Growth and Prosperity

Growth and Prosperity Georgia History Chapter 9

Growth After the Revolution • Constitution requires that a census be taken every 10 years (GA quadrupled in 50 years). • Geography of land determined settlements (Cumberland Gap) • 1787 GA gave up land to create Alabama and Mississippi • Louisiana Purchase ($15 million) doubled size of U.S.

Manifest Destiny • Americans felt they had a right to all land west of the Mississippi River • Lewis and Clark sent on expedition to map lands • Western expansion created desire for freedom, unlimited opportunities and cheap land. • Manifest Destiny was belief of U.S. from coast to coast.

Georgia • Creeks and Cherokees, in heavy debt from white traders, gave up more than 2 million acres of backcountry • Growing population meant more representation in state and federal House • State government continued to pressure Indians into ceding (giving up) land.

Public Land Distribution • Do we give up land to encourage settlement or sell it to pay for roads, schools, etc.? Population growth wins. • GA uses headright system; war veterans received more land (288 – 1,955 acres) • People chose plats (maps of land lots); along rivers most popular. Headright lots often irregular shapes.

Georgia’s Capital • Savannah was capital when it was a colony • Settlers/traders said Augusta was closer for backcountry folks (legislature heard all court cases) • Augusta still too far east, so Louisville (on Ogeechee River) was named capital • In 1806 Milledgeville became capital

Yazoo Land Fraud • Land speculation allowed people to buy at low prices and sell high • 1795 four private companies bribe many members of General Assembly to pass law to let companies buy land to Yazoon River (in Mississippi) for $.02/acre • Newly elected legislature repealed law and publicly burned it. • Federal government ended up paying off claims.

Georgia’s Western Territory (see page 141) • Both GA and Spain claimed land between Chattahoochee River and Mississippi River. Spain gave it up. • After War, it was decided the area would be the Mississippi Territory with its own government. • GA citizens tired of lawsuits from Yazoo Fraud and trying to protect its settlers there. • Federal government paid Georgia $1,250,000 for land and agreed to remove all Indians from the state.

Georgia Acquires Indian Lands • Settlers wanted Indians out so they could take their land • Gen. Elijah Clarke tried to create independent government on Creek Indian land (built several forts and called area Trans-Oconee Republic), but Georgia army and federal troops removed them • By 1802 Georgians fighting Creeks along Oconee River. Creeks signed treaty to give up land west to the Ocmulgee River.

Land Lotteries • By 1803 no headright system. Surveyors divided land into small square lots, so that families would settle frontier. • Lots varied along with quality of land (better quality, smaller lots) • Lottery for every white male (21+) allowed to draw one chance (w/wife and child = 2 chances). Widows and orphans had 1 chance.

State Lottery (continued) • They would register at county courthouse. • Names sent to state capital, written on a ticket, and placed in a barrel. • Land lots given away were numbered. Number of each lot was written on a ticket and placed in a barrel. • Official drew from both barrels simultaneously to award land to “fortunate drawers”

Advantages of Winning the Lottery • Land was free (except $4.00/100 acres recording fee) • Winners could farm land or sell it. • Six lotteries held in 28 years • Georgia distributed about 30 million acres to more than 100,000 fortunate drawers.

Encouraging Economic Growth • Steamboats and railroads rapidly created faster/cheaper transportation • Samuel Slater’s inventions in textile industry created factories • Eli Whitney’s cotton gin, Henry Blair’s corn harvester, and Cyrus McCormick’s mechanical reaper made great advances in agriculture.

Northern Economic Growth • More roads, railroads and canals allowed for large industrialization. Finish goods now shipped all over country. • Southern cotton could also be shipped. • More settlement in West helped fuel nation’s growth as exchange of farm and manufactured goods increased.

Government and Transportation • Georgia officials worked with business people to develop a transportation system • Planned cities encouraged settlement in undeveloped areas • Rivers became “highways” to transport goods, Savannah River becomes waterway between backcountry and port of Savannah. Augusta becomes a major city.

Water Transportation • Rectangular barges (Oconee boxes) carried bales of cotton downriver to ocean ports. Couldn’t go upstream due to current. • Steamboats (1820s) transported large quantities of cotton downstream and return with goods needed inland. • Steamboats privately owned, but government passed laws and spent money to make sure rivers didn’t become hazardous.

A Georgia Canal? • Word of Erie Canal spread south, and Georgia government looked into possible canal to connect the Ocmulgee or Oconee River to the Tennessee River and Mississippi River to New Orleans. • North Georgia Mountains prevented a canal

Georgia Roads • After War most “roads” were old Indian trails. Roads needed for settlers to travel west and to get their crops to market. • 1806 Congress decided to construct a road from Cumberland, Maryland to Ohio River. This was the first national highway. • In 1775 Georgia colonial government made all males between 16 and 60 work on roads 12 days per year.

Georgia Roads • Government finally turned to turnpike organizations (private roadway built and maintained by companies and travelers paid a toll). • Pikes across road prevented travelers from using road until toll was paid. • Some had bridges and ferries that charged extra tolls.

Growth and Prosperity