High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Preemption Act of 1841, also known as the Distributive Preemption Act (27 Cong., Ch. 16; 5 Stat. 453), was a federal law approved on September 4, 1841. It was designed to "appropriate the proceeds of the sales of public lands... and to grant `pre-emption rights` to individuals" who were already living on federal lands (commonly referred to as "squatters").