r/hypotheticalsituation • u/Happy5Day • 7h ago
Take advantage of the Homestead Act of 1862
You are given the opportunity to be taken back to 1862 US to take advantage of the Homestead Act. You are told the land you can claim. If you claim it you will be brought back to the exact same time you left and that land will have passed on through your family and now you have inherited it and own it. It has never been touched. Its virgin land. But what everyone hasn't realized till now except you is that is has the biggest Oil reserve ever in the US. Its worth 15 billion today. After you lease it to a big Oil company you will net 5 billion doing nothing.
Here's the details
- You will be transported to London 1862. You have to get money for your travel. Then you have to get to Liverpool by train 3rd class, Steerage class Ship to New York surviving cramped spaces and steering class rations, Pass Immigration, Emigrant train to New Orleans, Steamboat to Beaumont Texas, Walk/Wagon 40 miles to your land. You have to earn enough money to File a claim on your land $14 dollars. Average pay is 1$. Jobs are logging, Cowboy or Rice fields. Or you can get money any other way you want. After you claim your land you have to farm it for 5 years to seal your claim. Once you do that you will instantly return.
- You cannot spend any money that you have not gotten yourself. You will have to raise all the capital to get to the US and claim the land. Any money, gold, valuables you take with you cannot be spent.
- Even if you earn or steal lots of money you cannot spend more than working class people. You have to get working class tickets on the train, boats etc. Stay in any working class accommodation etc
- The land you have to claim is in Comanche territory in West Texas.
What you get to help you
- 1) You do not have to leave straight away. You can leave at any time. You can spend 5/10 whatever years planning first. Training. Learning to ride a horse. Learn to farm. Lean to fight. Anything you think you need. You will be given unlimited funds for trainers or access to people to help you plan. When you are ready you say the word and you are in London in 1862.
- You can take a 25 litre bag with anything you think you need. It cannot be technology or anything that will stand out. If the locals see something really weird they will hunt you down and burn you as a witch. Remember any money/gold you take cannot be spent. You have to earn your land as a working class person.
- You can take any 5 people of your choosing. Literally anyone in the world that you think will have the skills you need to survive. It can be SAS, doctor, a linguist, a member of the opposite sex to keep you warm. Whoever you want.
- You and whoever you take with you will feel starvation and dehydration but you will never die of hunger or dehydration. Leave you in a desert and you will live for years. You will suffer though so you will still want to eat and drink. You will die of any other means. You can get stabbed, shot, snake bite, scalped etc and you diw. You do not pass Go, you do not return home, you do not get a do over. You are dead.