History of Georgia (U.S. state)

The History of Georgia ranges from its Pre-Columbian settlement by Native American peoples to its modern status as a rapidly growing part of the United States. In the intervening time, Georgia was a Spanish colony, a British colony, and a member of the Confederate States of America. Georgia has had five "permanent" state capitals: Savannah, Augusta, Louisville, Milledgeville, and Atlanta. The legislature has also met in other places temporarily.

Prehistory

Before the Cherokee and the Creek, Native American cultures are divided into time periods.

Paleo

The Paleo culture was the earliest Native American culture in the Southeast.

Mississippian

See Main Article: Mississippian

The Mississippian culture was the most advanced prehistoric civilization. It lasted from around 900 A.D to 1500 A.D. The fall of the Mississippian culture was due to European disease introduced by Spanish explorers and the fighting between the explorer and the Mississpippians.

European exploration

At the time of European colonization of the Americas, Cherokee and Creek Indians lived in what is now Georgia. Though it is unknown exactly who was the first European to sight Georgia, it is possible that Juan Ponce de Leon sailed along the coast during his exploration of Florida. In 1526, Lucas Vásquez de Ayllón attempted to establish a colony there, possibly near St. Catherine's Island.

Over the next few decades, a number of Spanish explorers visited the inland region, leaving a trail of destruction behind them. The local moundbuilder culture, described by Hernando de Soto in 1540, had completely disappeared by 1560.

British Colony

File:Wpdms georgia colony 1732.png

Georgia Colony, as specified in the 1732 grant

The conflict between Spain and Britain over control of Georgia began in earnest in about 1670, when the British, moving south from their base in present-day South Carolina met the Spanish moving north from their base in Florida. Massive British settlement began in the early 1730s with James Oglethorpe, an Englishman in the British parliament, who promoted the idea that the area be used to settle people from debtor prison. On February 12, 1733, the first settlers landed in HMS Anne at what was to become the city of Savannah. Oglethorpe was granted a royal charter for the colony of Georgia on June 9, 1732. [1]

Antebellum U.S. History

During the American Revolutionary War, Savannah was captured by British and Loyalist forces in 1778, along with much of its hinterland. At the Siege of Savannah in 1779, American and French troops (the latter including a company of free blacks from Haiti) fought unsuccessfully to retake the city. During the final years of the American Revolution, Georgia had a functioning Loyalist colonial government, and remained the last Loyalist bastion in the 13 colonies, along with New York City and Long Island. Georgia became a U.S. State on January 2, 1788.

The original eight counties of Georgia were Burke, Camden, Chatham, Effingham, Glynn, Liberty, Richmond and Wilkes. Before these counties were created in 1777, Georgia was split into twelve parishes.

In 1829, gold was discovered in the north Georgia mountains, prompting a gold rush. A Federal mint was established in Dahlonega, Georgia and continued to operate until 1861. An influx of white settlers pressured the U.S. government to take the land away from the Cherokee Indians, who owned the land, operated their own government, and did not recognize the authority of the state of Georgia . This dispute culminated in the Indian Removal Act of 1830, under which all eastern tribes were sent west to Indian reservations in present-day Oklahoma. Cotton became a major crop in Georgia in the 1810s. Slaves worked the fields in large cotton plantations, and the economy of the state became dependent on the institution of slavery.

Civil War

On January 18, 1861 Georgia joined the Confederacy. During the war Georgia sent thousands of soldiers to battle, mostly to the armies in Virginia. The state switched from cotton to food production, but severe transportation difficulties restricted supplies. Thinking the state safe from invasion, the Confederates built small munitions factories. Their largest prisoner of war camp, at Andersonville National Historic Site: Andersonville proved a death camp because of severe lack of supplies, food and medicine.

The first major battle in Georgia was a Confederate victory at the Battle of Chickamauga in 1863--it was the last major Confederate victory in the west. In 1864, William T. Sherman's armies invaded Georgia as part of the Atlanta Campaign. Confederate general Joseph E. Johnston fought a series of delaying battles, the largest being the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain, as he tried to delay as long as possible by retreating toward Atlanta. Johnston's replacement, Gen. John Bell Hood attempted several unsuccessful counterattacks at the Battle of Peachtree Creek and the Battle of Atlanta, but Sherman captured the city on September 2, 1864. After burning Atlanta to the ground, Sherman embarked on his March to the Sea on November 15, en route to Milledgeville, the state capital, which he reached on November 23, and the port city of Savannah, which he entered on December 22. A swath of land about 60 miles across was destroyed in this campaign, less than 10% of the state. Once Sherman's army passed through the confederates regained control. The March is a major part of the state's folk history, and is the setting for Margaret Mitchell's 1936 novel Gone with the Wind and the subsequent 1939 film. One of the last land battles of the Civil War, the Battle of Columbus, was fought on the Georgia-Alabama border.

Reconstruction

After the Civil War, Union troops under General John Pope occupied Georgia to enforce the Reconstruction Era. At the time, Georgia had more than 400,000 Freedmen. On July 15, 1870 Georgia became the last former Confederate state to be readmitted to the Union under the terms of Reconstruction.

Twentieth Century

In the early 1900s, Georgia's manufacturing and agriculture grew. The boll weevil destroyed much of Georgia's cotton crop in the 1920's, contributing to the economic hardships of the Great Depression. Wartime factory production during World War II helped boost Georgia's economy out of recession.

Georgia was a battleground in the American Civil Rights Movement. Georgia governor Marvin Griffin pledged to defend racial segregation "come hell or high water". On the other side, Georgians such as Martin Luther King and Ralph McGill worked to end segregation in Georgia. In 1969, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against the state to finally integrate the public schools.

On February 19, 1953 Georgia became the first U.S. state to approve a literature censorship board in the United States.

References

Surveys

• New Georgia Encyclopedia (2005). Scholarly resource covering all topics.
• Bartley, Numan V. The Creation of Modern Georgia (1990). Scholary history 1865-1990.
• Coleman, Kenneth. ed. A History of Georgia (1991). Survey by scholars.
• London, Bonta Bullard. (1999) Georgia: The History of an American State Montgomery, Alabama: Clairmont Press ISBN 1-56733-994-8. A middle school textbook.

Scholarly studies to 1900

• Joseph P. Reidy; From Slavery to Agrarian Capitalism in the Cotton Plantation South: Central Georgia, 1800-1880 University of North Carolina Press, (1992)
• Darden Asbury Pyron; ed. Recasting: Gone with the Wind in American Culture University Press of Florida. (1983)
• Peter Wallenstein; From Slave South to New South: Public Policy in Nineteenth-Century Georgia University of North Carolina Press, 1987

Since 1900

• Peirce, Neal R. The Deep South States of America: People, Politics, and Power in the Seven Deep South States (1974). Reporting on politics and economics 1960-72

Primary Sources

• Scott, Thomas Allan ed. Cornerstones of Georgia History: Documents That Formed the State (1995). Collection of primary sources.

External links

• New Georgia Encyclopedia
• "This Day in Georgia History"