Georgia
History
Anyone traversing modern-day Georgia will find a land that both resembles and stands in stark contrast to the image of the state in popular culture. From the towering skyscrapers and multi-lane interstates of Atlanta to the moss-draped oaks and quiet, ancient squares of Savannah, Georgia seems to the visitor a paradox in itself, a state that comfortably straddles both the old and the new South. Somehow, in that uniquely southern way, the past and the present seem to merge into one.
Georgia’s past has diverged from the nation’s and given our state and its people a distinctive culture and character. Some of the best, and the worst, aspects of American and southern history can be found in the story of what is arguably the most important state in the South. Yet, just as clearly, Georgia has not always followed the road traveled by the rest of the nation and the region.
Georgia’s early years foreshadowed the journey that lay ahead. Alone among the thirteen original colonies, Georgia served as an outpost of Spain’s new world empire and became the battleground where Spanish dreams of conquering and colonizing the Atlantic coast came to an ignominious end. Unlike the other colonies, Georgia was not created for riches or religious liberty. Instead it was founded in 1733 by an English aristocrat, James Edward Oglethorpe, for the seemingly incongruous purposes of establishing both a military buffer and humanitarian society where slavery was initially outlawed. The state’s conservatism during the crises of the Revolution and the Civil War was remarkably different from the radicalism of South Carolina, its neighbor to the north. Georgia was slower than the other colonies to embrace the push toward independence and revolution. This reluctance was rooted largely in age and distance: the colony was the newest of the thirteen and was thus more reliant on England. It was also further removed from the earliest flashpoints of discontent in the New England colonies. Later during the civil rights struggle of the 1960s, Georgia once again followed its own course, quietly desegregating its public facilities and for the most part rejecting the violent opposition to black equality demonstrated in neighboring Alabama and Mississippi. Georgia would go on to embrace the creed of the New South so enthusiastically that what had been the weakest and most undeveloped colony in the eighteenth century would be transformed by the dawn of the twenty-first into the richest, most urbanized, and technologically advanced state in the region.
Today, Georgia-based businesses such as Girl Scouts of the USA, Coca-Cola, CNN, and Home Depot are known around the world, as are the remarkable entrepreneurs who founded them--Georgians like Juliette Gordon Low, Asa Candler, Ted Turner, Arthur Blank, and Bernie Marcus. Indeed, Georgia’s story is filled with unique men and women who have played crucial roles in both national and international history. The legacy of Georgia's legendary political, military, social, religious, and judicial leaders such as James Edward Oglethorpe, Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton, John Macpherson Berrien, Robert Toombs, Alexander H. Stephens, Herman Talmadge, Iris Faircloth Blitch, Richard B. Russell, and Tom Watson has been passed on to some of our state and nation’s most noteworthy modern leaders – Jimmy Carter, Martin Luther King, Jr, Andrew Young, Julian Bond, Clarence Thomas, Sam Nunn, Zell Miller, Newt Gingrich, Shirley Franklin, Johnny Isaakson, and Saxby Chambliss. The work of Georgia medical pioneers like Crawford Long echo through the halls of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the nation’s leading public health agency, headquartered in Atlanta. Georgians have also made an indelible impact on the cultural landscape. The talent of writers such as Alice Walker, Margaret Mitchell, Sidney Lanier, Flannery O’Conner, and Carson McCullers; musicians Johnny Mercer, Otis Redding, Trisha Yearwood, Gladys Knight, and Ray Charles; artists like Oliver Hardy, Burt Reynolds, and Julia Roberts; sports legends Ty Cobb, Jackie Robinson, Hank Aaron, Herschel Walker, and Evander Holyfield have entertained and inspired millions around the world.
Despite its uniqueness, however, the story of Georgia is typically southern. The growth of the Cotton Kingdom, the devastation of the Civil War, the political campaigns of the Solid South, the racial oppression of Jim Crow, and the economic rebirth and revitalization of the post-World War II era are all part of both the Georgia and the southern experience. Indeed, from the invention of the cotton gin on a plantation near Savannah to the emergence of the urban goliath of Atlanta, one could tell the story of the South through the lens of this single state.
To learn more about the fascinating story of Georgia's history and the people who made it and continue to make it, visit the website of the Georgia Historical Society at www.georgiahistory.com
Copyright © 2006 Georgia Historical Society
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