genealogical journey back in time that connects them to family members that took part in the Homestead Act of 1862 in the Deep South.

Check out more information about black homesteading across America in all 30 homestead states and the Black Homesteaders Project!