Georgia History Primary Source Sets
This map of Georgia was published in Colton’s Atlas of the World in 1856. The map shows Georgia’s westward expansion in the years following the forced removal of the Creek and Cherokee Indians from Georgia to reservations in modern-day Oklahoma. The map also shows the state’s railroads and common roads.
Map of Georgia, 1855. From the Georgia Historical Society Map Collection, MS 1361-MP 083.
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Reverand Adiel Sherwood included this map in the 1829 edition of his book A Gazetteer of the State of Georgia. The map gives a rare view of Georgia in the brief period of time between 1825, when the Cherokee Nation moved its capital to New Echota, Georgia, and 1838, when the U.S. Army forcibly removed the Cherokee to land in modern-day Oklahoma (known today as the Trail of Tears).
Map of Georgia, 1829. From the Georgia Historical Society Map Collection, MS 1361-MP 079.
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This map appeared in an Atlas published in 1823. In 1802, Georgia ceded much of its western lands to the United States government. This map shows the state’s growth, especially in new counties in the interior.
Map of Georgia, 1823. From the Georgia Historical Society Map Collection, MS 1361-MP 070.
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This map was created for Mathew Carey’s American edition of Gutherie’s Georgraphy. The complete atlas included 19 total maps and was first printed in 1796. The map provides an excellent snapshot of Georgia after the American Revolution and the vast western territories which spanned most of modern-day Alabama and Mississippi.
Georgia from the Latest Authorities, 1795. From the Georgia Historical Society Map Collection, MS 1361-MP 063.
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Found in the James Jackson Papers of the Georgia Historical Society, this document contains a list of Georgia legislatures who were guessed to support or deny the “Yazoo Bill.” Presumably, the list is talking about the 1796 Rescinding Act which overturned the 1795 Yazoo Act. James Jackson (1757-1806) was born in Devonshire, England. He fought for Georgia during the Revolutionary War, after which he became a member of the Georgia legislature. A member of the U.S. Senate since 1793, he left this position after the Yazoo fraud of 1795 and returned to Georgia’s state legislature and organized an anti-Yazoo campaign.
List of the members [of the state legislature] who were supposed would be opposed or who would advocate the Yazoo Bill.” From the James Jackson Papers, MS 422. Courtesy of the Georgia Historical Society.
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View a published transcript of the James Jackson Papers, MS 422 on the Internet Archive.
Samuel Worcester lived and worked with the Cherokee in New Echota, Georgia, as a minister with the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM).In 1831, Worcester was sentenced to four years hard labor at the Georgia penitentiary in Milledgeville because he refused to obey a new law prohibiting white persons from living in the Cherokee Nation without special permission from the Georgia government. This box was made sometime during Worcester’s time at the penitentiary.
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At their capital in New Echota, Georgia, the Cherokee people, with the help of missionary Samuel Worcester, established a printing office and published the Cherokee Phoenix. Edited by Cherokee Elias Boudinot, the Phoenix was printed in the Cherokee language and English and was the first Native American newspaper published in the United States. The goal of the newspaper was to gain public support for the Cherokee nation at a time when they were under increased pressure to give up their sovereignty or move west. The newspaper was published until 1835 when their printing press was confiscated by the Georgia Guard.
Cherokee Phoenix. New Echota, Thursday February 28, 1828. Vol 1, No.2.
View the full issue from the Georgia Historic Newspapers Archive.
The Indian Removal Act, signed by President Jackson in 1830, ceded land west of the Mississippi River to Native Americans in exchange for their tribal lands in the east. The infamous Trail of Tears did not take place until 1838, but Georgia awarded land grants, like the one presented here, to white settlers several years prior through special land lotteries in 1832 and 1833.
Land Grant to Elisha Strickland for Lot 829 in Cherokee County, 1834.From the Georgia Historical Society Manuscript Collection, MS 769.
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An unknown artist created this print of Mulberry Grove plantation, 1794. Although the artist and exact date of this work’s creation is unknown, it is clear that the artist wanted to depict Mulberry Grove’s connection to the cotton gin. While staying at Mulberry Grove Plantation, Eli Whitney perfected the design for his cotton gin. This one invention had a dramatic impact on the expansion cotton production and slavery into Georgia.
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Georgia’s early years as a state were marked by expansion and growth. Georgia’s population grew after the Revolutionary period and the white population looked west for more elbow room. New technologies like the cotton gin and steam-powered rail led to expansion and growth of Georgia’s economy. It was in this period that cotton became king of the South, Georgia being no exception. Several defining historic events occurred during this period including, the Yazoo land frauds, the founding of the University of Georgia, the discovery of gold in North Georgia, the spread of Baptist and Methodist churches, the creation of a Cherokee syllabary, and the Trail of Tears.
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