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Lot description
Ed Vebell (American, 1921 - 2018) "Homestead Act" Signed lower right. Original Acrylic painting on Illustration Board. Provenance: Collection of James A. Helzer (1946-2008), Founder of Unicover Corporation. This artwork was originally published on the Fleetwood Commemorative Cover for Epic Events in American History series issued in 1985. From the first English settlements at Jamestown and Plymouth, land was "free" if it could be wrestled from the Indians. With independence, the states discovered an inability to preserve their claims from land-hungry settlers. Both the states and the nation attempted the plan of selling property to land companies, which in turn sold it off to settlers. The vast majority of the pioneers who pushed across the Alleghenies, however, preferred to take what they thought was rightfully theirs without payment. As early as 1812, a "True American Society" in Ohio asserted that "every man is entitled by Nature to a portion of the soil." In the 19th century, this principle came to be widely accepted. With the secession of the slave-holding South, opposition to "free" soil, both as free for settlers and as "free" of slaves, disappeared. On May 20, 1862, President Lincoln signed a Homestead Act which gave to any person "the head of a family or of 21 years of age," who had not fought in the Confederate Army, the right to claim 160 acres of public land. It was, potentially, one of the most revolutionary Acts ever passed by a modern legislature, even if it did not quite work out to be a revolution. Most of the newly opened land came into the hands of giant corporations and land speculators, but perhaps as much as 300 million acres of precious American property were acquired by "homesteaders." This Cover commemorates the anniversary of the Homestead Act on May 20, 1862. Image Size: 20 x 21 in. Overall Size: 26.5 x 27 in. Unframed. (B06076)