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UPDATED:
AUG 21, 2018
ORIGINAL:
NOV 9, 2009

Georgia
HISTORY.COM EDITORS
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CONTENTS

1. Interesting Facts
The largest of the U.S. states east of the Mississippi River and the youngest
of the 13 former English colonies, Georgia was founded in 1732, at which time
its boundaries were even larger—including much of the present-day states of
Alabama and Mississippi. By the mid-19th century, Georgia had the greatest
number of plantations of any state in the South, and in many respects
epitomized plantation culture and economic dependence on slavery. In 1864,
Union General William Tecumseh Sherman invaded Georgia, captured
Atlanta and began his infamous March to the Sea,cutting a 200-mile-wide
swath of fire and destruction reaching all the way to Savannah. Georgia’s
landscapevaries greatly as it sweeps from the Appalachian Mountains in the
northto the marshes of the Atlantic coast on the southeast tothe Okefenokee
Swamp on the south.

Date of Statehood: January 2, 1788

Did you know? Georgia is named after George II, who was king of Britain
when Europeans first settled there in 1733.
Capital: Atlanta

Population: 9,687,653 (2010)

Size: 59,425 square miles

Nickname(s): Peach State; Empire State of the South

Motto: Wisdom, Justice and Moderation

Tree: Live Oak
 Flower: Cherokee Rose

Bird: Brown Thrasher

Interesting Facts
 Although initially conceived of by James Oglethorpe as a refuge for
London’s indebted prisoners, Georgia was ultimately established in 1732 to
protect South Carolina and other southern colonies from Spanish invasion
through Florida.
 The 13th and last of the British colonies, Georgia was the only one to be
governed remotely by a Board of Trustees in London for the first 20 years. It
was also the only colony to prohibit slavery from its inception—along with
lawyers and Roman Catholics.
 In September of 1906, a race riot broke out in Atlanta after newspaper
reports of black men allegedly assaulting white women. Although the attacks
were never confirmed, thousands of angry white men gathered downtown,
killing dozens of blacks and causing extensive damage to many black-owned
businesses. The riot made both national and international headlines and
influenced the subsequent statewide passage of prohibition in 1908.
 Georgia was the first of 10 states to vote against ratification of the 19th
Amendment, giving women the right to vote. Even after it became federal law
on August 26, 1920, Georgia women were prevented from voting until 1922.
The state legislature did not officially ratify the amendment until 1970.
 In 1957, Martin Luther King, Jr. and other civil rights advocates formed
the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in Atlanta. Dedicating
themselves to the nonviolent attainment of equal rights for African Americans,
the group was a significant contributor to the civil rights movement and
continues to be active on social justice issues.
 Georgia is the country’s number-one producer of peanuts, pecans and
peaches, and vidalia onions, known as the sweetest onions in the world, can
only been grown in the fields around Vidalia and Glennville. Another sweet
treat from the Peach State is Coca-Cola, which was invented in Atlanta in
1886.
PHOTO GALLERIES
Georgia

7
GALLERY
7 IMAGES

Citation Information
Article Title
Georgia

Author
History.com Editors

Website Name
 HISTORY

URL
https://www.history.com/topics/us-states/georgia

Access Date
May 21, 2020

Publisher
A&E Television Networks

Last Updated
August 21, 2018

Original Published Date

November 9, 2009

BY
 HISTORY.COM EDITORS
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