Engraving by Henry Bean Hall entitled: "Emigrants crossing the plains", 1869. Manifest Destiny was the 19th and 20th century American belief that the United States was destined to expand across the North American continent. The Homestead Act of 1862 encouraged 600,000 families to settle the West by giving them land (usually 160 acres) almost free. They had to live on and improve the land for five years. Helping settlers move westward were the emigrant "guide books" of the 1840s featuring route information supplied by the fur traders and the Fr矇mont expeditions, and promising fertile farm land beyond the Rockies.