Armed Occupation Act

The Florida Armed Occupation Act of 1842 (5 Stat. 502) was passed as an incentive to populate Florida.

The Act granted 160 acres (0.6 km²) of unsettled land south of the line separating townships 9 and 10 South (an east–west line about three miles (5 km) north of Palatka and about ten miles (16 km) south of Newnansville) to any head of a family as long he satisfied the following conditions:[1]

  • be a resident of Florida and not having 160 acres (0.6 km²) of land in Florida when asking for the permit;
  • get a permit from the Lands Office;
  • he or his heirs reside for five consecutive years on the grant ;
  • clear, enclose and cultivate 5 acres (20,000 m2) of land during the first year;
  • build a house on the lot during the first year;
  • the land should be two or more miles away from a garrisoned military post.

The total land to be granted should not be more than 200,000 acres (800 km²) under the act.

See also

References
  1. "An Act to provide for the armed occupation and settlement of the unsettled part of the Peninsula of East Florida". Retrieved 2007-06-27.

Literature

James W. Covington, “The Armed Occupation Act of 1842.” Florida Historical Quarterly 40, no. 1 (1961): 41–52.

Laurel Clark Shire, The Threshold of Manifest Destiny: Gender and National Expansion in Florida. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016.

Laurel Clark Shire, “Turning Sufferers into Settlers: Gender, Welfare, and National Expansion in Frontier Florida.” Journal of the Early Republic 33, no. 3 (2013): 489–521.

Joe Knetsch and Paul S. George, “A Problematical Law: The Armed Occupation Act of 1842 and Its Impact on Southeast Florida.” Tequesta 53 (1993): 63–80.

Joe Knetsch and Paul S. George, “Staking a Claim in Early Miami.” South Florida History Magazine, no. 1 (Winter 1990): 18–20.

Michael E. Welsh, “Legislating a Homestead Bill: Thomas Hart Benton and the Second Seminole War.” Florida Historical Quarterly 57, no. 2 (1978): 157–72.

Julius Wilm, Settlers as Conquerors: Free Land Policy in Antebellum America. Stuttgart, Germany: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2018.

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