USG Georgia History Legislative Requirement Exam

James Oglethorpe

Conceived of and implemented his plan to establish the colony of Georgia. Led the expedition of colonists that landed in Savannah early in 1733.

Battle of Bloody Marsh

July 7, 1742, English and Spanish forces skirmished on St. Simons Island. Only Spanish attempt to invade Georgia during the War of Jenkins' Ear

Henry W. Grady

"Spokesman of the New South," served as managing editor for the Atlanta Constitution in the 1880s

Leo Frank Case

A Jewish man in Atlanta was placed on trial and convicted of raping and murdering a thirteen-year-old girl who worked for the National Pencil Company.

Atlanta Compromise Speech

September 18, 1895, the African American educator and leader Booker T. Washington delivered his famous this speech. Widely regarded as one of the most significant speeches in American history.

Hernando de Soto in Georgia

The first European to explore the interior of what is now the state of Georgia. Entered the state on two occasions during the course of his expedition.

Spanish Missions

Georgia's earliest colonial history is dominated by the lengthy mission era, extending from 1568 through 1684. Catholic missions were the primary means by which Georgia's indigenous Native American chiefdoms were assimilated

Yamacraw Indians

Small band of Native Americans that existed from the late 1720s to the mid-1740s in the Savannah area. First led by Tomochichi

Malcontents

Among those to voice displeasure with the policies of General James Oglethorpe and the Georgia Trustees during the early years of Georgia's settlement. Made their objections heard in 1735

Tomochichi

Chief of the Yamacraw Indians. Principal mediator between the native population and the new English settlers during the first years of settlement

Royal Georgia

Refers to the period between the termination of Trustee governance of Georgia and the colony's declaration of independence at the beginning of the American Revolution (1775-83)

James Wright

Third and last royal governor of Georgia, serving from 1760 to 1782, with a brief interruption early in the American Revolution (1775-83)

Salzburgers

Group of German-speaking Protestant colonists, founded the town of Ebenezer in what is now Effingham County. Arriving in 1734

Rice

Georgia's first staple crop, was the most important commercial agricultural commodity in the Lowcountry from the middle of the eighteenth century until the early twentieth century

Revolutionary War in Georgia

Though Georgians opposed British trade regulations, many hesitated to join the revolutionary movement. Georgia did not send representatives to the First Continental Congress that met in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1774.

Button Gwinnett

One of three Georgia signers of the Declaration of Independence. Served in Georgia's colonial legislature, in the Second Continental Congress, and as president of Georgia's Revolutionary Council of Safety.

Lachlan McIntosh

A member of a prominent eighteenth-century Scottish Highland family that was among the earliest settlers of the Georgia colony, played an important role in the cause of American independence.

Mary Musgrove

Known as Coosaponakeesa among the Creek Indians and served as a cultural liaison between colonial Georgia and Native American community in the mid-eighteenth century.

Yazoo Land Fraud

Scheme by which Georgia legislators were bribed in 1795 to sell most of the land now making up the state of Mississippi to four land companies for the sum of $500,000, far below its potential market value.

Major Ridge

Known for signing the Treaty of New Echota (1835), which led to the Trail of Tears. Was one of the most prominent leaders of the Cherokee nation.

Eli Whitney

Invented the cotton gin in 1793

Nancy Hart

Patriot spy and participant during the Revolutionary War. Gained notoriety during the revolution for efforts to rid the area of Tories, English soldiers, and British sympathizers.

Slavery in Revolutionary Georgia

The disruption of the war offered the prospect of freedom to many thousands of slaves, but ultimately the reestablishment of the plantation economy after 1782 ensured that general emancipation remained a hope rather than a reality.

War of 1812 and Georgia

Georgia's role in the war has been largely overshadowed. Three main theaters of operation deserve recognition. These are the Creek War of 1813-14, the British blockade, and the British occupation of St. Marys and Cumberland Island in 1814-15.

Cherokee Removal

The Cherokee Indians expelled from their ancestral homeland in the Southeast and removed them to the Indian Territory in what is now Oklahoma. Done over arable land, gold, and racial disputes.

Gold Rush

By late 1829 north Georgia, known at the time as the Cherokee Nation, was flooded by thousands of prospectors lusting for gold. The sudden influx of miners into the Cherokee Nation was known even at the time as the Great Intrusion

Cotton

From the late eighteenth to the mid-twentieth century, there was no more important single factor in Georgia's agricultural economy. Cash crop.

William Harris Crawford

A two-time U.S. presidential nominee and the only Georgian to run for the presidency prior to Jimmy Carter. Served the state and nation in a variety of ways, including terms as a U.S. senator, cabinet member under two presidents, and foreign diplomat.

John Ross

Principal chief of the Cherokee Nation in 1827 who presided over the nation during the apex of its development in the Southeast, the tragic Trail of Tears, and the subsequent rebuilding of the nation in Indian Territory

Wilson Lumpkin

Elected to Congress four times, governor for two terms (1831-35), then went on to serve as a U.S. commissioner to the Cherokee Indians, as a U.S. senator, and as a surveyor of Georgia's boundaries

Sequoyah

Also called George Gist or George Guess, was the legendary creator of the Cherokee syllabary.

Howell Cobb

Served as congressman, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, governor of Georgia, and secretary of the treasury.

Robert Toombs

One of the most ardent secessionists in the U.S. Senate, helped to lead Georgia out of the Union. Became secretary of state for the Confederacy.

Alexander Stephens

Served as the vice president of the Confederacy during the Civil War (1861-65)

Crawford Long

A north Georgia physician, is credited with the discovery of anesthesia.

William and Ellen Craft

Gained celebrity after a daring, novel, and very public escape in December 1848 by posing as a white slave owner and their slave valet.

Mark Anthony Cooper

A soldier, lawyer, politician, farmer, and entrepreneur—is best remembered as an industrialist whose ironworks was one of the leading businesses in antebellum northwest Georgia.

Roswell King

Native New Englander, manager of the Pierce Butler coastal plantations, and industrialist and businessman in Glynn and McIntosh counties

Land Lottery System

(1805-1833) Public lands in the interior of the state were dispersed to small yeoman farmers (i.e., farmers who cultivate their own land) based on a system of eligibility and chance.

Worcester v. Georgia

U.S. Supreme Court held in 1832 that the Cherokee Indians constituted a nation holding distinct sovereign powers.

Georgia in 1860

Uniquely situated among southern states on the eve of the Civil War, it played a vital part in the formation of the Confederacy. Largest in the Deep South.

Georgia and the Sectional Crisis

Led to the outbreak of the Civil War. Southern politicians struggled during the crisis to prevent northern abolitionists from weakening constitutional protections for slavery. Georgians maintained a relatively moderate political course, often frustrating the schemes of southern radicals.

Battle of Kennesaw Mountain

June 27, 1864, located about twenty miles northwest of Atlanta in Cobb County, became the scene for one of the Atlanta campaign's major actions in the Civil War

Sherman's March to the Sea

The most destructive campaign against a civilian population during the Civil War, began in Atlanta on November 15, 1864, and concluded in Savannah on December 21, 1864.

Deportation of Roswell Mill Women

Sherman ordered the approximately 400 Roswell mill workers, mostly women, arrested as traitors and shipped as prisoners to the North with their children.

Atlanta Campaign

Name given by historians to the military operations that took place in north Georgia during the Civil War in the spring and summer of 1864. Confederate adopted a win-by-not-losing strategy

Unionists

Group of white southerners who played a substantial part in sowing discontent and undermining the Confederate war effort.

Joseph E. Brown

The Civil War governor of Georgia, one of the most successful politicians in the state's history.

Ku Klux Klan in the Reconstruction Era

From 1868 through the early 1870s they functioned as a loosely organized group of political and social terrorists. Goals included the political defeat of the Republican Party and the maintenance of absolute white supremacy.

Amos T Akerman

Supported the Confederacy and enlisted in a home-guard unit. He joined the Republican Party after the war (he had not been politically active before) and served on the state convention that drew up the Constitution of 1868.

Rufus Bullock

First Republican to be elected to Georgia's highest political office, serving as governor from 1868 to 1871. most hated man in the state during Reconstruction, was forced from office by the Ku Klux Klan, and recovered enough of his reputation to become president of the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce.

Andersonville Prison

Confederate prison was established in Macon County. Officially named Camp Sumter. Earned a reputation as the most notorious of Confederate atrocities inflicted on Union troops.

Secession

Followed nearly two decades of increasingly intense sectional conflict over the status of slavery in western territories and over the future of slavery in the United States. January 21 1861

Reconstruction in Georgia

From 1865 until 1871, when Republican government and military occupation in the state ended. Period of reform that transformed the state politically, socially, and economically.

Georgia's Historic Capitals

Georgia has had five different state capitals: Savannah (1776), Augusta (1785), Louisville (1786), Milledgeville (1806), and Atlanta (1868)

Atlanta Race Riot of 1906

September 22-24, 1906, white mobs killed dozens of blacks, wounded scores of others, and inflicted considerable property damage.

Thomas E. Watson

Elected to the Georgia General Assembly (1882), the U.S. House of Representatives (1890), and the U.S. Senate (1920), where he served for only a short time before his death.

John B. Gordon

One of Georgia's most renowned political and military figures of the nineteenth century. Began career with "Racoon Roughs" and ended by leading half of Robert E Lee's army

Rebecca Latimer Felton

Writer and tireless campaigner for Progressive Era reforms, especially women's rights, she was the first woman to serve in the U.S. Senate.

Lynching

The illegal killing of a person by a group of others. It does not refer to the method of killing. American South experienced an epidemic of fatal mob violence that produced more than 3,000 victims through this method

County Unit System

Voting system that allotted votes based on county size. The urban counties received 6 unit votes each, the town counties received 4 unit votes each, and the rural counties received 2 unit votes each.

Hoke Smith

Trial attorney and publisher of the Atlanta Journal, was most influential as the leader of Georgia's Progressive movement during his years as governor (1907-9, 1911) and as a U.S. senator (1911-21)

The Progressive Era

Refers to a period of varied reforms that took place throughout the United States over the first two decades of the twentieth century.

Women's Suffrage

The right to vote. It came later to women in Georgia than to women in most other states. Could not vote until 1922, not officially ratified until 1970.

Railroads

Georgia's first railroad tracks were laid in the mid-1830s. Some twenty-five years later, the state not only could claim more rail miles than any other in the Deep South but also had linked its major towns and created a new rail center, Atlanta.

World War II in Georgia

Southern states were critical to the war effort and none more so than Georgia. Some 320,000 Georgians served in the U.S. Armed Forces

Ku Klux Klan in the Twentieth Century

A secret society dedicated to white supremacy in the United States.

Corra Harris

One of the most celebrated women from Georgia for nearly three decades in the early twentieth century. She is best known for her first novel, A Circuit Rider's Wife

Walter White

Served as chief secretary of the NAACP from 1929 to 1955. During the years preceding the Brown v. Board of Education decision, he was one of the most prominent African American figures and spokespeople in the country.

Convict Lease System

Officials during Reconstruction approved the leasing of prisoners to private citizens. A workforce that could be firmly controlled.

Boll Weevil

Feeds on cotton buds and flowers. Decimation of the cotton industry in the South had implications for the entire region.

Franklin D. Roosevelt in Georgia

Visited Warm Springs and Georgia forty-one times. Used his new home at Warm Springs, "The Little White House," as a retreat from the rigors of leading a nation through the Great Depression.

Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee SNCC

One of the key organizations in the American civil rights movement of the 1960s. Sought to coordinate youth-led nonviolent, direct-action campaigns against segregation and other forms of racism.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)

Started in 1917, this has been the most effective and consistent advocates for African American civil rights in twentieth-century Georgia.

Martin Luther King Jr

A Baptist minister and president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), was the most prominent African American leader in the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s.

W. W. Law

A crusader for justice and the civil rights of African Americans. He served as president of the Savannah chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) from 1950 to 1976 and came to be widely known as "Mr. Civil Rights."

Sibley Commission

Committee charged with gathering state residents' sentiments regarding desegregation and reporting back to the governor. Created in response to desegregation of schools by George Busbee.

Civil Rights Movement

One of the most significant and successful social movements in the modern world.

Carpet Industry

The craft spread like wildfire, and by the 1920s thousands of men and women in north Georgia. Dalton, Georgia, became the center of production for this new industry.

Margaret Mitchell

Author of Gone With the Wind, one of the most popular books of all time.

Lillian Smith

One of the first prominent white southerners to denounce racial segregation openly and to work actively against the entrenched and often brutally enforced world of Jim Crow.

Joel Chandler Harris

One of the South's most treasured authors, he gained national prominence for his numerous volumes of Uncle Remus folktales. His legacy as a "progressive conservative" New South journalist, folklorist, fiction writer, and children's author continues to influence our society today.

Ellis Arnal

Four years as governor of Georgia (1943-47) are considered to be among the most progressive and effective in the modern history of the state, and paid off a state debt of $36 million.

Eugene Talmadge

During his three terms as state commissioner of agriculture and three terms as governor, his personality and actions polarized voters into factions in the state's one-party politics.

Three Governors Controversy

When the General Assembly elected Talmadge's son Herman Talmadge as governor, the newly elected lieutenant governor, Melvin E. Thompson, claimed the office of governor, and the outgoing governor, Ellis Arnall, refused to leave office.

Jimmy Carter

The only Georgian elected president of the United States, held the office for one term, 1977-81. His previous public service included a stint in the U.S. Navy, two senate terms in the Georgia General Assembly, and one term as governor of Georgia (1971-75).

Cocking Affair

The purging of professors, administrators, and members of the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia by Eugene Talmadge, targeting Walter Cocking for the idea of race integration in schools.

State Flags of Georgia

Approx. ten iterations over the years. Most of any state. Last one signed into effect in 2003 by Governor Sonny Perdue.

Dixiecrats

Members of the States' Rights Democratic Party, which splintered from the Democratic Party in 1948. Consisted of malcontented southern delegates to the Democratic Party who protested the insertion of a civil rights plank in the party platform

Black Suffrage in the Twentieth Century

The twentieth-century effort to mobilize black Georgians in the political process began during the 1930s and continues to the present.

Howard Finster

Emerged from the rural Appalachian culture of northeast Alabama and northwest Georgia to become one of America's most important creative personalities. Often called "the Picasso of folk artists,"

Benny Andrews

Nationally recognized as an artist, teacher, author, activist, and advocate of the arts. Explored American life in his collages, prints, paintings, and drawings by fusing memory and imagination

Lester Maddox

Brought to governors office in 1966 by widespread dissatisfaction with desegregation, Maddox surprised many by serving as an able, though unquestionably colorful, chief executive.

Newt Gingrich

Republican U.S. congressman from Georgia's Sixth District from 1979 to 1999. One of the nation's most powerful and polarizing political leaders in the 1990s. Served as Speaker of the House of Representatives from 1995 to 1999.

Sonny Perdue

Served two terms as the governor of Georgia, from 2003 to 2011. He was the first Republican chosen by Georgians to occupy the governor's mansion since the Reconstruction-era election of Rufus Bullock in 1868.

Charlayne Hunter-Gault

Holds a place in Georgia civil rights history as one of the first two African American students admitted to the University of Georgia. Also known for her career as an award-winning journalist