According to the opening of jane austen's pride and prejudice, an eighteenth century english woman's main prospect was

i do believe its (d) it allowed the government to offer pioneers sixty acres of western land if they lived on it and made improvements to it.

explanation: signed into law in may 1862, the homestead act opened up settlement in the western united states, allowing any american, including freed slaves, to put in a claim for up to 160 free acres of federal land. by the end of the civil war, 15,000 homestead claims had been established, and more followed in the postwar years