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SS8H5: Student will explain
significant factors that affected the
development of Georgia as part of
the growth of the United States
between 1789 and 1840.
a.
b.
Explain the establishment of the University of
Georgia, Louisville, and the spread of the
Baptists and Methodist churches.
Evaluate the impact of the land policies pursued
by Georgia; include the headright system, land
lotteries, and the Yazoo Land Fraud.
Georgia State Constitution: 1789
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Resembled new US Constitution
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Called for a bicameral legislature and three branches of government:
executive, judicial, and legislative
Included plans for local governments
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Responsible for keeping records and establishing a system of law
County seat was the center of local government: courthouse and jail located
there
Counties had to be small enough so that citizens could make it back home
in one day
 As counties grew, they were divided into 2 seats
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Amendments
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Changed the way of electing governor: both houses would elect
Legislature would meet in January
Louisville (present-day Jefferson County) would be the new state capital
Post-Revolutionary Georgia
Education
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Slow growth; many not schooled
Governor Lyman Hall recommended state set aside land for schools; few built
1784: set aside land and named trustees for a state college
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Land Grant University: federal government gave land
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1785: University of Georgia (Oldest school of its kind)
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First Building: Franklin College
1786: Georgia Legislature required all counties to open schools
Wealthy could afford colleges
Females not admitted to UGA until 1918
The building of the University of Georgia
Creating a Capital City
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For much of Georgia’s early history, the capital
rotated between Savannah and Augusta
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Savannah became difficult to get to for citizens who
moved inland
Augusta was too far east
1786: legislature appointed a commission to find a site
for the new, centrally located capital
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Funds to purchase 1000 acres of land—city was to be
modeled after then-US capital of Philadelphia
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Legislature required that the new location be 20 miles
from an Indian trading post on the Ogeechee River
(present-day Jefferson County)
Insisted the new capital be called “Louisville” to honor
King Louis XVI of France (helped in the Rev. War)
1796: New Capital in Louisville finished; served as
capital for 10 years
February 21, 1796: Holy Fire From Heaven (Yazoo
land sales records burned in front of the capital steps)
1804: With western expansion, legislature voted to
build a new capital in Baldwin County (Milledgeville)
Post-Revolutionary Georgia
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Religion
Churches grew in size and importance
Anglican, Quakers, Baptists, Methodists…
1787: Springfield Baptist founded by free blacks
1788: First African Baptist Church in Savannah est. by
Andrew Bryan
Jewish synagogue established in Savannah
1796: 1st Catholic church in Wilkes County
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1801: Savannah
Sunday and weekday services
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Buildings used as town meetings
Post-Revolutionary Georgia: Religion
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Great Revival Movement
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Early 1800’s: popular religious revivals in the form of camp meetings, very
popular in the South
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Mid 1800’s: Church membership grew
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Popular among Methodists
By 1860, 2393 churches in the state
Methodist and Baptist largest denominations
Slaves generally attended church with their masters, so there was little
segregation in churches
Impact of Slavery
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Methodists in the South pulled out of their national organization over
slavery and formed the Methodist Episcopal Church
Baptists in the South left the American Baptist Union when its foreign
ministry board would not accept slave owners as missionaries (formed the
Southern Baptist Convention)
Yazoo Land Fraud
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A scam by the Georgia Legislature and Governor George Matthews in which 4 land companies
BRIBED them to sell land at a reduced rate (1795)
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Citizens were upset as the companies turned around to sell the land back to them at much higher prices
Results
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People involved were thrown out of office
Records burned “God save the State, and long preserve her rights and may every attempt to
injure them perish, as these wicked and corrupt acts now do!”
Money returned to state
Indians were forced off their land
Georgia lost a large part of its land from the Trustee Period (Alabama and Mississippi Territory)
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Chattahoochee River becomes western boundary of Georgia
Federal Government gave Georgia money and promised to help with Indian removal
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TRAIL OF TEARS
United States Events
Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello
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1803: Louisiana Purchase— Thomas Jefferson (3rd President) bought the
Louisiana Territory (Mississippi River to Rocky Mountains) for $15 million from
France.
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France needed the money to fight the war in Europe against Britain
Britain impressed (took) American sailors and forced them into the British navy
Jefferson began an embargo of Britain (Ignored by merchants)
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Stopped all trade with…
Britain was viewed worse than France due to their control of the Atlantic, impression, and their
alliance with the Indians
War of 1812
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Warhawks pushed the U.S.
government to go to war with
Great Britain
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Battle of New Orleans
Southern and Western frontiersmen
and land owners
June 1812: James Madison asked
Congress to declare war
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1814: British forces invaded
Washington D.C.
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Treaty of Ghent: ended the war
returned everything to the way it
was before the war
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Treaty of Ghent
Burned the Capitol and White
House
Battle of New Orleans: Andrew
Jackson fought and defeated British
forces AFTER the treaty was signed
Battle of Horseshoe Bend
Tallapoosa River In Alabama
Georgia in the War of 1812
March 1814: Andrew Jackson defeated a band of Upper
Creek Indians, known as Red Sticks, in the Battle of
Horseshoe Bend, on the Tallapoosa River
Treaty of Ghent
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1.
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4.
Ghent a city in Belgium
United States received
NO new territory
Proved to the rest of the
world that the U.S. was
willing to fight for it’s
continued independence
States began to feel
united as one nation
Economy changed
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Industry grew
Land and Westward Movement
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With the defeat of the British and their Indian allies, came the desire
of the U.S. and its citizens to move west.
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West is central/western present day Georgia and the Alabama/Mississippi
territory.
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Public Domain Lands: belonging to state or federal government
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Headright System: each white male counted as a ‘head’ and could
receive up to 1000 acres
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Land east of the Oconee River belonging originally to Indians
Largely replaced by a land lottery in 1803
Land Lottery: for a fee, white males over 21 could buy a chance to
win land
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Heads of households with children, war veterans, and widows were given
extra chances