The Great Plains are a broad expanse of flatland in North America. The region is located just to the east of the Rocky Mountains, much of it covered in prairie, steppe, and grassland. They are the western part of the Interior Plains, which include the mixed grass prairie, the tallgrass prairie between the Great Lakes and Appalachian Plateau, and the Taiga Plains and Boreal Plains ecozones in Northern Canada. "Great Plains", or Western Plains, is also the ecoregion of the Great Plains or alternatively the western portion of the Great Plains.
The Homestead Acts were several laws in the United States by which an applicant could acquire ownership of government land or the public domain, typically called a homestead. In all, more than 160 million acres of public land, or nearly 10 percent of the total area of the United States, were given away free to 1.6 million homesteaders; most of the homesteads were west of the Mississippi River. These acts were the first sovereign decisions of post-war North–South capitalist cooperation in the United States.
The Dust Bowl was the result of a period of severe dust storms that greatly damaged the ecology and agriculture of the American and Canadian prairies during the 1930s. The phenomenon was caused by a combination of natural factors and human-made factors: a failure to apply dryland farming methods to prevent wind erosion, most notably the destruction of the natural topsoil by settlers in the region. The drought came in three waves: 1934, 1936, and 1939–1940, but some regions of the High Plains experienced drought conditions for as long as eight years. It exacerbated an already existing agricultural recession.
Forty acres and a mule refers to a key part of Special Field Orders, No. 15 , a wartime order proclaimed by Union General William Tecumseh Sherman on January 16, 1865, during the American Civil War, to allot land to some freed families, in plots of land no larger than 40 acres (16 ha). Sherman later ordered the army to lend mules for the agrarian reform effort. The field orders followed a series of conversations between Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton and Radical Republican abolitionists Charles Sumner and Thaddeus Stevens following disruptions to the institution of slavery provoked by the American Civil War. They provided for the confiscation of 400,000 acres (160,000 ha) of land along the Atlantic coast of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida and the dividing of it into parcels of not more than 40 acres (16 ha), on which were to be settled approximately 18,000 formerly enslaved families and other black people then living in the area.
The Oklahoma Panhandle is a salient in the extreme northwestern region of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. Its constituent counties are, from west to east, Cimarron County, Texas County and Beaver County. As with other salients in the United States, its name comes from the similarity of its shape to the handle of a pan. Its largest city is Guymon in Texas County. Black Mesa State Park, located in Cimarron County, is the highest point in the state. Other points of interest include Beaver Dunes Park, Optima Lake, and the Optima National Wildlife Refuge. Oklahoma Panhandle State University is ten miles away from Guymon.
The history of agriculture in the United States covers the period from the first English settlers to the present day. In Colonial America, agriculture was the primary livelihood for 90% of the population, and most towns were shipping points for the export of agricultural products. Most farms were geared toward subsistence production for family use. The rapid growth of population and the expansion of the frontier opened up large numbers of new farms, and clearing the land was a major preoccupation of farmers. After 1800, cotton became the chief crop in southern plantations, and the chief American export. After 1840, industrialization and urbanization opened up lucrative domestic markets. The number of farms grew from 1.4 million in 1850, to 4.0 million in 1880, and 6.4 million in 1910; then started to fall, dropping to 5.6 million in 1950 and 2.2 million in 2008.
Nicodemus is a census-designated place (CDP) in Graham County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 14. The community was founded in 1877 and is named for the Biblical figure Nicodemus.
The Great Sioux Reservation was an Indian reservation created by the United States through treaty with the Sioux, principally the Lakota, who dominated the territory before its establishment. In the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868, the reservation included lands west of the Missouri River in South Dakota and Nebraska, including all of present-day western South Dakota. The treaty also provided rights to roam and hunt in contiguous areas of North Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, and northeast Colorado.
The History of Utah is an examination of the human history and social activity within the state of Utah located in the western United States.
Dearfield is an extinct town and a historically black majority settlement in Weld County, Colorado, United States. It is 30 miles (48 km) east of Greeley. The town was formed by Oliver Toussaint Jackson, who desired to create a colony for African American homesteaders. In 1910, Jackson, a successful businessman from Boulder, filed on the homestead that later became the town and began to advertise for "colonists." The name Dearfield was suggested by one of the town's citizens, Dr. J.H.P. Westbrook, who was from Denver. The word dear was chosen as the foundation for the town's name due to the precious value of the land and community to the town's settlers.
In the context of the 20th-century history of the United States, the Second Great Migration was the migration of more than 5 million African Americans from the South to the Northeast, Midwest and West. It began in 1940, through World War II, and lasted until 1970. It was much larger and of a different character than the first Great Migration (1916–1940), where the migrants were mainly rural farmers from the South and only came to the Northeast and Midwest.
DeWitty, later renamed Audacious, was a village in Cherry County, Nebraska, United States. The settlement, which was founded in 1907 and disincorporated in 1936, was located 10 miles (20 km) north and west of Brownlee. DeWitty was Nebraska's "largest and most permanent colony" of African American homesteaders.
The Arkansas Delta is one of the six natural regions of the state of Arkansas. Willard B. Gatewood Jr., author of The Arkansas Delta: Land of Paradox, says that rich cotton lands of the Arkansas Delta make that area "The Deepest of the Deep South."
Mississippi is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Alabama to the east, the Gulf of Mexico to the south, Louisiana to the southwest, and Arkansas to the northwest. Mississippi's western boundary is largely defined by the Mississippi River, or its historical course. Mississippi is the 32nd largest by area and 35th-most populous of the 50 U.S. states and has the lowest per-capita income. Jackson is both the state's capital and largest city. Greater Jackson is the state's most populous metropolitan area, with a population of 591,978 in 2020. Other major cities include Gulfport, Southaven, Hattiesburg, Biloxi, Olive Branch, Tupelo, Meridian, and Greenville.
The Merikins or Merikens were formerly enslaved African Americans who gained freedom, enlisted in the Corps of Colonial Marines, and fought for the British against the United States in the War of 1812. After their service in Bermuda, they established a community in the south of Trinidad between 1815–1816. The region was largely populated by French-speaking Catholics but soon transitioned to an English-speaking, Baptist community after their arrival. It is believed that the term "Merikins" is derived from the local patois, but as many Americans have long been in the habit of dropping the initial "A" it is also likely that the new settlers brought that pronunciation with them from the United States. Some of the Company villages and land grants established back then still exist in Trinidad today.
Black land loss in the United States refers to the loss of land ownership and rights by Black people residing or farming in the United States. In 1862, the United States government passed the Homestead Act. This Act gave certain Americans seeking farmland the right to apply for ownership of government land or the public domain. This newly acquired farmland was typically called a homestead. In all, more than 160 million acres of public land, or nearly 10 percent of the total area of the United States was given away free to 1.6 million homesteaders. However, until the United States abolished slavery in 1865 and the passage of the 14th amendment in 1868, enslaved and free Blacks could not benefit from these acts. According to data published by the National Park Service and the University of Nebraska, some 6000 homesteads of an average of 160 acres were issued to Blacks in the years immediately following the war.
Oliver Toussaint Jackson was an American businessman and entrepreneur, who, inspired by Booker T. Washington's autobiography Up from Slavery, formed Dearfield, Colorado, a self-sufficient agricultural settlement for African-Americans. Prior to this venture, Jackson was a successful owner of several restaurant and catering businesses in Denver and Boulder.
The history of slavery in Colorado began centuries before Colorado achieved statehood when Spanish colonists of Santa Fe de Nuevo México (1598–1848) enslaved Native Americans, called Genízaros. Southern Colorado was part of the Spanish territory until 1848. Comanche and Utes raided villages of other indigenous people and enslaved them.
The Blair Colony, also known as the Sully County Colored Colony, was a homestead community established by African-Americans in rural Sully County, South Dakota, United States. It was first established by the family of Norvel Blair in 1883. With the encouragement of the Blairs, as many as 200 African-American settlers moved to the area over time. During the Great Depression, most of the settlers moved away, and the community is now largely a ghost town.
Black homesteaders were part of a larger land ownership movement in which settlers acquired and developed public lands for farming in 30 US states over a period of 100 years. The US federal government enacted these policies in areas that it wanted to populate with American citizens or prospective citizens. In total, some 30,000 black homesteaders obtained land claims in the course of this movement.
