Events
Native American
population center
@ Stallings Island
in the Savannah
RiverKolomoki Mounds
built in Early County:
remains of one of
the most populous
Woodland settlements
north of Mexico.Only Spanish attempt to est. a permanent
settlement within the region that would
become GA
-- Led by Lúcas Vázquez de Ayllón.
-- Only lasted 6 weeks.Mid-1600s: English settlers
from South Carolina made
forays across the Savannah
River and into northeast GA,
engaging 1st in a thriving
slave trade of NAs and later
in the even more lucrative
deerskin trade, which
continued well beyond the
British colonization of GA.By 1880:
45% of GA's farmers,
black and white, had
been driven into
tenancyBy 1920:
2/3 of GA's farmers,
worked on land they
did not own, most often
as sharecroppers1892:
Populist Party
organized, under
leadership of
Thomas E. Watson
Offered platform
of banking & RR
reform, as well as
cooperative farm
exchangeMid 1870s:
Farmers'
Alliance
began in TXFor many elite white &
politically entrenched
GAans, the true danger
of Populism lay not in
its econ policies but in
its racial inclusiveness,
as black farmers were
encouraged to participate
in the new 3rd-party
movement.
Watsonachieved nat'l
status as a Populist
leader, gaining party's
nom for VP in 1896,
becoming 1st GAn
to run on a nat'l ticket
since William Harris
Crawford in 1824.
.Even as Watson received
this recognition, however,
the Populists lost ground
nationally when the
Democratic candidate,
William Jennings Bryan,
co-opted their advocacy
of the unlimited coinage
of silver. Ultimately, the
election was lost to the
Republican candidate
William McKinley.1908:
Amendment to GA
state constitution
est. literacy and
property requirements
to supplement the
poll tax, effectively
barring voting by
blacks (and many poor
whites as well).
DISINFRANCHISEMENTSeptember 1906: brutal
3 day race riot in ATLAugust 1915:
Leo Frank lynching1906/7 (few months after ATL race riot):
KKK resurreccted on Stone Mtn1915:
Boll weevil intro'd
to the state, led to a
precipitous drop in
cotton production,
with the number of
bales produced in
1923 only about 1/4
of the # produced 5
years earlier.1933:
Roosevelt
inaugurated1923:
Charles Lindbergh flew
his first solo flight at
Souther Field in Americus1925:
William B. Hartsfield, who
later became mayor of Atlanta,
established Hartsfield Airport1941:
Delta moved its HQ to ATL1954:
Supreme Court ruled on
Brown v. Board of Education:
Plessy v Ferguson overturned,
"seperate but equal
unconstitutional"1956:
inclusion of the
Confederate battle
flag in the state
flag redesign
(in response to
events subsequent
BvBB)1960-61
GA makes decision on
and then implements
integration of schools,
as ATL gains more
power over the state
**Sibley Commission**1962:
Federal district
court struck down
county unit system1961-2:
Albany Movement1962:
Racial moderate
Carl Sanders
elected governor1965:
Voting Rights Act1966:
Lester Maddox elected
governor of GA, a
segregationist, proving
many whites in the state
still resisted social/
political reform of the
era1976:
Jimmy Carter elected Pres.
broke the GA Republican
reign (temporarily) carrying
the state and the nation
Carter won a majority of
GA's black vote but NOT the
white1732:
GEORGIA IS
ESTABLISHED
Georgia was the
last of the 13
colonies to be
founded. (50
years after the
12th colony)1733:
Savannah
settledNew
event1742:
Rum
legalized1751:
Slavery legalized:
Georgians moved quickly to
establish a coastal plantation
economy based on rice and
Sea Island cotton.July 7, 1742:
Battle of
Bloody MarshJuly 4, 1776:
Declaration of Independence
-- 3 Georgians signed:
---- Button Gwinnett
---- Lyman Hall
---- George Walton1787:
Constitution signed
-- 2 Georgians signed:
---- Abraham Baldwin
---- William Few Jr.1779:
Siege of Savannah:
Most serious military
confrontation between
British and American
troops, as the latter,
with help from French
forces, tried unsuccessfully
to liberate the city from
its yearlong occupation
by British troops.1779:
Capital moved
from Savannah
to Augusta1793:
Eli Whitney invented the
cotton gin in GA
Led to the development
of the Black Belt in the
Deep South1830s:
Gold rushin N GA
mountains
Most extensive/profitable
gold rush east of the
Mississippi River1790s:
Yazoo Land Fraud1801:
University of GA opens1785:
University of GA established via charter
1st university in the nation established
by a state government (copy)1836:
Wesleyan College in Macon est.
1st degree-granting women's college
in the world1838-1839:
the Trail of Tears
Cherokees' forced exile from
GA's NW territory, a particularly
potent symbol of the trauma
and suffering that all such
removals of Native people
entailed during the period,
as white colonists moved to
remove native presences.
(In GA's case, the Creeks and
Cherokees.)1832:
Worcester v. Georgia
Supreme Court case
GA only Southern state
challenged over Indian
sovereignty.
U.S. Supreme Court
held in 1832 that the
Cherokee Indians
constituted a nation
holding distinct sovereign
powers. Although the
decision became the
foundation of the principle
of tribal sovereignty in the
twentieth century, it did
not protect the Cherokees
from being removed
from their ancestral
homeland in the Southeast.1837:
Atlanta
founded
(Originally
called
Terminus)Increasingly
industrialized
Georgia, 2nd-
largest state
in area east of
the Mississippi
River.Jan 19, 1861
GA 5th state
to seceed from
the UnionThe state's geographical diversity and
the dominance of its nonslaveholding
white populace made its selection of
delegates to the 1861 secession
convention one of the most divided
(in terms of delegates for and against
secession) within the first wave of
southern states to leave the Union.
The final vote to secede, however, was
supported by a sizeable majority of
those delegates.Summer of 1864:
William T. Sherman's
campaign from
Chattanooga, TN to
ATLSep. 1864:
Fall of Atlanta
to ShermanSubsequent to fall of Atlanta:
-- Sherman's March to the Sea
-- December: occupation of Savannah16 Jan 1865:
Sherman's
Field Order No, 15
"40 acres and a mule"
Confiscated as Union
property a strip of
coastline stretching
from Charleston, SC,
to the St. John's River
in FL, including GA's
Sea Islands and the
mainland thirty miles
in from the coast.
The order redistributed
the roughly 400,000
acres of land to newly
freed black families
in forty-acre segments.
Ultimately though,
only offered false hopes.September 1868:
General Assembly's
expulsion of 27 duly
elected black Repub.
legislators, despite the
fact that Republicans
then held both the
governorship, in Rufus
Bullock, and a majority
in the state senate.19 Sep 1868:
Camilla Massacre
March in response
to expulsion of
black legislators
from the General
Assembly. Whites
opened fire,
leaving ~a dozen
black protestors
dead and thirty
wounded15 July 1870:
After being banned
from doing so as a
punishment by the
US Congress for GA's
role in the Camilla
Massacre/etc., GA
congressmen are
finally allowed to take
their seats in GALate 1871:
State government
returned to the full
control of white
conservative
Democrats, known as
"Redeemers," thereby
ushering in what
white southerners
once termed the
"Redemption era."1868:
State cap. moves
from Milledgeville
to AtlantaProclamation of 1763:
Forced move back from
Appalachian Mts.May 1, 1776:
Archibald Bulloch
elected Pres. of the
Council of Safety1847:
Gov. George W.
Towns
Whigs lost gov.
of GA to Dem.s
& never got it
backPeriods
Late Archaic Period:
More permanent Native
American settlements
began being constructed
during this time.Woodland Period:
NA groups in GA
became increasingly
sedentary, establishing
villages and developing
horticulture.Mississippian Period:
Complex native cultures,
organized as chiefdoms,
emerged and developed
lifeways in response to
the particular features of
their physical surroundings.GA's unique geographical &
geological position (Blue Ridge
Mountains + 2 different costal
plains touching the Atlantic
Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico)
drew a large variety of people
to the region, leading to a
greater diversity of early NA
cultures than found elsewhere
in the Southeast.Towns with defensive structures
built in this period, as were
numerous mounds, as evident
today @ Etowah, Ocmulgee, and
Nacoochee. (copy)With the arrival of Eurpean explorers
and settlers, the Mississippian culture
began to decline, and remnants of
various chiefdoms coalesced to form
larger societies, including those of the
CREEKS and CHEROKEES.Spanish expeditions moved
through GA.
1540: Most notable, Hernando
de Soto's. Provided some of the
best documentation of NA life
in GA prior to 18c.
The Spanish presence also
included Catholic missionaries,
who established Santa Catalina
de Guale and other short-lived
missions at points along Georgia's
coast from 1568 through 1684.
These missions played a key role
in assimilating the Native American
populations of the region into the
colonial system.GA was the only
colony founded
and ruled by a
Board of Trustees,
which was based
in London, England,
with no governor
or governing body
within the colony
itself for the first
two decades of
its existence.1732-1751:
GA ruled by Board of Trustees1752-1776:
Royal Georgia
GA ruled by royally appointed governors1775-1783:
Revolutionary
WarAs the colony with the
shortest col. experience,
smallest pop., and least
development, GA remained
largely on the periphery of
Revolutionary War politics
and wartime action.
Though Georgians resisted
British trade regulation,
they tended to sympathize
with British interests bc
royal rule had brought
prosperity for many
colonists and because they
desired the presence of
British troops to stem
the threat of Indian
attacks.The construction of railroads
connecting Athens, Augusta,
Macon, and Savannah was
an important development
in Georgia during the 1830s.1861-65:
Civil War1850s:
By the 1850s GA
claimed more miles
of rail lines than did
any of its southern
neighbors, positioning
GA as an important
home front during
the Civil War1865 - 1871:
Reconstruction
Though relatively brief,
Reconstruction
transformed the state
politically, socially,
and economically.1900-1920:
Progressive Era
A period of varied reforms that took place throughout the US
over the first two decades of the 20th century. While much of that
change was enacted by the U.S. Congress under the leadership of
three consecutive presidents— Theodore Roosevelt, William
Howard Taft, and Woodrow Wilson— it was also a movement that
generated a variety of changes at the state and local levels as well.1941-1945:
WORLD WAR II
Southern states were
critical to the war effort
with GA peak among
them.
Experiences of some
320,000 GAs that served
in the arm forces during
WWII were pivotal to
determining the state's
future development &
the war itself was a
watershed moment in
GA's history.Because it occurred when
important shifts in the
state's politics, race
relations, and economy
were already under way,
the war accelerated
Georgia's modernization,
lifting it out of the Great
Depression & ushering it
into the mainstream of
American life.1872-1890:
"Bourbon Triumvirate,"
consisting of former Confederate governor Joseph E. Brown and former
Confederate generals John B. Gordon and Alfred H. Colquitt. These three
politicians maintained power within Georgia as governors and/or U.S.
senators from 1872 until 1890, capitalizing on their positions to industrialize
the state, often for their own profit. The triumvirate's efforts were bolstered
by Henry W. Grady.Henry W. Grady, the editor of the Atlanta Constitution,
spearheaded a crusade to build a prosperous "New
South" centered around Atlanta. Using his considerable
journalistic and oratorical skills, Grady fashioned an
emotional portrait of Atlanta rising phoenix-like from
the ashes of war to become the capital of a dynamic and
progressive New South. The vision he articulated for
much of the 1880s stood very much at odds with both
the reality and the broad national impression of Atlanta,
as well as1892-1896
(Late 19th c.):
Rise of the
Farmers'
Alliance & the
Populist Party
in GA
Allowed
farmers to
protest
situationGA remained pred. rural, w/ most of its citizens
attempting to survive as farmers. The loss of the slave
labor force dealt a severe blow to cotton production,
which, compounded by a decline in the demand for
cotton worldwide, left GA agriculture in dire financial
circumstances.
Neglected by a gov focused on industrial & business
opportunities, farmers had no choice but to participate
in the tenant and crop lien systems, which imposed an
exploitative and stifling credit system.A fraternal org of white farmers and other rural southerners, including
teachers, ministers, and physicians, the Farmers' Alliance began in TX in the
mid-1870s and swept across the entire South during the late 1880s.
The organization attempted to solve the mounting financial probs of
southern farmers by forming coop purchasing & marketing enterprises.
It advocated a federal farm-credit and marketing scheme called the
subtreasury plan.When these efforts failed, the Alliance played a leading role in est. a national
3rd party, the People's or Populist Party, in the early 1890s.
This bold entry into partisan politics, however, split the Alliance's membership
and contributed to the organization's rapid demise.Demise of the Populist Party
had consequences: their
unsuccessful effort to challenge
the established racial hierarchy
led to the heirs of the Bourbon
Triumvirate working to curtail
the political power of blacks,
as well as formalize the
convention of social
segregation.1889-1918: More lynchings took place in GA than anywhere else in the USLate 1870s-mid 1960s: JIM CROW ERA1929-1939: GREAT DEPRESSION
During the 1920s more than
400,000 GAns, almost all black,
migrated to other parts of the
country, & b/t 1910 & 1930 nearly
1/2 the state's agricultural workers
had abandoned farming.Roosevelt created the
Agricultural Adjustment Admin
during his first 100 days in office
as an attempt to raise crop
prices by lowering agricultural
production. An unintended
consequence of the policy,
however, was to put farmers
out of work, causing even
greater numbers to seek other
means of employment.As a result, rural communities
struggled to maintain their
populations in the face of
dwindling farming income and
the lack of industrial job
opportunities. Promising a
surplus of cheap, nonunion
labor and relying on a variety
of inducements, some of which
were financed by public
subscription or deductions from
workers' checks, several GA
towns succeeded in attracting
small, low-wage employers—
mostly textile mills —in the
1930s.WWII brought the Great Depression to an end,
as industrial production for the war effort
created thousands of new jobs around the
nation. Georgia in particular felt these
economic benefits, as soldiers arrived for
training at Fort Benning in Columbus, at that
time the largest infantry training post in the
world. The Bell Aircraft Corporation in
Marietta, known as Bell Bomber, produced
B-29 airplanes from 1943 until the end of the
war, and by early 1945 the factory employed
more than 28,000 workerThe ports of Savannah and Brunswick
produced nearly 200 "Liberty Ships" between
1942 and 1945. The Southeastern Shipbuilding
Corporation, based at a site on the Savannah
River, employed more than 15,000 workers.The economic effect of such war activities
across Georgia was significant, with annual
personal income rising from less than $350 in
1940 to more than $1,000 by 1950, surpassing
the national average. After the war the state
continued to prosper, with Atlanta in particular
experiencing a growth in industry and
population.
A transportation hub since its origins as a
railroad town, the city was well positioned to
accommodate this growth with the
development of Hartsfield Airport from a
regional fa1950s-1960s:
CIVIL RIGHTS ERA
Asthe civil rights era of the 1950s and 1960s unfolded, the interests, aims, and ambitions of Atlanta's
political and economic leaders diverged dramatically in many ways from those that prevailed in the state
at large. As the city's population surged, Atlanta voters chafed under the state's county unit system.1752-1754:
Provincial
council runs
GA while
GA charter
passes thru
parliamentary
committees
and received
the royal
signature1754-1757:
Gov. John Reynolds1757-1760:
Gov. Henry Ellis1760-1776
Gov. James Wright1754-63:
French and Indian War1843-47
Gov. George W. Crawford1846-48:
Mexican War1847-51
Gov. George W. Towns
[states right Dem]1851-1853
Gov. Howell Cobb
[Unionist Dem]
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