GEORGIA
PHILADELPHIA:
J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY.
1890.
Copyright, 1890, by J. B. Lippincott Company.
Georgia, the most southerly of the original thirteen
states which composed the American confederation, is
bounded N. by Tennessee, North Carolina, and South
Carolina; E. by the Savannah River, which separates
it from South Carolina, and by the Atlantic Ocean ; S.
by the St Mary. River and Florida; and W. by the
Chattahoochee River and Alabama. It lies between
30° 31' 39" and 35° N. lat., and in 8i°— 85° 53' 38"
W. long., and has a maximum length and breadth of
320 and 256 miles, and an area of 59,475 sq. m. — a
little more than the area of England and Wales. Upon
the Atlantic Ocean it fronts for a distance of 128
miles ; but the coast, low-lying and sandy, is bordered
with islands, between which and the mainland are a
number of sounds and creeks ; so that the total coast-
line is said to be about 480 miles..
The territory of Georgia presents five physical divi-
sions : (i) The Sea Islands, famous for their cotton (see
Cotton), and covered with a growth of oak, palmetto,
magnolia, cedar, pine, and myrtle; (2) the Swamp
Region, consisting of rich alluvial lands and deltas,
formed by the fresh- water rivers, verdant with a dense
and semi-tropical vegetation, and admirably adapted
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to the production of rice ; (3) the Pine Barrens, with
a thin soil, lying between these marsh grounds and the
undulating red-clay lands of the interior, sheltered by
vast forests of pitch-pine, which are highly prized as
lumber and for naval purposes, but lonely and monot-
onous ; (4) Middle Georgia, fertile, salubrious, hilly,
crowned with forests of oak and hickory, the home of
the short-staple cotton-plant, a fine fruit region, and
yielding Indian corn, oats, wheat, and other cereals ;
and lastly (5) Cherokee Georgia, abounding in moun-
tains, with fertile valleys, streams, and waterfalls.
Cereals, grasses, and cotton are profitably grown
among the valleys and upon the hillsides of Upper
Georgia ; and increasing attention is being bestowed
upon the breeding of stock. In the central area of the
last-mentioned division occurs the watershed, giving
direction to the streams which flow respectively into
the Gulf of Mexico on the one hand, and into the
Atlantic Ocean on the other. The entire state is well
watered. Of the rivers emptying into the Atlantic
Ocean the most noteworthy are the Savannah, naviga-
ble as far as Augusta ; the Great Ogeechee ; the
Altamaha, through its tributaries the Oconee and the
Ocmulgee navigable as high as Milledgeville and
Macon ; the Satilla ; and the St Mary. The streams
belonging to the Gulf system are the upper waters of
the Coosa ; the Chattahoochee, navigable as far as
Columbus ; the Flint, navigable up to Albany ; and
the Alapaha.
With the exception of the swamp-region in the
south and south-east of the state, the climate is salu-
brious and agreeable. The mean temperature is 78°
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5
in summer and 47° in winter; the annual rainfall
nearly 50 inches. In the lowlands oranges and other
semi-tropical fruits readily mature, whilst in the up-
lands peaches, apples, pears, &c. flourish ; and fruits
and market vegetables generally, being earlier than in
the North, are exported in considerable quantities.
The forests contain numerous species of oak, including
the evergreen live-oak, which has been styled the king,
as the Magnolia grandiflora has been styled the queen
of the southern woods. Of great value is the long-
leaf pine, furnishing both choice timber and naval
stores. The list of useful native woods includes also
the red, the white, and the post oak, the water-oak, the
black walnut, the red cedar, the cypress, the poplar,
and the locust. Among the indigenous flora are found
valuable medicinal herbs and dye-plants ; and the
flowers often are of great beauty. Game is still abun-
dant, in spite of the injury resulting from the failure to
enact and enforce stringent laws for its preservation.
Sea-fowl throng the coast and estuaries, alligators are
numerous in the rivers, and food-fishes, oysters, clams,
turtle, &c. are abundant. By reason of the denudation
of their banks, rendering their waters turbid and causing
unruly currents, the fresh-water streams have suffered
material diminution in their animal life. From them
food-fishes, once so abundant, have largely disappeared,
and the pearl-bearing unio is now seldom seen; but
the United States Fish Commission has been success-
ful in the introduction of some varieties of fishes better
suited to the changed condition.
The mineral wealth of Georgia is apparent in the
gold-bearing strata of the Cherokee region, which for
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the past fifty years have been successfully worked, in
extensive deposits of coal, in iron, copper, silver, and
lead ores, in marbles of attractive varieties, in vast
fields of granite and slate, and in the presence of
gypsum, limestone, syenite, marl, buhrstone, soap-
stone, asbestos, shales, tripoli, fluor-spar, kaolin, clays,
porcelain, aragonite, tourmaline, emerald, carnelian,
ruby, opal, chalcedony, agate, amethyst, jasper, gar-
nets, rose-quartz, beryl, and occasional diamonds. In
1837-64 the United States branch mint at Dahlonega
coined gold bullion to the value of over six million
dollars, mostly from metals extracted from the aurifer-
ous rocks of the adjacent territory. To the develop-
ment of these mineral resources of the state much
attention is being paid, and with profitable results.
Prior to the civil war the inhabitants of Georgia were
almost exclusively engaged in agriculture and com-
merce ; but more recent industries are the lumber trade,
and extensive cotton, woollen, and other manufactures.
The most important mills are at Augusta, Columbus,
Atlanta, Athens, and Roswell. Recent statistics show
that there are now within the state 54 cotton and
woollen mills, with 350,000 spindles and 8000 looms;
while the lumber, flour, grist, and pulp mills, &c. are
being multiplied, and the iron and steel trade in the
north-western part of the state is overtaking the cotton
manufacture in importance.
Although, since the civil war, the production of
black-seed cotton on the sea islands and along the
coast has materially diminished, the yield of short
staple cotton has greatly increased. The average crop
of this variety will now approximate 1,000,000 bales,
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worth at the point of consumption or of export over
;^40,ooo,ooo. Of the other yearly agricultural products
of Georgia the rice crop (25,000,000 pounds), the
Indian corn (25,000,000 bushels), wheat, oats, sweet
potatoes, and tobacco are important ; and there is a
yearly yield of 600,000 gallons of syrup, 650 hogs-
heads of cane-sugar, 5,000,000 pounds of butter, and
700,000 pounds of honey. From the ports of Savan-
nah, Darien, Brunswick, and St Mary shipments of
lumber and naval stores are annually increasing.
Navigable rivers and an admirable system of railways
(over 3000 miles), besides three short canals, furnish
convenient transportation from the interior. Notably
at Savannah, coastwise and foreign bound steamers
and sailing-vessels convey the products of the region
to the desirable markets of the world.
The state is divided into 137 counties, 10 congres-
sional districts, i supreme judicial district, 21 judicial
circuits, and numerous militia districts. Atlanta is the
capital, and Savannah the commercial metropolis.
Augusta, Macon, Columbus, and Athens may be men-
tioned among the thriving cities and towns of this
commonwealth. The population has steadily increased
from 82,548 in 1790 to (i860) 1,057,286; (1870)
1,184,109; (1880) 1,542,180. It is now estimated to
exceed 1,750,000, of whom the whites form slightly
more than half
There exists in Georgia a thorough system of free
common schools ; separate schools are conducted for
both white and coloured pupils. Opportunities for
higher education are afforded by the university of
Georgia, at Athens, by its dependent colleges at
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Dahlonega, Milledgeville, Thomasville, Cuthbert, and
Atlanta, and by sundry denominational colleges. At
the university of Georgia and its dependent colleges
tuition for Georgians is free. Georgia has also a school
for the blind at Macon, for the education of the deaf
and dumb at Cave Spring, and an asylum for lunatics
near Milledgeville.
History. — The colony of Georgia was founded by
James Oglethorpe (q. v.) in 1733, as a refuge for poor
debtors and for the persecuted Protestants of Germany,
and received its name in honour of George II. In
1752 Oglethorpe surrendered his charter to the British
government. Georgia was thereafter classed as an
English province, untH, with her sister colonies, she
succeeded in casting off her allegiance to the crown.
Save during the few years of the civil war, she has
since continued a component member of the confedera-
tion of the United States of America, and has long
been regarded as the Empire State of the South.
Despite the liberation of her slave population, which
in i860 numbered 450,033, and was valued at ;^302,-
694,855, and in the face of grievous losses occasioned
by the war, the state has during the last quarter of a
century manifested recuperative powers of a marvellous
sort.
