19th Century

Horace King, one of the most renowned bridge builders in Georgia and American history, was born a slave in Chesterfield, South Carolina. His owner, John Godwin, brought him to the Columbus area in 1830 and together they built the first bridge across the Chattahoochee River connecting Georgia and Alabama. Godwin recognized King’s talents as both […]

It started as a swindle and ended up as a landmark Supreme Court case. In 1795, Georgia passed the Yazoo Land Act, selling 35 million acres of western land—most of present-day Alabama and Mississippi—to four land companies for $500,000, about 1.5 cents an acre, far below its value. Opponents cried foul: many legislators owned shares […]

Georgia’s lottery is nothing new. Between 1805 and 1833, the state held eight land lotteries. Seventy-five percent of Georgia was sold to roughly 100,000 people for bargain prices. As land-hungry Georgians began migrating westward after the American Revolution, the state negotiated treaties with the Creek and Cherokee tribes—or simply took their land—and then distributed the […]

In a half century of teaching, Moses Waddel taught some of the most influential and important statesmen of the 19th century. Born in North Carolina in 1770, he began teaching at age 14. He moved to Georgia briefly but left to attend Hampden Sydney College in Virginia and was ordained as a Presbyterian minister. After […]