Usually this was conferred to male heads of households who developed the property into a farm.
[1] Preemption was politically controversial, primarily among land speculators and their allies in government.
In the early history of the United States, and even to some degree during the colonial era, settlers were moving into the "virgin wilderness" and building homes and farms without regard to land title.
[2] Eventually the political opposition by the speculators crumbled and the Preemption Act of 1841 was passed.
The Preemption Act of 1841 was abused by speculators who now operated as money lending businesses,[3] or were able to coerce accomplices to falsely claim they were living on land that they wanted.