EXPANSION AND GROWTH

Georgia’s Land and Economic Growth1790-1840

• The key to Georgia’s prosperity was still its land (land was important)

• Obtaining land from the Native Americans and passing out the land to settlers became a major issue from the Constitution until 1840.

Georgia’s Land and Economic Growth• So how did the government transfer (assign) land

to citizens?-In the past, it was done through the headright

system. - In 1803, after the Yazoo fraud, GA adopts another

system developed to transfer land: lottery systemThe Creek and Cherokee Indians land was givenup through the lottery system. The land became farms for new settlers to the state.

Georgia’s Land and Economic Growth

• Georgia remained an agricultural state; cotton grown in a fertile region of central Georgia became a key cash crop.

• New inventions and new methods of transportation in making agriculture profitable (money maker)

-cotton gin-Railroads

The Creek and Their Land

• Remember, one of the main reasons Georgia supported the ratification of the U.S. Constitution was because they desired more of the land that Native Americans held.

• Between 1790 and 1805, the Creek signed three treaties; Creek Chief Alexander McGillivray opposed giving up Creek lands and refused to sign the treaties. But, the treaties slowly gave away the Indian territories.

• McGillivray met with President George Washington in New York in 1790, where he signed the first of the land treaties. The Treaty of New York, which ceded (gave up rights of ownership by signing a treaty) all their land between the Oconee and Ocmulgee rivers to Georgia.

Indian Cession Lands in Georgia

According to the map, what year did the Cherokee make the largest land cession?

What year did the Creek make the largest cession?

The Yazoo Land FraudUnderstand: The US government required treaties be signed with the Indians in order forsettlers to move into land.But, in Georgia, the government was caught up in some illegal land dealings…fraud

Activity #3 (remain in your notes)According to your textbook, what was this illegalland dealing known as? Provide details ofthe illegal activity. How did the citizens and legislatorsrespond? P.328 (Record within Cornell notes)

The Yazoo Land Fraud• In 1794 and 1795, four companies bribed the Georgia legislature

to pass a bill selling them between 35 and 50 million acres of land around the Yazoo River (today part of Mississippi) for pennies per acre.

• Many legislators who voted for the sale had stock in the land companies, which was unethical and illegal. (Voting for something from which they were going to benefit from personally = conflict of interest)

• In 1796, a new Georgia legislature repealed the Yazoo Act as a fraud; the state refunded the companies what they had paid for the ill-gotten land.

• In 1802, Georgia sold its western territory (now the states of Alabama and Mississippi) to the United States. That established Georgia’s western border as the Chattahoochee River.

Response to the Yazoo Land Act

• Assembly members gathered in front of the state capitol in Louisville to burn the act. They burned the act using a magnifying glass “fire brought down from heaven”

• James Jackson left his seat in the US Senate to fight against the Yazoo land fraud. He was rewarded for his efforts with governorship. (Jackson County is named for James Jackson)

Yazoo Act:

Activity 4: Copy the questions and answer in complete statements (p. 330)

1.The U.S. Supreme Court declared the repeal of the Yazoo Act unconstitutional. Why?

2.James Jackson led the writing of a new state constitution. What was said in the new constitution that would prevent another event like the Yazoo act from happening?

3.Activity 5: Define vocabulary p. 326

What about the Land Lottery?In 1803, Governor John Milledge helped pass a new land policy: landlottery (receive land on the basis of chance).

*Qualifications to participate: White male Lived in GA at least a year At least 21 years of age

* Results of Land Lottery+Georgia’s population grew As a result of the land

lottery- The state lost the money it could have made selling the land at market

price

The Cotton Gin helped to improve agricultural profit• created by Eli Whitney

•Used to quickly remove seeds from the cotton flower

•Fast removal of cotton flower seeds led to cotton as a major profitable cash crop in Georgia

•Slaves were used to harvest cotton on plantations; slaves increased

THINK:

Why did the invention of the cotton gin increase the need for slaves?

Video: King Cotton and the Cotton Gin

Developments in Transportation Helped Agricultural Profit

Think: How did people travelin the early 1800s before the railroad was built?

When and where was the first railroad built in GA?The first railroad in Georgia was built in 1833 and ran from Augusta to Athens.

Video: the Railroads: Economic Boom

•By the 1820s, steamboats carried farm products and goods; steamboats made travel on waterways easier

•Canals (man-built waterways) were designed to connect bodies of water (such as rivers and lakes) to each other, to improve transportation of goods.

•Between 1833 and 1860, Georgia built one of the best railroad systems in the South. Rail lines reached Atlanta by 1846, making Atlanta an important railroad center by the start of the Civil War.

What about Business and Industry?

• Sawmills, textile mills, and tanneries helped grow Georgia’s economy, especially during a depression (severe economic downturn) in the late 1830s.

• Factors (merchants who arranged for a farmer’s crops to be shipped to other places), helped grow Georgia’s towns. Craftsmen and free laborers did as well.