b. Evaluate the impact of land policies pursued by Georgia; include the headright system, land lotteries, and the Yazoo land fraud
• Land Development
• Before, During, and After the Revolution Ga encouraged people to move into her land.
• Ga wanted people in the frontier to improve its claim to the land.
• As people moved in, there was conflict between competing settlers and between the settlers and the Indians.
• Georgia Growth
• Between 1790 and 1840, the population of Ga. quadrupled (4 times)
• Population of the United States grew from 4 mil to 17 mil
• People came to Ga for cheap land
• Followed the wagon trails and settled mainly in the backcountry (Philadelphia Wagon Road)
• First census of the nation was taken in 1790 see maps pages 124 &125.
• Georgia’s public land was distributed in three different ways
(History of Ga Land Distribution and Settlement)
• Headright System
• Head of a family got 200 acres of land for himself plus 50 acres for each member of his family (1,000 acre limit)
• Veterans of the Revolutionary War could get more land based on their rank
• The people settled on the best land available to them which resulted in odd shaped land plats.
• Land Speculation
• Yazoo Land fraud – illegal land deal where People bribed the Ga congressmen to sale them Ga,s western land for cut rate prices BEFORE the Public had a chance to get the land
• Georgia gave up claim to western land (it would later become Alabama and Mississippi) to the U.S. gov’t
• Georgia’s western boundary became the Chattahoochee River
• Land Lottery
• For a fee people could buy a ticket and enter into a drawing for land
• Had to be white, male, and over the age of 21 to purchase ticket
• Heads of Households, veterans, and widows were given “extra” chances to win
• Assessment of Land Policy
• The Good Side
– Opened Ga land to settlement
– Established Ga claim to land
– Gave opportunity to own land to people who could not afford to buy land
• The Bad Side
– Allowed for corruption
– Allowed for discrimination
- Displaced the Indians that lived there
• Land Development
• Before, During, and After the Revolution Ga encouraged people to move into her land.
• Ga wanted people in the frontier to improve its claim to the land.
• As people moved in, there was conflict between competing settlers and between the settlers and the Indians.
• Georgia Growth
• Between 1790 and 1840, the population of Ga. quadrupled (4 times)
• Population of the United States grew from 4 mil to 17 mil
• People came to Ga for cheap land
• Followed the wagon trails and settled mainly in the backcountry (Philadelphia Wagon Road)
• First census of the nation was taken in 1790 see maps pages 124 &125.
• Georgia’s public land was distributed in three different ways
(History of Ga Land Distribution and Settlement)
- Headright system
- Land Speculators
- Lottery
• Headright System
• Head of a family got 200 acres of land for himself plus 50 acres for each member of his family (1,000 acre limit)
• Veterans of the Revolutionary War could get more land based on their rank
• The people settled on the best land available to them which resulted in odd shaped land plats.
• Land Speculation
• Yazoo Land fraud – illegal land deal where People bribed the Ga congressmen to sale them Ga,s western land for cut rate prices BEFORE the Public had a chance to get the land
• Georgia gave up claim to western land (it would later become Alabama and Mississippi) to the U.S. gov’t
• Georgia’s western boundary became the Chattahoochee River
• Land Lottery
• For a fee people could buy a ticket and enter into a drawing for land
• Had to be white, male, and over the age of 21 to purchase ticket
• Heads of Households, veterans, and widows were given “extra” chances to win
• Assessment of Land Policy
• The Good Side
– Opened Ga land to settlement
– Established Ga claim to land
– Gave opportunity to own land to people who could not afford to buy land
• The Bad Side
– Allowed for corruption
– Allowed for discrimination
- Displaced the Indians that lived there
