Have you ever wondered how your ancestors ended up in the lower Georgia counties? In the late 1700's and early 1800's a good many of my ancestors were living in Greene, Washington and Wilkes County. You can see that most of Georgia was still Cherokee and Creek lands in 1805. ( There's a modern Ga county map at the end of this post.)
An Act supplementary to an Act entitled ‘An Act for appropriating a part of the unlocated territory of this state for the payment of the late state troops, and for other purposes therein mentioned, declaring the right of this State to the unappropriated territory thereof, for the protection and support of the frontiers of this State, and for other purposes.
It sounded fairly noble, but actually it allowed the companies to buy thirty five million acres of land at less than two cents an acre. The companies the sold the land to other land companies or private citizens at huge profits!! When Georgians became aware of the scandalous behavior of their state leaders, they were outraged. The scandal became known as the Yazoo Land Fraud*. Many state leaders fled the state fearing the outcome of their actions. In 1796, a newly elected state legislature repealed the Yazoo Act and had the paper the original act was printed on burned on the state house lawn. Settlers who purchased land from the speculators were not going to give up their purchased land. They went to court and the case reached the Supreme Court in 1814. The Supreme Court ordered the federal government to take control of all disputed land. At this point all disputed Yazoo claims were settled.
The 1827 Land Lottery gave lands in the following modern counties: Carroll, Coweta, Lee, Muscogee and Troup. Each grant contained 202 !/2 acres for a fee of 18.00. Names were put in one drum and lot numbers in another. Names could be entered multiple times based on age, military service, years of residence in the state and marital status.
The following people were allowed to draw:
- Bachelor, 18 years or over, 3-year residence in Georgia, citizen of United States - 1 draw
- Married man with wife or son under 18 years or unmarried daughter, 3-year residence in Georgia, citizen of United States – 2 draws
- Widow, 3-year residence in Georgia – 1 draw
- Wife and/or child, 3-year residence in Georgia, husband and/or father absent from state for 3 years – 1 draw
- Family (one or two ) of orphans under 18 years whose father is dead, 3-year residence in state or since birth – 1 draw
- Family (three or more) of orphans under 18 years, 3-year residence in state or since birth – 2 draws
- Widow, husband killed in Revolutionary War, War of 1812, or Indian War, 3-year residence in Georgia – 2 draws
- Orphan, father killed in Revolutionary War, War of 1812 or Indian War - 2 draws
- Wounded or disabled veteran of War of 1812 or Indian War, unable to work - 2 draws
- Veteran of Revolutionary War – 2 draws
- Veteran of Revolutionary War who had been a fortunate drawer in any previous Lottery – 1 draw
- Child or children of convict, 3-year residence in Georgia – 1 draw
- Male idiots, lunatics or insane, deaf and dumb, or blind, over 10 years and under 18 years, 3-year residence in Georgia – 1 draw
- Female idiots, insane or lunatics, deaf and dumb, or blind, over 10 years, 3-year residence in Georgia – 1 draw
- Family (one or two) of illegitimates under 18 years, residence since birth in Georgia – 1 draw
- Family (three or more) of illegitimates under 18 years, residence since birth in Georgia – 2 draws
- Child or children of a convict whose father had not drawn in any of the former land lotteries – entitled to a draw or draws in the same manner they would be entitled if they were orphans
The following people were excluded from the Land Lottery:
- Any fortunate drawer in any previous Land Lottery.
- Citizens who volunteered or were legally drafted in the War of 1812 or the Indian War and who refused to serve a tour of duty in person or by substitute.
- Anyone who may have deserted from military service.
- Any tax defaulter or absconded for debt.
- Any convict in the penitentiary.
The lottery system, while giving Georgia residents the chance to own land cheaply, did not prevent wealthier citizens from purchasing large amounts of land from the lottery winners. One such Georgia resident bought thousands of acres in Harris, Meriwether and Troup counties. His story will be told in my next post: The Walker Family.
Present Day Georgia Counties
* The Yazoo Fraud is written about in Absalom Harris Chappell's book Miscellanies of Georgia, Historical, Biographical, Descriptive, Etc., published in 1874.
References
No comments:
Post a Comment