Unit 4
Georgia’s Growing Pains
Objective: I will be able to explain significant factors that affected the development of Georgia as
part of the growth of the United States between 1789 and 1840.
a. I will explain the establishment of the University of Georgia, Louisville, and the spread of Baptist
and Methodist churches.
b. I will also evaluate the impact of land policies pursued by Georgia; including the headright system,
land lotteries, and the Yazoo land fraud.
c. I will be able to explain how technological developments, including the cotton gin and railroads, had
an impact on Georgia’s growth.
d. Lastly, I will be able to analyze the events that led to the removal of Creeks and Cherokees;
including the roles of Alexander McGillivray, William McIntosh, Sequoyah, John Ross, Dahlonega Gold
Rush, Worcester v. Georgia, Andrew Jackson, John Marshall, and the Trail of Tears.
The University of Georgia
• Established on Jan. 27, 1785 – when the Georgia General
Assembly approved the charter
• America’s first (1st) publically supported college
• Governor Lyman Hall asked Abraham Baldwin to write the
charter
• Baldwin became the first president of UGA (1785-1801)
• Did not open to students until Sept. 1801
• Franklin College – first UGA building opened in 1806
• Had only the College of Arts and Science for a long time
• After the Civil War UGA became a “land grant institution” and
began expansion
• UGA was first public university on paper but the University of
North Carolina held classes first – the two schools both claim
the title – first public university
UGA-Arches in the background built
in 1858
Louisville
• 3rd capital of Georgia (after Savannah and Augusta)
• Capital from 1796-1807
• Was chosen because at the time it was the center of the states population (due
to westward expansion)
• Was the capital during the Yazoo Land Fraud scandal
• Capital was moved due to
• Malaria outbreaks
• Difficulty in using Ogeechee River as a trade route
• Northwest spread of Ga. population
Spread of Methodist and Baptist Churches
• John Wesley was a Methodist preacher traveling Georgia in the late 1700’s and
early 1800’s
• Many Georgian’s were also beginning to identify themselves as Baptist during
this time
• By the 1830’s the Methodist and Baptist denominations were the largest in the
state
• Most popular among the working class living in the frontier and small towns
• Both denominations began mission work on plantations – many slaves
converted to Christianity
• Camp Meetings
• Used by both Methodist and Baptist to increase membership
• All day meetings with preaching and socialization – a chance for farmers to break from
hard work and spend time with family and friends
• Circuit Riders – used mainly by the Methodist
• Travel from town to town preaching
• Allowed small towns to have a preacher – by sharing him with (expense) with other nearby small
towns
Headright System
• After the American Revolution, Georgia gained land that went west to the
Mississippi River
• Many war veterans were being given land as payment for their services
• States leaders gave away thousands of acres of land using the Headright System
• Requirement for land
•
•
•
•
White men over 21
200 acres for head of household with an additional 50 acres for each dependent
Max 1,000 acres
Had to live on and farm the land for 5 years before it was yours
Yazoo Land Fraud
• Yazoo Act (1795)
• Named after a river in Mississippi and
the Indians that lived there
• The Georgia Legislature passed a law
allowing for the sale of land (would
become parts of Alabama and
Mississippi) for $500,000 to four land
companies
• It was later learned that the Governor
and legislators had taken bribes to
pass this law
• The land companies began selling land
to settlers who moved into the area
and began building homes and farms
• Many people began calling for the law to be repealed and began to vote
out of office the corrupt legislators
• The law was nullified (voted illegal) and the land was given back to the
state of Georgia
• Problem – what about the innocent people who bought the land from the land
companies and were now being told it was not there land anymore – after years of
living on it and making it into a farm/home
• Compact of 1802
• Settling the disputes over who the land belonged to were getting expense and
lengthy
• In 1802 the state of Georgia and the United States of American made an agreement
• The US paid Ga. 1.25 million dollars for the Yazoo Territory – and promised to settle
all land disputes
• The US also promised to relinquish all land claims by the Indians in the state of Ga.
and remove the Indians from the state
Burning of the Yazoo Act
When the law was
repealed the Yazoo
documents were
publically burned at the
state capitol in Louisville.
It is said they used a
magnifying class to start
the fire to represent “fire
from heaven”.
Yazoo Land Fraud Political Cartoon
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngL6Cj80uRo
Land Lotteries
• From 1805-1833 Georgia held eight (8) lotteries
• For the price of a ticket Georgia settlers could gain large amounts of
land
• Participants names were placed in one drum while the lots being sold
were placed in another drum
• One ticket from each drum would be drawn and that would
determine what land you now owned.
• Georgia gave away ¾ of its land away to over 100,000 families this
way
If more people bought tickets than there was
land to give away they would put blank
tickets in the drum with the land lot
numbers. If your name was drawn with one
of these blank tickets it was said that you
“drew a blank” meaning you got nothing.
That is where the saying “drawing a blank”
when you can’t remember something comes
from.
Examples of how land was divided into lots for drawings.
The Cotton Gin
• Because tobacco was destroying the soil in south – southerners began looking
for a new crop to become the economic staple
• Cotton had been grown for years but not at great profits – mainly because it
was so hard to clean
• “cleaning cotton” means to remove the seeds
• Doing this by hand was very slow – a person could clean about 1 lb. of cotton a day
• Eli Whitney invented a machine in 1793 that made the process of cleaning the
cotton faster and more efficient.
• The Cotton Gin could be run by two people and could clean about 50 lbs. a day – making growing cotton
profitable for the first time
• The south was now focused on buying land – lots and lots of land – expansion
westward was the goal
• Negative effects
• The south became totally dependent on the success of cotton – “King Cotton”
• Increase of slavery – with the total focus for more land on which to grow
more cotton the need for more labor also grew
Railroads
• First RR in Ga. was chartered in 1832 – was started by businessmen in Athens
who needed a better to get cotton to Augusta
• During the 1840’s-1850’s Georgia laid more rail lines than any other southern
state – Ga. ranked in the top 10 in the nation for miles of track
• The Western and Atlantic RR ran from Chattanooga to a small hub called
Terminus (means end of the line)
• Later other RR also used this hub as an ending point and a city began to grow
around the RR’s
• In 1843 Terminus changed its name to Marthasville – after Gov. Lumpkin’s
daughter
• In 1845 the name was changed again to Atlanta – possibly a reference to
Atlantic – the original RR located there
• Atlanta was the first major city to be NOT be built alongside a navigable river
Creeks and Cherokees
• Creek Nation
• A confederation of several southeastern tribes
• Most numerous in the state and held the most land
• Most sided with the British during the American Revolution – creating a relationship of
distrust with most Georgians
• Georgians wanted Indian land and wanted their new government to get it for them
• Treaty of New York 1790 –
• required that the Creek cede (give up/turn over) most of their land east of the Ocmulgee river
• The U.S. was to honor the boundaries of Creeks land
• Red Stick War
• 1813 – Red Sticks were the Creek who wanted to fight Georgian’s for land; White Sticks were those
that did not want to fight
• Creeks were defeated after a victory by the U.S. Army led by Andrew Jackson at Horseshoe Bend
• Creeks lost 22 million acres of land to the U.S.
• Treaty of Indian Springs – 1825 – Chief William McIntosh signed away the rest of Creek land after being
bribed by a government agent
• McIntosh was later killed because of this
• Alexander McGillivray
• Creek Chief (mother was Creek, father was Scottish- one of the Scots Highlanders)
• Grew up a part of both worlds – had an English education, and trained in Creek
leadership
• Was one of the signers of the Treaty of New York
• William McIntosh
• Creek Chief (also had a Scottish father and Creek mother)
• Often chose to side with U.S. rather than the Creek
• Regained popularity with the Creeks by allocating food from a U.S. Indian Agent
during a famine
• He owned two plantations and slaves – not supported by many Creek
• Along with 6 other Creek leaders he signed the Second Treaty of Indian Springs
(1825)
• Agreed to sell the remainder of Creek land to the US for $200,000 – he received
extra money for his personal land
• This was seen as a bribe and he was ordered to be put to death by the Creeks
• April 30,1825 – Creek warriors surrounded his home, set it on fire and when he
ran out shot and stabbed him many times
• Cherokee
• Lived in the mountains of north Ga.
• Developed a very loyal trading relationship with the British and remained
loyal to them throughout the revolution
• Following the revolution the Cherokee tried to make peace with the new
government and believed their best option was to create a nation which
copied that of the new country
• 1820’s – they developed a written language, a written constitution, a
newspaper – they invited missionaries to set up schools and changed
farming techniques to match that of locals – including the use of slaves
• Once gold was discovered in north Georgia in 1828 there no stopping the
desire for Cherokee land – Georgians believed they had to be moved
• Indian Removal Act of 1830 – Georgian’s demanded that the U.S.
government live up their promise in the Compact of 1802 to removal all
Indians for the state
• Worcester v. Georgia
• 1832 U.S. Supreme Court Case
• Declared that the Cherokee were an independent nation and did not fall
under Ga. Law
• This law was ignored by most Georgians and President Andrew Jackson
• Started when Samuel Worcester, a missionary, was arrested for living
among the Cherokee without the permission of the State or Georgia
• The missionaries were found guilty and sentenced to 4 years hard
labor in a Milledgeville Prison
• The Cherokee hired lawyers to appeal
• U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall condemned
legislators for their actions – and ordered the missionaries set free
• President Andrew Jackson ignored the courts ruling and the
missionaries stayed in jail
• The missionaries were later released by Gov. Lumpkin in 1833
• Treaty of New Echota
• 1835 a small group of Cherokees signed a treaty without permission for the Cherokee Govt. selling the
remainder of Cherokee land to the U.S.
• In 1838 the U.S. government began forcefully removing the Cherokee from the state
• Sequoyah
• Was the nickname for George Gist – means “little lame one”
• Created the Cherokee Syllabary – first written language for a Native American Tribe
• Was the son of a Cherokee and a white man – probably a soldier in the Continental Army during the
revolution
• He rejected his white heritage
• Within one generation from the creation of the syllabary the Cherokee were a literate nation
• Andrew Jackson
• Had fought along side the Indians in the Revolution
• Now felt that the land belonged to the whites and Indians had no rights to it
• Ignored Supreme Court rulings when he did not agree with them
• John Marshall
• Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court
• Generally sided with the Indians in land disputes
• Was at odds with President Jackson
• John Ross
• Was the Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation (1827)
• Was also mixed and spoke English and practiced many English customs
• He owned a plantation and ferry business
• Ross believed if the Cherokee were seen as civilized (being like the
whites) they would be allowed to keep their land
• Fought against removal until 1838 – when he negotiated for the
Cherokee to handle their own removal
• His wife along with approx. 4,000 other Cherokee died on the move to
Oklahoma
• During the Civil War he supported the U.S. causing a split in the
Cherokee Nation
• After the war he reunited his tribe and remained Principal Chief until he
died
Dahlonega Gold Rush
• Gold was discovered in North Georgia in 1828
• Many gold miners began settling on Cherokee land – without permission
• In 1832 Ga. held a land lottery – giving away Cherokee land to whites
• The desire for land and now gold made the demands by whites to remove the
Indians even louder – forcing the U.S. government to get involved
• Gold was plentiful in the area for two decades – so much so that the U.S.
government built a mint to make coins – produced almost 1.5 million coins
• Gold rush in Ga. ended in 1849 when gold was discovered in California
The Trail of Tears
• In 1838 after many court cases President Martin Van Buren ordered
the Cherokee forcefully removed from the state of Georgia
• Under the leadership of Gen. Winfield Scott the army rounded up the
Cherokee and put them in stockades – where they were held for
months
• The Cherokee were then forced to walk to a reservation in Oklahoma
• Without supplies and in the middle of winter the march became a
death trap – over 4,000 people died on the march
Painting in the
Booth Western
Art Museum
in Cartersville, GA.
The painting by
Robert Tannenbaum,
called ‘Grey Wolf’,
expresses the
struggle for success
many Indians faced
in the world.