The Southern Homestead Act of 1866 was a United States federal law intended to offer land to prospective farmers, white and black, in the South following the American Civil War.
Prior to this act, black Americans and whites alike were having trouble buying land.
Championed by General Oliver O. Howard, chief of the Freedmen's Bureau, and with support from Thaddeus Stevens and William Fessenden, the Southern Homestead Act was proposed to Congress, and eventually passed, and signed into law by President Andrew Johnson on June 21, 1866, going into effect immediately.
The land was initially in parcels of 80-acre (0.32 km2) (half-quarter section) until June 1868, and thereafter parcels of 160-acre (0.65 km2) (quarter section, or one quarter of a square mile), and homesteaders were required to occupy and improve the land for five years before acquiring full ownership.
Until January 1, 1867, the bill specified, only free Blacks and White Unionists would be allowed access to these lands.