Go West Young Man!Growth and Change in Georgia

Manifest DestinyThe belief that it was God’s will for the U.S boundaries to

reach from East to West coast

Land Fever in GeorgiaLand taken from Indians and was given to settlers through the Headright System

The Headright System- Head of family receives 200 acres, and 50 acres for each family member (distributes land) Max 1000 acres.

Louisiana PurchaseIn 1803 President Jefferson bought the Louisiana Territory from France for $15 million – Louisiana Purchase

The LA Purchase was the largest land gain in U.S. history & allowed GA to gain the most land.The Louisiana Territory’s eastern and western boundaries were the Rocky Mts. and the Mississippi River.

Georgia’s Capital…on the move!!!on the move!!!

• Georgia’s Capital has moved more than 5 times:

Savannah (1733)

Augusta (1786)

Louisville (1796)

Milledgeville (1807)

Atlanta (1868)

Louisville•Louisville became the capital of GA in 1796.

•Named after King Louis XVI, a French king who helped during the Revolution.

•It was closer to the new center of Georgia.

•Eventually malaria spread and trade slowed.

•The capital was eventually moved to Milledgeville.

Georgia’s Capital…on the move!!!on the move!!!

• What can you infer from the moving of the capital from city to city?

Economic Development•Georgia’s expansion westward was due in part to the success of cotton.

•But, there was a problem. Cotton was supposed to be a cash crop.

•It was raised to produce a profit for farmers.

•The problem was the process of removing the seed from the cotton

•In 1793, while visiting a friend, Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin.

•It was a system of rollers, teeth and brushes that cleaned cotton of its seeds.

•It changed the history of the United States and the South.

Eli Whitney Cotton Gin

Effects on Slavery due to Eli Whitney’s Cotton GinBefore the cotton gin, slavery had been on its way out—farmers realized it was more expensive to maintain slaves, compared to the value of what they could produce.

Cotton was a troublesome crop anyway; its fiber could only be separated from the sticky, embedded seeds by hand, a grueling and exhausting process however the gin could do days worth of work of 5 slaves in one hour.

After the Cotton Gin, the number of slaves in the US rose from about 700,000 in 1790 to around 3.2 million in 1850 a mere 60 years later.

Economic Growth in Georgia• After the Revolution cotton and tobacco became

the major crops• Many inventions after the war that advanced

farming and the economy• Cyrus McCormick- Invented the mechanical

reaper• Samuel Slater - Invented the textile mill• Cash Crops are grown for the purpose of selling• Subsistence Farming – growing crops to feed the

family• Panic of 1837 led to a downturn in GA’s economy

and caused a depression

Henry BlairCorn Harvester

Samuel SlaterTextile Mill

Cyrus McCormickThe Mechanical Reaper

Transportation and Other Stuff

• Farmers moved there products by riverboats, ferries, and wagon trains over roads

• To help build roads, the government approved private companies to build turnpikes

• A turnpike was a private roadway in which travelers had to pay a toll to cross

Transportation Development

•Georgia’s increase in cotton production led to the need for faster transportation. •This was important so that cotton could get from interior Georgia to Savannah to be traded.

•The answer was railroads.

•Georgia’s main railroad company was the Western and Atlantic Railroad

•The work began in 1834, but by 1860, there were more than 1,200 miles of rails in Georgia.

A New Georgia City

•The city of Atlanta was created around the railroad.

•The railroad ended at a town called Terminus.

•Eventually more railroads met there, leading to the town’s growth.

•The Terminus’ name was changed to Marthasville in 1843, then finally to Atlanta in 1845.

•The name is the feminine for Atlantic, in honor of the Western & Atlantic railroad.

Yazoo Land Fraud• Land companies bribed Gov. George

Matthews and members of the General Assembly to pass a law allowing land companies to buy western land below market price.

• These Companies bought b/t 35 and 50 million acres of land for $500,000 – about 1 ½ cents per acre

Yazoo Land Fraud• The public learned of deal and

began to protest.

* The legislators involved were voted out of office

• The Federal Gov. paid over $4 million in settlement claims and disputed GA right to the land.

• Georgia ceded or gave its claim on the lands of Mississippi & Alabama to the federal government for $1.25 million

• Western boundary of Georgia that had once been the Mississippi River, now became the Chattahoochee River.

The Yazoo Land Fraud

James Jackson and the Yazoo Land FraudAn old school textbook depicts Georgia senator James Jackson destroying records connected with the Yazoo land sale

The Yazoo Land Fraud scheme was the states worst political scandal because land speculators bribed members of The General Assembly to sell public land for low prices

What were the effects on Georgia?• GA offered to refund money to land purchasers• many did not want to sell• so … the matter went to the Supreme Court

Meanwhile…• Georgians ready to end scandal so convinced the legislature to cede the land west of Chattahoochee to the Fed. Gov’t

In turn the Fed Gov’t gave GA:• $1,250,000.00 to Georgia for the lands• And… promised to remove the Native American tribes as soon as possible • GA’s boundaries now are Chattahoochee River to the west to the Savannah River in the east

Education• In 1785 the University of Georgia became

the 1st state chartered institution in the United States.

• It was a land grant university, meaning the land for the college was donated by the federal government.

Education Development

University of Georgia

•Created by Abraham Baldwin in 1785.

•He believed government had a duty to educate everyone

•1st school open to lower income students

•1st public university in the new nation

Education• In 1786 GA legislature passed a law

requiring each county to open academies or public funded schools.

• GA’s earliest women’s college was Georgia Female college (Wesleyan).

Religious Development

•After the American Revolution, churches were rebuilt.

•The churches were mainly rebuilt in the backwoods of Georgia.

•Baptists & Methodists established statewide organizations in the 1780s.

•Many services were held outdoors. They were called Tent Revivals and Camp Meetings.

•Pastors traveled the state to preach sermons at these outdoor events.

•Slaves established their first independent church in Savannah in 1788.

Churches• Bishop Richard

Allen founded the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

• Joseph Smith founded the Church of Latter Day Saints

Churches• Baptist and Methodist Churches spread during this

time.

• Churches were essential parts of town life, town meetings and social events were held here.

Churches• Methodist circuit riders founded churches in the

frontier region

• Circuit riders – ministers who went from district to district.

Moving West• Inventions, loans for land purchases, abundant

power and labor supply for manufacturing all affected industrialization

• Manifest Destiny: The belief that the United States was destined to spread over the total continent

• The development of Commercial Agriculture changed America to a “market economy”