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In 1732, George Washington the first president to serve the Independent States was born. During the Revolutionary War, he lead the Continental Army and as the first president he set many presedents that are still enforced.
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In 1732, James Oglethorpe gains permission by the British Government to establish a colony in Georgia. It was first determined that this colony would restore the "worthy poor" and turn them into farmers, merchants and Artisans. In 1733, Oglethorpe lead the first expedition that landed in Savannah.
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In 1754, war broke out between Britain and France over control of the Ohio Valley. This was what would be the first event that lead to a revolution. The conflict which ensued is called the French and Indian War. Both sides were helped by Indian allies. Britain won in 1763.
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The British Board of Trade wrote John Reynolds, who was just appointed as Georgia's Roya Governor, asking what needed to be done to put Georgia into a proper state of defense at it's borders. In which he replies that Georgia's defenses are unprepared for war.
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In 1765, representatives from nine of the thirteen colonies met in New York City to talk about the Stamp Act. This meeting became known as the Stamp Act Congress. A Declaration of Rights and Greivances was sent to the British governement listing colonists' rights as British citizens and their complaints and grievances against the British.
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American inventor, Eli Whitney, best known for inventing the cotton gin was born. His invention was a key invention in the Industrial Revolution and shaped the economy of the Antebellum South.
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A harsh slave code was passed that children of slaves were also slaves and the personal property of their owners. They could be whipped for leaving the plantation without special permission. Anyone caught teaching slaves to read and write would face a hefty fine.
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The Boston Massacre, otherwise known as the Incident on King Street by the British, was an incident on March 5, 1770. British Army soldiers shot and killed five people while under attack by a mob
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Parliament passes the Boston Port Act as punishment for the Boston Tea Party, closing the harbor to all seaborne trade.
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The first Continental Congress met in Philadelphia. Because Georgians were still very divided in their Patriot/Loyalist feelings and continued to feel threatened from Indian attacks on its border and felt they still needed Britain's support, Georgia was the only colonies not to send delegates.
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The Georgia provincial congress meets. George Walton is added as a delegate. Archibald Bulloch begins his term as president of the Council of Safety and Button Gwinnett is elected as a delegate to the Second Continental Congress.
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On July 4th,1776, the Second Continental Congress approved the final wording of the Declaration of Independence. The Declaration of Independence is a written document stating the thirteen colonies claimed their independence from England. It was an event which eventually led to the formation of the United States
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Creek Indians agreed to the Treaty of Augusta. The treaty gave the lands between the Oconee and Ogeechee Rivers to Georgia. Some Creeks opposed the treaty and contested its validity. The treaty became final in 1790.
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The Treaty of Paris, signed in Paris by representatives of King George III of Great Britain and representatives of the United States of America on September 3, 1783, ended the American Revolutionary War
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In January, Georgia became the fourth state to ratify the new Federal Constitution. It became official when it was ratified by nine states in June.
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The first Thanksgiving Day is established. During the American Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national day of "Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens," to be celebrated on the last Thursday in November.
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While living in Georgia, Eli Whitney learned that cotton was not a big cash crop because of the labor efforts it required. The cotton seeds had to be removed from the fiber by hand, which was a slow and difficult process. He began designing a machine that would remove the seeds, but faster and more efficiently. In June of 1793 Eli Whitney applied for a patent on the cotton gin. It revolutionized agriculture in the South. The cotton gin made mass production of cotton possible.
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In 1796, Adams was elected as the Federalist nominee for president. Adams won the election by a narrow margin to become the second president of the United States.
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The first classes were held at the University of Georgia.
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Milledge fought in the American Revolution and was later elected as the 26th Governor of Georgia. He is also the founder of Athens, Georgia and the University of Georgia. John Milledge was the grandson of one of the first Georgia settlers (Savannah). He practiced law after passing the bar, in Savannah.
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United States pays France $15 million for the Louisiana Territory, which extends west from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains and comprises about 830,000 sq mi.
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Actress and author Frances Anne (Fanny) Kemble was born in London, England. She would later marry a Georgia planter and spend time living on a Georgia plantation, where she kept a journal. The journal was later published later with a disturbing description of slave life.
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News reached Georgia that the United States had declared war on Great Britain. This marked the official beginning of the War of 1812. David Blackshear was given the responsibility of defending Georgia’s southern and western borders.
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The Creek Indians signed the Treaty of Creek Agency, which ceded lands south of the Altamaha River, and between the Apalachee and Chattahoochee Rivers. Not long after the treaty signing, the Battle of Breakfast Branch took place between county militia and Creek Indians; it would be the last battle between whites and Creeks in these ceded lands.
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Sectionalism between the South and the North became concentrated in the Missouri Territory. Although Missouri was ready to be admitted to the Union as a state, but the question was would it be a slave or free state? Would slavery be allowed in other states which would come from the Louisiana Purchase? This particular crisis was headed off by the Missouri Compromise of 1820, but the issues that divided the two sections of the country remained.
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The Supreme Court made a ruling in the Worcester v. Georgia case. The ruling said that the United States, not Georgia, had rights over the Cherokee Nation. President Andrew Jackson did not enforce the ruling, so efforts to get the Cherokees removed from Georgia continued.
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Fanny Kemble Butler lived for four months on plantations owned by her husband. She kept a journal of her experiences there, which was published in 1863 under the title Journal of a Residence on a Georgia Plantation.
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Cherokees who had voluntarily migrated to the Indian territory before the removal and Trail of Tears joined the ones who had been forcibly removed in re-unifying as the Cherokee Nation West.
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Dr. Crawford W. Long was the first person to use anesthesia during surgery. He used sulfuric ether while painlessly removing two tumors from his patient’s neck.
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Cotton production and slavery had become major economic forces in Georgia and many other parts of the South. Anything seen as a threat to slavery was also a threat to the Southern economy.
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Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin was published
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Martha “Mittie” Bulloch married Theodore Roosevelt in Roswell, Georgia. One of their sons, also named Theodore Roosevelt, would become president.
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On November 6, Abraham Lincoln was elected president of the United States. New to the Republican Party, one of his goals was to stop the spread of slavery into the western territories, or anywhere else in the U.S.
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Georgia’s secession convention convened in the state capital of Milledgeville
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Georgia's met in Savannah for secession convention to adopt proposed new state constitution for Georgia.
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T.R.R. Cobb died in the Battle of Frederickburg, in Virginia. Cobb was a native of Athens, Georgia who had been a vocal proponent of secession. It is believed he hand wrote the Confederate Constitution.
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President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, declaring all slaves free in the eleven southern states then in rebellion. Lincoln had insisted the war was being fought to preserve the Union. This proclamation became a war to end slavery.
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In Andersonville, the prisoner of war camp was completed and began receiving prisoners. Although its official name was Camp Sumter, it was commonly referred to as Andersonville Prison. approximately 13,000 soldiers died during iits operatoin.
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President Lincoln was assassinated while at a theater by John Wilkes Booth.
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The U.S. Congress passed the First Reconstruction Act.
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Custer's Last Stand, a battle between the 7th Calvary Regiment Arm of the U.S. and the plains Indians/ Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho.
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Voters in Georgia chose to keep the Georgia State Capital in Atlanta instead of Milledgeville. Other capital locations include Savannah, Augusta, Louisville and Milledgeville, GA.
