When and how did Georgia achieve statehood?

Answer 1

Georgia was The one of the original 13 colonies to take part in the formation of our union. It became a state (achieved statehood) when it became the fourth state to approve (ratify) the United States Constitution on January 2, 1788. The colony of Georgia was truly the vision of James Edward Oglethorpe. His plan to use the new colony as a haven for people in debtors prison grew out of his committee work while a member of Parliament. Although Oglethorpe did not conceive the idea, he did seize it and attempted to act upon it. However, by the time he received the charter for Georgia (June 9, 1732) Oglethorpe had dropped his plan to use debtors and hand-selected the 116 men and women who would travel to South Carolina on The Ann. On February 12, 1733 (February 1, old style) a group of six small ships landed at Yamacraw Bluffs and set up on a site Oglethorpe had chosen earlier. It would become Savannah. Defense was an early concern of the new colony. Oglethorpe established a perimeter around the colony including Fort Augusta, Fort Fredrica and Fort St. Simon (List of Georgia forts) and had slavery and liquor banned from the colony. Over the first six years the struggles of the new colony came from inside. Many did not like the lack of land ownership; others were angry over the lack of slaves; some just wanted rum and beer. Slavery was an extremely divisive issue, with the people of Savannah wanting Negroes while the Highlanders along the coast and the Saltzburgers at Ebenezer wanting to be slave-free. Georgia had always been a "melting pot," welcoming the persecuted of Europe including large groups of Puritans, Lutherans, and Quakers (Wrightsboro). The only group not welcome in Georgia were Catholics, which is not surprising considering the religious wars that were fought a century earlier in England. The diversity of religion brought Georgia an unexpected strength - an willingness to accept others regardless of religion. The first test of the new colony came in 1739 during the War of Jenkins Ear. Southern Georgia and Florida were battlegrounds over the next four years, most notably the siege of St. Augustine (1740) and the Battle of Bloody Marsh (1742). When peace finally settled on the colony Oglethorpe was gone, never to return, and William Stevens was president. This 1745 map of Georgia shows the state extending west to the Mississippi. Only a strip of land from Savannah to Augusta about 20 miles wide, along with some small coastal communities had been settled by Europeans. The War of Jenkins Ear was a minor war that fueled a much larger conflict known as the War of Austrian Succession (1742-1748). Because of the cost involved in fighting the war the English Parliament had little money to support the colonies it helped fund over the past 80 years. Georgia came under increasing pressure in the late 1740's to become self-sufficient. Georgia was not prosperous under the trustee system. In 1749, 16 years into the trustee system, the colony exported goods for the first time. James Habersham petitioned for slavery to be allowed and the request was granted the following year. In 1752 the trustees returned the colony to the king, unwilling to continue for the entire 21 years stated in the charter. In 1754 John Reynolds arrives as first "royal governor," appointed by King George II and in charge of the colony whose major products are naval stores, indigo and lumber. Rice was a popular crop along coast; further inland they grew wheat and other products whose hulls needed to be "cracked" before use, hence "Cracker," a derogatory name for poor upcountry farmers. Reynolds did not like Savannah and tried to move the capitol south to Hardwicke, near Genesis Point on the Ogeechee River. This was one of many unpopular moves that led to his ouster at the request of the colonists. He was followed by Lieutenant Governor Henry Ellis, who disdained the state because of its heat. Although the state was spared major battles during the French and Indian War (1754-1763) it did reap a major benefit from the conflict: its borders increased dramatically. It was during the war that James Wright (Ellis' Lieutenant Governor ) became Georgia's third and most well-liked of its royal governors. Appointed by King George III, Wright proves to be capable as governor of Georgia. He expanded the state's economy during his term and kept the Radicals at bay well into the 1770's. Georgians faced a unique set of problems before and at the start of the American Revolution. Royal governor James Wright (1761-1776) had done an excellent job expanding both the economy and the colony and although there were those who agreed with the northern radicals many, perhaps most, did not support the movement towards independence. One reason was protection. England, the most powerful country in the world, offered a level of safety that perhaps a new nation could not. It was the Spanish to the south and the French to the west that concerned Georgians the most, along with the Creek and Cherokee Indians. Another was trade. The West Indies and England were both vital markets to Georgia, and many of Georgia's major products were used by the English navy. Politics deeply divided the state, not just as Tory and Loyalist. People in politically powerful Savannah frequently disagreed with rural Georgians. As Britain passed restrictive trade barriers radicals responded not only in the streets but at the ballot box. Governor Wright twice rejected elected leaders of the Common House (Noble Jones and Archibald Bulloch) in 1771, but by 1775 royal power was gone in Georgia. On July 4, 1776 the Declaration of Independence was enacted, with Lyman Hall, George Walton and Button Gwinnett signing for the state of Georgia. It would take a month for Georgians to find out that all three of their representatives voted for the document and what the document said. Major battles involving Georgians had already been fought. Georgians had to deal with problems in Florida. Loyalists, including Governor Wright's brother Germyn were using outposts in that state to raid backcountry Georgia and South Carolina. At least one raid reached all the way to North Carolina. On three occasions the state attempted to deal with the problem with limited or no success. One expedition was so fractious that it leads to the death of Radical leader Button Gwinnett. England's "Southern Strategy" was aimed at controlling states with a heavily Loyalist population including Georgia. Initiated with the capture of Savannah, Cornwallis spread his men north, hoping to enlist backcountry supporters. At first the plan seemed to work, but Whig colonists finally succeeded, defeating their English oppressors at Cowpens, South Carolina and driving them from Ninety Six. Freeing Georgia began with Elijah Clarke retaking Fort Augusta. Then General Anthony Wayne defeated an English Army of superior numbers with a force mostly comprised of colonial regulars and Georgia militia. With the Treaty of Ghent in 1783, the American Revolution was over. The struggle to create the United States of America had just begun. Freed from the oppressive nature of the English, America and Georgia began to flourish and expand. The Proclamation of 1763 limited state to a narrow strip of land along the coast. Georgians looked west and saw room for growth. Over the next 55 years (1783-1838) this growth would come at the expense of the American Indians that surrounded the state and only ended with the removal of the Creek Indians and the Cherokee "Trail of Tears." The United States struggled as a confederation, where each state had power but the national government was weak. "President of the United States" was a titular position elected by Congress on a yearly basis. From a national convention in 1787 the Constitution of the United States was drawn. On January 2, 1788, at a convention in Augusta, Georgia became the first state in the South and the fourth state overall to approve the document, however, it would not be until the signing in 1789 that we became a representational democracy and a republic. Georgia governors after 1783 began to distribute land through a series of grants to friends and wealthy individuals. These grants fueled a land speculation known as Pine Barrens Scandal. In 1795 this scandal was overshadowed by a much more sinister plot known as the Yazoo Land Fraud. While the Pine Barren Scandal was created by speculators, the Yazoo Land Fraud compromised a large number of public officials, including both the present and some former governors. All officials who were still in office were forced from the government by reformer James Jackson. Yankee Eli Whitney modified the cotton gin to process short-stapled cotton in 1792. Unknown to him, the new machine would revolutionize the South, extending the institution of slavery. As cotton production moved inland (long-stapled cotton could only be produced along the coast but short stapled cotton could be grown throughout the state), the use of slaves expanded dramatically. As planters expanded west from coastal Georgia the farmers were pressured to sell their land at high prices. They then wanted Creek and Cherokee lands further west to settle. Pressure increased on these nations to cede holdings, although the once endless acreage was gone. These Americans became more resistant to give up their ancestral holdings. "Indian Agent" Benjamin Hawkins worked for years to get the Creek and other nations to slowly cede their land. Former Georgia governor George Mathews, who had been involved in the Yazoo land fraud, rekindled the hope of attacking Spanish Florida that had never really died in spite of three unsuccessful attacks during the Revolution. With the approval of James Madison he led a group of about three hundred men, mostly Georgians, south to the St. Mary River (present-day Georgia-Florida state line), where they invaded Amelia Island and proclaimed it territory of the United States on March 17, 1812. This group then began to plan the investment of St. Augustine, just as James Oglethorpe had tried to do 80 years earlier. Mathews was relieved of duty by President James Madison and governor David Mitchell was put in charge. Mitchell immediately supplemented the Mathews army with state militia to continue the advance. However, by this time the war with England was near, so the American government backed down. An Indian uprising in the area distracted Mitchell from his planned advance. The Shawnee warrior Tecumseh tried to rally a number of Indian Nations to attack the United States. While the Cherokee refused to hear the words of Tecumseh and his brother The Prophet, a band of Creek warriors known as the Red Sticks attacked Americans after hearing Tecumseh and a series of other provocations. General Andrew Jackson, who had dreams of becoming President of the United States, responded to the threat west of Georgia. With a group of Tennessee and Georgia militia, and both Cherokee and Creek Indians, he defeated the Red Sticks. Jackson then forced the Creek Nation to cede the lower third of Georgia, although a majority of the Nation had not supported the Red Stick revolt. Jackson was a key figure in the First Seminole War (1816-1819, although there was a period of 18 months without hostility), once again moving troops through the state to fight an independent Indian Nation. Seminoles crossed from Spanish Florida into Georgia, attacking settlers on the frontier in response to the federal destruction of Fort Appalachicola in July, 1816. Hostilities ended with the cession of Florida to the U. S. in 1819. William Crawford signed document Let the course proposed by the accountant be adopted. W. H. Crawford In 1816 Georgia's William Crawford was defeated by incumbent James Madison in the presidential election. Crawford, a former senator who ran on a state-rights platform, was easily defeated. He assumed the position of Secretary of the Treasury in Madison's second administration and ran for president again in 1824. For years Crawford and John Clark had struggled for political control of the state. Now that Crawford was more interested in national politics Clark returned from Washington and ran for governor, defeating Crawford's ally George Troup. One of the agreements between the two candidates was the removal of the Creek Nation from Western Georgia. To be apart of an national country
Georgia became a state in 1788 when it became the 4th state to ratify the US constitution; it was also one of the states that seceded from the union to form the Confederacy, during the period of the Civil War.

Answer 2

Georgia became a state in 1788 when it became the 4th state to approve the Constitution. It seceded from the Union in 1861 to become a Confederate state. It was restored to the Union in 1870.

Answer 3

Georgia statehood - Jan. 2, 1788

Answer 4

Georgia became a state on July 2, 1772