Georgia Grand State Essay

The History of the Grand State of Georgia

Back when Native Americans lived in Georgia, there were many tribes such as the Apalachee, Choctaw, and Cherokee. The first people in Georgia arrived about 12,00 years ago.The Indians mostly farmed as Georgia had and still has rich soil and a lots of rain. They also took advantage of the mild weather, sunshine, dense forests, and plenty of streams. Scientists believe that the Native Indians lived in small groups, about 20-50 people in one group. The Indians hunted mammals that lived in the Ice Age such as mastodons and sloths. The Indians’ houses were made of woven walls called wattles and covered them with daub, a kind of plaster made from natural materials. Scientists believe that the Native Georgians

Cotton soon became Georgia’s number one growing crop in Georgia. This led to the expansion of slavery. But, this was not the only bad impact. The cotton boom led to cotton fever and that motivated many people to seize land. But Indians owned much of the land so that led to the Creek War. After 400 settlers were killed, the United States entered the war. President Andrew Jackson’s troops killed about 800 Creeks. The Creeks’ leader surrendered and signed a treaty giving 23 million acres of Creek land to the United States. Cherokees had a good relationship with the whites. But soon, a discovery of gold near Dahlonega, Georgia proved a disaster for the Cherokees. It led government officials to demand that the American Indians be removed. In 1830, President Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act which made eastern Indians move to reservations in present-day Oklahoma. Georgia forced Cherokees to sell their lands. U.S. soldiers placed families in prison camps and then forced them to walk to territory west of the Mississippi River. About 4,000 of the 18,000 Indians forced to march died, mainly from disease, starvation, and weather. Cherokee called this forced march the Trail of Tears. Later, the slaves made the booming cotton economy possible. Georgia’s slave population grew to 46,000 by 1860. This was 45% of the population of 1.1 million. On the eve of the Civil War, Georgia had the second most amount of slaves, second to Virginia. But, the 1860 census showed that 60 percent of Georgians did not own a single slave. Mostly the wealthy owned slaves. They only made a small portion of the population but because of their wealth, they controlled the state’s government and commerce. Slavery became the key issue in the 1860 presidential election. Abraham Lincoln won the election and many Georgians believed that Lincoln would abolish slavery. They were right and by the end of the Civil War, 40,000 Georgians had