1. EXPANSION AND GROWTH

2. Georgia’s Land and Economic Growth 1790-1840
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.

3. 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 system
The Creek and Cherokee Indians land was given
up through the lottery system. The land became
farms for new settlers to the state.

4. 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

5. 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.

6. 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?

7. The Yazoo Land Fraud
Understand: The US government required treaties be signed with the Indians in order for settlers 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 illegal land dealing known as? Provide details of the illegal activity. How did the citizens and legislators respond? P.328 (Record within Cornell notes)

8. 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.

9. 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)

10. Yazoo Act:
Activity 4: Copy the questions and answer in complete statements (p. 330)
The U.S. Supreme Court declared the repeal of the Yazoo Act unconstitutional. Why?
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?
Activity 5: Define vocabulary p. 326

11. What about the Land Lottery?
In 1803, Governor John Milledge helped pass a new land policy: land
lottery (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

12. 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

13. Developments in Transportation Helped Agricultural Profit
Think: How did people travel
in 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.

14. 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.