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Life on the Great Plains

Life on the Great Plains . Chapter 7, Lesson 2. Settling the Great Plains. Located in the middle of the United States Flat grassy area with few trees Gets less than 20 inches of rain a year. The Homestead Act. 1862-Homestead Act Passed Homestead-settler’s home and land

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Life on the Great Plains

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  1. Life on the Great Plains Chapter 7, Lesson 2

  2. Settling the Great Plains • Located in the middle of the United States • Flat grassy area with few trees • Gets less than 20 inches of rain a year

  3. The Homestead Act • 1862-Homestead Act Passed • Homestead-settler’s home and land • Offered 160 acres of land to adults who were U.S. citizens or wanted to become citizens • Settlers had to pay a small amount of money and farm the land for 5 years • After that it was theirs • People came from eastern cities and Europe(Germany, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and the Netherlands)

  4. The Exodusters • Benjamin “Pap” Singleton, an African American, visited Kansas • He encouraged other African Americans to leave the South and move to Kansas • Tens of thousands of African Americans moved to Kansas and other parts of the Great Plains between 1877 and 1879 • Started towns-mad their own laws and felt safe from injustice • These African Americans were called Exodusters-after Exodus, a book in the Bible, that tells the story of how the people of ancient Israel left Egypt to escape slavery

  5. Settlers Face Hardships • The harsh climate • Long, cold winters • Blizzards • Violent thunderstorms came in spring (heavy rain, floods, tornadoes, and hailstorms) • Hot, dry summers • Drought, long periods without rain, were common • Prairie fires • Grasshoppers • Some thought life was too difficult and moved away • Others stayed and adjusted to the environment

  6. Settlers Adapt to the Great Plains • Made houses of sod because there were very few trees • Cut pieces of sod, grass covered dirt help together by roots, and used them like bricks • Houses were cool in the summer and warm in winter • Sod leaked during rainstorms • Snakes and other small animals dug through sod walls • Farmers used iron or steel plows to cut through the hard, thick sod before they could plant seeds • Farmers in the Great Plains were known as sodbusters because they had to break though thick soil • Neighbors lived many miles away (life was lonely)

  7. Growing Crops • Farmers had a hard time finding crops that would grow in a dry climate • Farmers grew wheat with seeds that had been brought over from the dry grasslands of Europe • Farmers used water from rivers and streams or dug wells to water crops • Machines such a plows, reapers, planters, and threshers made it faster and easier to grow crops • Farmers were able to farm more land and grow more wheat

  8. Question 1 What was the Homestead Act?

  9. Answer: 1. Offered 160 acres of land to adults who were U.S. citizens or wanted to become citizens 2. Settlers had to pay a small amount of money and farm the land for 5 years

  10. Question 2 Where is the Great Plains located?

  11. Answer: In the middle of the United States.

  12. Question 3 Who were the Exodusters?

  13. Answer: They were African Americans who were named after a book in the Bible called Exodus, that tells the story of how the people of ancient Israel left Egypt to escape slavery.

  14. Question 4 What were some of the challenges that Homesteaders faced?

  15. Answer: • The harsh climate • Long, cold winters • Blizzards • Violent thunderstorms came in spring (heavy rain, floods, tornadoes, and hailstorms) • Hot, dry summers • Drought, long periods without rain, were common • Prairie fires • Grasshoppers

  16. Question 5 What kind of homes did homesteaders live in, and why?

  17. Answer: The homesteaders made houses out of sod because there were very few trees in the Great Plains.

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