This comprehensive guide delves into how the Act not only safeguards your home's equity but also plays a pivotal role in scenarios like divorce and bankruptcy. The homestead act helped americans buy their way into the american dream and independently build up wealth through land ownership.Individuals, including immigrants, women and former slaves, were eligible for the 160 acres. The Homestead Act of 1862 is recognized as one of the most revolutionary concepts for distributing public land in American history. Old and reside within the state of Arizona. The narrative then turns to west Phoenix in the. 1920s, an area with a mix of less expensive older housing occupied predominantly by. Any person eighteen years of age or over, married or single, who resides within this state may hold as a homestead exempt from execution and forced sale. " The first anti-slavery legislation, however, came in the less slave- dependent New England. The slaves included two men ages 19 and 60, one 22yearold woman, and three girls ages 7 to 16, according to the 1860 slave schedule.