Georgia History Primary Source Sets
The boll weevil took up residence in Georgia’s cotton fields between 1915 and the early 1990s and the infestation made cotton production unprofitable. This booklet, created by the Georgia State Board of Entomology in 1916, offered farmers some insight into the boll weevil infestation.
Eugene Talmadge served as governor from 1933-1937, 1941-1943, and was elected again in 1946. During his governorship he promoted limited government, low taxes, and the plight of the farmer. This handbill comes from Talmadge’s final gubernatorial election of 1946.
Click here to view the item description in the Georgia Archives
Eugene Talmage became a dominant figure in Georgia politics from 1926 to 1946. His first successful bid for office came in 1926 when he won the race for Commissioner of Agriculture.Throughout his political career, Talmadge portrayed himself as a friend of the farmer. While serving as Commissioner of Agriculture, he promoted his political views through the office newsletter.
Click here to read the item description from the Georgia Archives.
This is a photograph of African-American cotton pickers in Georgia’s New South economy. Many of these workers lived on the property of white landowners and in many ways acted and lived in the same way as they had in Antebellum Georgia–often in the same slave shacks as their enslaved ancestors.
Sam Hose went to jail for killing a white man and attacking his wife in front of her children in 1899 when a white mob took him from his sell to a new location to torture him to death. This mob mutilated Hose’s body while he was tied up, eventually burning him alive while over 2,000 people watched, according to the Atlanta Constitution. Much of this crowd came a long way to see Hose murdered and tortured after hearing that he had attacked a white family. At this point in Georgia, lynching was at an all time high, with its toll at 458 lynchings and only beat by Mississippi’s toll of 538. In 1899, Georgia hit its peak, with 27 lynchings in a year.
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Click here to see the obituary description on the DLG website
After Reconstruction ended in Georgia, reports of violence became widespread throughout the state. Georgia ranked second to Mississippi with 458 lynch victims between the end of Reconstruction and the early twentieth century. The number of lynch victims peaked in 1899 when 27 Georgians were killed. Among the more high-profile lynch victims of Georgia was Leo Frank (August 17, 1915), a Jewish man of Atlanta who was convicted of murdering his 15-year-old employee (Mary Phagan). Leo Frank was raised in New York and came to Georgia in the early twentieth century to manage the National Pencil Company. Frank was convicted largely on the testimony of Jim Conley, an African-American janitor working at the factory. After a series of failed appeals, including one to the U.S. Supreme Court, Frank’s lawyers appealed to Governor John. M. Slaton. After reviewing the case, Slaton commuted Frank’s sentence to life in prison. Feelings of outrage and anger, likely flared by populist newspaper editor Tom Watson’s writings, came to a head on August 17, 1915, when Leo Frank was hanged by a mob in Marietta, Georgia. For more information go to the New Georgia Encyclopedia page on Leo Frank and his case.
A collection of newspapers articles on the Leo Frank Case. From the Georgia Historical Society.
Henry Grady was one of the most celebrated and prominent figures in “New South” Georgia. Grady promoted the ideas of the “New South” as editor of the Atlanta Constitution and helped organize the first International Cotton Exposition in 1881.
“The South and her Problems” by Henry Grady. From the Georgia Historical Society Manuscript Collection.
Booker T. Washington’s “Atlanta Compromise Speech” is considered one of the most important speeches in American history. The speech was given at the opening of the Cotton Sates and International Exposition in Atlanta, Georgia on September 18, 1895. Throughout his life, Washington promoted vocational education and labor instead of agitation for social equality.
Listen to the Speech Below:
Click here to view speech text and audio on the Library of Congress website
Click here for more teaching resources from LOC on Washington’s Speech
Housed in the rare book collection of the Georgia Historical Society, this guide was used by attendees of the 1895 Cotton States and International Exposition in Atlanta, Georgia. The guidebook includes an introduction to the organization and purpose of the exhibit, a description of each exhibit, general information on Atlanta for visitors, and advertisements from local businesses and organizations. This primary source set includes selected pages from the guidebook.
This print dedicated to the Atlanta Exposition gives a visual representation of the “New South.” Atlanta held multiple cotton expositions in order to revamp Georgia’s economy after the war. Henry Grady was on of the leading promoters of these expositions, as he wrote in “The South and Her Struggles.”
“From Darkness to Light.” Hamilton, Grant E. L1979-40_12, 19th and Early 20th Century Labor Prints, Southern Labor Archives. Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University.
FROM DARKNESS TO LIGHT.
DEDICATED TO THE ATLANTA EXPOSITION.
Hail, splendid South ! from out the ruins rising.
In morning’s glory from the night of war.
Courage survives, all rancor’s past despising,
And wounds received in honor leave no scar.
The New South, that was Grady’s fair ideal,
Stands now, through enterprise and genius, real.
Click here to view the item description on the Georgia State University Collection.