1. Unit 4 – Georgia and the Westward Expansion
Georgia Studies
Unit 4 – Georgia and the Westward Expansion
Lesson 2: Land Policies
Study Presentation

2. Georgia and the Westward Expansion
Georgia Studies
“Unpacking the
Standards”:
Georgia and the Westward Expansion

3. Unit 4: Georgia and the Westward Expansion Lesson 2: Land Policies
Nouns
Verbs

4. Lesson 2: Land Policies
SS8H4
The student will explain significant factors that affected westward expansion of Georgia between 1789 and 1840.

5. Find the major verbs and nouns and label them on your “T” Chart.
Lesson 2: Land Policies
Element b.
Evaluate the impact of land policies pursued by Georgia; include the headright system, land lotteries, and the Yazoo Land Fraud.

6. Unit 4: Ga and the Westward Expansion Lesson 2: Land Policies
Impact of land policies pursued by GA:
1. Headright System
2. Land Lotteries
3. Yazoo Act
Yazoo Land Fraud
Other:
5. Creek Indians
Evaluate
Nouns
Verbs

7. Lesson 4: Westward Expansion
Essential Question
What was the impact of land polices followed by Georgia?

8. Land Polices
After the American Revolution, Georgia gained access to a large amount of land from the American Indians who sided with the British.
The land Georgia claimed stretched all the way to the Mississippi River.
Revolutionary War veterans, among others, believed that all citizens had the right to land ownership in these newly claimed lands.

9. Land Polices
People and their leaders were in agreement about the people’s need for land to support a healthy democracy.
The division of the land to the people became a debatable issue.

10. Land Polices Headright system Yazoo Land Act Land lotteries
List the three land polices used by Georgia to give land to its people?
Headright system
Yazoo Land Act
Land lotteries

11. Headright System
Headright System= Every white male counted as a head of household.
Land allocation approach that provided the head of a family up to 200 acres of free land in the Georgia frontier.

12. Headright System
Indian land in Georgia east of the Oconee River was given to settlers

13. Headright System
What impact did the Headright System have on Georgia and its citizens?
By 1783, under this system, Georgia gave thousands of acres of land to soldiers who had fought during the Revolution.
Under this system, men who did not fight in the Revolution could also receive free land.
This system ended when there were too many claimants and not enough land to give.

14. Yazoo Act
The second land policy approach was called the Yazoo Act (1795)
Named after a river in the present state of Mississippi.

15. Yazoo Act
Yazoo Act sold much of the land that would become Alabama and Mississippi to four land companies for $500,000.

16. Yazoo Act
What impact did the Yazoo Act have on Georgia and its citizens?
Georgia governor, George Mathews, signed the Yazoo Act into law and transferred 35 million acres of land to four land companies.
Land companies bribed members of the Georgia General Assembly to sell the land.
Almost immediately, Georgians protested the sale.

17. Yazoo Land Fraud
Around 1795, four companies bribed the governor and legislators
Bought millions of acres in western Georgia (today’s Alabama and Mississippi) for 1½¢ an acre

18. Yazoo Land Fraud The public found out and protested
The legislators involved were voted out of office

19. Yazoo Land Fraud
What impact did the Yazoo Land Fraud have on Georgia and its citizens?
The General Assembly (GA’s legislative branch) cancelled the law approving the sale;
Georgia give up the land to the U.S. government for $1.25 million dollars.

20. Land Lottery System
The final approach Georgia used to allocate land was the land lottery system.
From , Georgia had eight land lotteries.
These lotteries gave the average Georgian the opportunity to gain a large amount of land for pennies on the dollar.

21. Land Lottery System
To take part in a land lottery, a person would simply have to submit their names to the state and pay for a ticket.
On the day of the lottery, the participants’ names were placed in one drum while the land lots bearing a number would be placed in a second drum.
Participants could have their name placed in the drum more than once based on characteristics such as their age, marital status, and war service.

22. Land Lottery System
What impact did the land lotteries have on Georgia and its citizens?
Headright system generally replaced by by a land lottery for government-owned land west of the Oconee= All white heads-of-household could buy a lottery chance and win land;
The land lotteries gave three quarters of Georgia’s land to 100,000 families.

23. Creek Indians
American Indian tribe that lived in southern Georgia.

24. Creek Indians
Removed from the state through treaties in the 1820’s.

25. Creek Indians What impact did the land polices have on Creek Indians?
In 1802, after the Yazoo Land Fraud, Georgia give up the land to the U.S. government for $1.25 million dollars
Promise that the U.S. would turn down Indian land claims in the state
Remove the Creek Indians from Georgia.