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120-472: One of the goals of the organization was to end the adverse effects of the crop-lien system on farmers in the period following the American Civil War . The Alliance also generally supported the government regulation of the transportation industry, establishment of an income tax in order to restrict speculative profits, and the adoption of an inflationary relaxation of the nation's money supply as

240-546: A primary language , while 7.82% (795,646) spoke Spanish, and 6.55% (666,849) spoke languages other than English or Spanish at home, with the most common of which were Vietnamese, Chinese, and Korean. In total, 14.38% (1,462,495) of Georgia's population age   5 and older spoke a mother language other than English. According to the Pew Research Center , the composition of religious affiliation in Georgia

360-738: A secret society in 1885. The groups were joined under a new name, the National Farmers' Alliance and Cooperative Union of America. This was one of the first steps in unifying farmers along the American cotton belt. The demands of the Southern Alliance were similar to those of its northern counterpart. They pressed for abolition of national banks and monopolies, free coinage of silver , issuance of paper money (Greenback or Fiat money), loans on land, establishment of sub-treasuries, income tax acts, and revision of tariffs. In 1889

480-627: A British royal colony , making it the last and southernmost of the original Thirteen Colonies . Named in honor of King George II of Great Britain , the Georgia Colony extended from South Carolina down to Spanish Florida and westward to French Louisiana along the Mississippi River . On January 2, 1788, Georgia became the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution . Between 1802 and 1804,

600-465: A broad sense, the purposes of the Farmers' Alliance ... cover today a remedy for every evil known to exist and afflict farmers and other producers, and in the future should cover every contingency that may arise, presenting evil to be combatted by means of organization; they are accumulative and ever changing, as the enemy assumes a new guise. Included among these concerns to greater or lesser extent were

720-531: A coastline on the Atlantic Ocean, Georgia is also vulnerable to hurricanes , although direct hurricane strikes were rare during the 20th century. Georgia often is affected by hurricanes that strike the Florida Panhandle , weaken over land, and bring strong tropical storm winds and heavy rain to the interior, a recent example being Hurricane Michael , as well as hurricanes that come close to

840-708: A diversity of landscapes, flora, and fauna. The northern part of the state features the Blue Ridge Mountains , which are part of the broader Appalachian Mountain range. Moving south, the Piedmont plateau stretches from the foothills of the Blue Ridge to the Fall Line , an escarpment that marks the transition to the Coastal Plain in the southern region of the state. The highest elevation in

960-649: A governor appointed by the king of Great Britain . The Province of Georgia was one of the Thirteen Colonies that revolted against British rule in the American Revolution by signing the 1776 Declaration of Independence . The State of Georgia's first constitution was ratified in February 1777. Georgia was the 10th state to ratify the Articles of Confederation on July 24, 1778, and was

1080-601: A group of black farmers organized themselves in Houston County, Texas as the Alliance of Colored Farmers of Texas — forerunner of the Colored Farmers' National Alliance and Cooperative Union, commonly known as the "Colored Farmers' Alliance." A declaration of principles was adopted which identified the new organization as a mutual aid society dedicated to education, improvement of agricultural efficiency, and

1200-403: A labor source to produce upon the land they held without the necessity of paying cash wages. In practice, however, a system of virtual slavery emerged, in which poor whites and freed blacks became enmeshed in the usury of merchants and landowners providing essential supplies on credit. A crop-lien system emerged in which future crops would be mortgaged to merchants or landowners (often one and

1320-470: A larger and more powerful organization, unity was stalled over terms of the union, including the composition of the governing bodies, divergent views on non-white membership, and disagreement over program owing to divergence between Southern and Northern farmers' economic interests. At its December 1889 convention in St. Louis, the National Farmers' and Laborers' Union of America changed its name again, this time to

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1440-417: A larger share of the crop. The owner took the rest. At harvest time, the merchant collected his debts from the sale of the crop. The merchants had to borrow the money to buy supplies and, in turn, charged the farmer interest as well as a higher price for merchandise bought on such credit. The merchant insisted that more cotton (or some other cash crop) be grown (nothing else paid well) and thus came to dictate

1560-431: A lower cost. The limited effects of the local policies of the Alliance did little to address the overall problem of deflation and depressed agricultural prices. By 1886, tensions had begun to form in the movement between the political activists, who promoted a national political agenda, and the political conservatives, who favored no change in national policy but a "strictly business" plan of local economic action. In Texas,

1680-618: A lower rate, at times 20 to 30 percent below the regular retail price. Such stores achieved only limited success, however, since they faced the hostility of wholesale merchants who sometimes retaliated by temporarily lowering their prices in order to drive the Alliance stores out of business. Additionally, the Farmer's Alliance established its own mills for flour , cottonseed oil , and corn , as well as its own cotton gin . Such facilities allowed debt-laden farmers, who often had little cash to pay third-party mills, to bring their goods to markets at

1800-584: A means of easing the burden of repayment of loans by debtors. The Farmers' Alliance moved into politics in the early 1890s under the banner of the People's Party , commonly known as the "Populists." The quest to achieve a First transcontinental railroad across the U.S. was delayed somewhat by the American Civil War before being finally completed in May 1869. There followed a rush to complete additional railway lines to open up new frontier areas for economic development,

1920-460: A more equitable tax system on mortgage property, pass income tax law, abolish free travel passes to public officials, and regulate interstate commerce by Congress. By the time of the organization's 2nd Annual Convention, held early in October 1881, the organization claimed a membership of 24,500. A year hence, at the 3rd Convention of October 1882, some 2,000 locals and a total membership of 100,000

2040-835: A national leader in the civil rights movement . King joined with others to form the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in Atlanta in 1957 to provide political leadership for the Civil Rights Movement across the South. The civil rights riots of the 1956 Sugar Bowl would also take place in Atlanta after a clash between Georgia Tech 's president Blake R. Van Leer and Governor Marvin Griffin . On February 5, 1958, during

2160-557: A new group was established there by a former member of the Lampasas County Alliance group. The Northern Alliance's constitution and its precedent of non-partisan activity were closely followed and in short order a dozen local groups had been established upon that model. This Texas group was incorporated in 1880 as the "Farmers' State Alliance" and it subsequently expanded throughout the Central and Northern parts of

2280-587: A population of just under 365,000 to nearly a million people during the 1870s. The number of inhabitants in Nebraska nearly tripled, rising to nearly half a million. Iowa , Minnesota , and the Dakota Territory showed parallel population gains. New counties, villages, and towns sprang up by the hundreds throughout the region and a speculative bubble emerged around the buying and selling of farmland and urban lots. Population continued to surge throughout

2400-505: A population of more than 6.3 million people in 2023, is the sixth most populous metropolitan area in the United States and contains about 57% of Georgia's entire population. Other major metropolitan areas in the state include Augusta , Savannah , Columbus , and Macon . The Province of Georgia was established in 1732, with its first settlement occurring in 1733 when Savannah was founded. By 1752, Georgia had transitioned into

2520-592: A portion of western Georgia was carved out to create the Mississippi Territory , which eventually became the U.S. states of Alabama and Mississippi . Georgia declared its secession from the Union on January 19, 1861, joining the ranks of the original seven Confederate States . After the Civil War , it was the last state to be readmitted to the Union on July 15, 1870. In the late 19th century, during

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2640-432: A situation in which the United States government and the great railroad companies of the day maintained a common interest. Rather than directly undertaking railroad construction as a public works project of the federal government, Congress granted cash loans and grants of public land to subsidize construction. Some 129 million acres (52.2 million hectares) of public land was ultimately transferred from public ownership to

2760-531: A state-wide office. Julian Bond , a noted civil rights leader, was elected to the state House in 1965, and served multiple terms there and in the state senate. Atlanta Mayor Ivan Allen Jr. testified before Congress in support of the Civil Rights Act, and Governor Carl Sanders worked with the Kennedy administration to ensure the state's compliance. Ralph McGill , editor and syndicated columnist at

2880-428: A time now needed to strike deals with the Alliance men for 1,000 bale sales. This solidarity was usually short-lived, however, and could not withstand the retaliation from the commodities brokers and railroads, who responded by boycotting the Alliance and eventually broke the power of the movement. The Alliance had never fielded its own political candidates. It preferred to work through the established Republican Party in

3000-690: A training mission flown by a B-47 , a Mark 15 nuclear bomb , also known as the Tybee Bomb , was lost off the coast of Tybee Island near Savannah. The bomb was thought by the Department of Energy to lie buried in silt at the bottom of Wassaw Sound . By the 1960s, the proportion of African Americans in Georgia had declined to 28% of the state's population, after waves of migration to the North and some immigration by whites. With their voting power diminished, it took some years for African Americans to win

3120-404: A transportation hub, in 1991 UPS established its headquarters in the suburb of Sandy Springs . In 1992, construction finished on Bank of America Plaza , the tallest building in the U.S. outside of New York or Chicago. On February 19th, 2003, Georgia adopted its current state flag , resembling the state's first official flag. In 2024, it was announced that Atlanta would host multiple games during

3240-506: A variety of pines, oaks, hollies, cypress , sweetgum , scaly-bark and white hickories , and sabal palmetto . East Georgia is in the subtropical coniferous forest biome and conifer species as other broadleaf evergreen flora make up the majority of the southern and coastal regions. Yellow jasmine and mountain laurel make up just a few of the flowering shrubs in the state. White-tailed deer are found in nearly all counties of Georgia. The northern mockingbird and brown thrasher are among

3360-495: Is 112 °F (44 °C) in Louisville on July 24, 1952, while the lowest is −17 °F (−27 °C) in northern Floyd County on January 27, 1940. Georgia is one of the leading states in frequency of tornadoes , though they are rarely stronger than EF1 . Although tornadoes striking the city are very rare, an EF2 tornado hit downtown Atlanta on March 14, 2008, causing moderate to severe damage to various buildings. With

3480-499: Is felt chiefly in the mountainous areas of the northern part of the state, which are farther away from the ocean and can be 4,500 feet (1,400 m) above sea level. The USDA plant hardiness zones for Georgia range from zone 6b (no colder than −5 °F (−21 °C)) in the Blue Ridge Mountains to zone 8b (no colder than 15 °F (−9 °C) ) along the Atlantic coast and Florida border. The highest temperature ever recorded

3600-417: Is now named Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL). The busiest and most efficient airport in the world, it accommodates more than a hundred million passengers annually. Employing more than 60,000 people, the airport became a major engine for economic growth. With the advantages of cheap real estate, low taxes, right-to-work laws and a regulatory environment limiting government interference,

3720-549: The Atlanta Constitution , earned admiration by writing in support of the Civil Rights Movement. In 1970, newly elected Governor Jimmy Carter declared in his inaugural address that the era of racial segregation had ended. In 1972, Georgians elected Andrew Young to Congress as the first African American Congressman since the Reconstruction era . In 1980, construction was completed on an expansion of what

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3840-421: The 1980 census , 1,584,303 people from Georgia claimed English ancestry out of a total state population of 3,994,817, making them 40% of the state, and the largest ethnic group at the time. Today, many of these same people claiming they are of "American" ancestry are actually of English descent, and some are of Scots-Irish descent; however, their families have lived in the state for so long, in many cases since

3960-773: The 2020 United States census . This was an increase of 1,024,255, or 10.57% over the 2010 figure of 9,687,653 residents. As of 2010 , the number of illegal immigrants living in Georgia more than doubled to 480,000 from January 2000 to January 2009, according to a federal report. That gave Georgia the greatest percentage increase among the 10 states with the biggest undocumented immigrant populations during those years. Georgia has banned sanctuary cities . In 2018, The top countries of origin for Georgia's immigrants were Mexico , India , Jamaica , Korea , and Guatemala . There were 743,000 veterans in 2009. According to HUD 's 2022 Annual Homeless Assessment Report , there were an estimated 10,689 homeless people in Georgia. In

4080-692: The 2026 FIFA World Cup , which further substantiated the economic investment and growth in the city and state. Beginning from the Atlantic Ocean, the state's eastern border with South Carolina runs up the Savannah River , northwest to its origin at the confluence of the Tugaloo and Seneca Rivers . It then continues up the Tugaloo (originally Tugalo) and into the Chattooga River , its most significant tributary . These bounds were decided in

4200-541: The American Civil War , farmers in the South had little cash. During the war, British interests had invested in cotton plantations in Egypt and India , resulting in an oversupply of the commodity. Cotton prices dropped below the levels enjoyed in the 1850s. The crop-lien system was a way for farmers, mostly Black, to get credit before the planting season by borrowing against the value of anticipated harvests. Local merchants provided food and supplies all year long on credit; when

4320-477: The American Civil War , were almost exclusively enslaved. The Great Migration of hundreds of thousands of blacks from the rural South to the industrial North from 1914 to 1970 reduced the African American population. Georgia had the second-fastest-growing Asian population growth in the U.S. from 1990 to 2000, more than doubling in size during the ten-year period. Indian people and Chinese people are

4440-990: The Apalachicola , the Chatot , the Yuchi , the Chiaha, the Chickasaw , the Okmulgee, the Shawnee and the Timucua . Today there are no federally recognized tribes in Georgia, but there are three state-recognized tribes. Many inhabitants of Georgia identify as being Native American alone (32,151 people in 2010 census and 50,618 in 2020) or Native American in combination with one or more other races (51,873 people in 2010 census and 163,423 in 2020). Many Georgians also reported belonging to various Native American tribes in 2010 census,

4560-579: The Chattahoochee River near West Point . It continues downriver to the point where it joins the Flint River (the confluence of the two forming Florida's Apalachicola River ); the southern border goes almost due east and very slightly south, in a straight line to the St. Mary's River , which then forms the remainder of the boundary back to the ocean. The water boundaries are still set to be

4680-563: The Confederacy (with secessionists having a slight majority of delegates) and became a major theater of the Civil War . Major battles took place at Chickamauga , Kennesaw Mountain , and Atlanta . In December 1864, a large swath of the state from Atlanta to Savannah was destroyed during General William Tecumseh Sherman 's March to the Sea . 18,253 Georgian soldiers died in service, roughly one of every five who served. In 1870, following

4800-615: The Eastern Continental Divide , has been Georgia's capital city since 1868. It is the most populous city in Georgia, with a 2020 U.S. census population of just over 498,000. The state has seventeen cities with populations over 50,000, based on official 2020 U.S. census data. Along with the rest of the Southeast, Georgia's population continues to grow rapidly, with primary gains concentrated in urban areas. The U.S. Census Bureau lists fourteen metropolitan areas in

4920-602: The Knights of Labor , the leading industrial trade union organization of the day. Ten state organizations were fully functioning by 1890 and new members flooded into the Farmers' Alliance at the rate of 1,000 per week. Kansas alone boasted 130,000 members, closely followed by Nebraska, the Dakotas, and Minnesota, and the national office optimistically projected 2 million members in the near future. The idea emerged to put this enthusiastic and growing membership to work to advance

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5040-479: The North Georgia mountains , receives moderate to heavy precipitation, which varies from 45 inches (1,100 mm) in central Georgia to approximately 75 inches (1,900 mm) around the northeast part of the state. The degree to which the weather of a certain region of Georgia is subtropical depends on the latitude, its proximity to the Atlantic Ocean or Gulf of Mexico , and the elevation. The latter factor

5160-538: The Reconstruction era , Georgia became the last Confederate state to be restored to the Union . With white Democrats having regained power in the state legislature, they passed a poll tax in 1877, which disenfranchised many poor black (and some white) people, preventing them from registering. In 1908, the state established a white primary ; with the only competitive contests within the Democratic Party, it

5280-590: The Reconstruction era , who "promised each head of family forty acres of land and a mule if only he would vote right." Moreover, Turner noted, the liberated slaves of the South had been promised " social equality with the whites, and a great many other things which, since he has found out better, he neither needs nor wants." Turner argued that relations between the races were fundamentally benevolent now that black farmers had recognized that "his old master" had "almost invariably" been on hand to provide "the best advice" regarding agricultural problems and had very often been

5400-766: The Southern Baptist Convention with 1,759,317; the United Methodist Church with 619,394; and the Roman Catholic Church with 596,384. Non-denominational Evangelical Protestant had 566,782 members, the Church of God (Cleveland, Tennessee) has 175,184 members, and the National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc. has 172,982 members. The Presbyterian Church (USA) is the largest Presbyterian body in

5520-692: The Tennessee River . Georgia consists of five principal physiographic regions : The Cumberland Plateau , Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians , Blue Ridge Mountains , Piedmont , and the Atlantic coastal plain . Each region has its own distinctive characteristics. For instance, the region, which lies in the northwest corner of the state, includes limestone, sandstone, shale, and other sedimentary rocks, which have yielded construction-grade limestone, barite, ocher, and small amounts of coal. The state of Georgia has approximately 250 tree species and 58 protected plants. Georgia's native trees include red cedar ,

5640-648: The United States in the South from the 1860s to the 1940s. Sharecroppers and tenant farmers, who did not own the land they worked, obtained supplies and food on credit from local merchants. The merchants held a lien on the cotton crop, and the merchants and landowners were the first ones paid from its sale. What was left over went to the farmer. The system ended in the 1940s as prosperity returned and many poor farmers moved permanently to cities and towns, where jobs were plentiful because of World War II . After

5760-407: The civil rights movement . Atlanta was chosen to host the 1996 Summer Olympics , celebrating the centennial of the modern Olympic Games . Since 1945, Georgia has experienced significant population and economic expansion, aligning with the larger Sun Belt trend. Between 2007 and 2008, 14 of Georgia's counties were listed among the 100 fastest-growing in the United States. Georgia is defined by

5880-571: The 160 bird species that live in the state. Reptiles include the eastern diamondback , copperhead , and cottonmouth snakes as well as alligators; amphibians include salamanders , frogs and toads . There are about 79 species of reptile and 63 amphibians known to live in Georgia. The Argentine black and white tegu is currently an invasive species in Georgia. It poses a problem to local wildlife by chasing down and killing many native species and dominating habitats. The most popular freshwater game fish are trout , bream , bass , and catfish , all but

6000-420: The 1797 Treaty of Beaufort , and tested in the U.S. Supreme Court in the two Georgia v. South Carolina cases in 1923 and 1989. The border then takes a sharp turn around the tip of Rabun County , at latitude 35°N , though from this point it diverges slightly south (due to inaccuracies in the original survey, conducted in 1818). This northern border was originally the Georgia and North Carolina border all

6120-562: The 18th century from rice-growing regions of West Africa led to the development of Gullah -Geechee language and culture in the Low Country among African Americans. They share a unique heritage in which many African traditions of food, religion and culture were retained. In the creolization of Southern culture, their foodways became an integral part of Low Country cooking. Sephardic Jews, French-speaking Swiss people, Moravians, Irish convicts, Piedmont Italians and Russian people immigrated to

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6240-573: The 4th state to ratify the United States Constitution on January 2, 1788. After the Creek War (1813–1814) , General Andrew Jackson forced the Muscogee (Creek) tribes to surrender land to the state of Georgia, including in the Treaty of Fort Jackson (1814) , surrendering 21 million acres in what is now southern Georgia and central Alabama, and the Treaty of Indian Springs (1825) . In 1829, gold

6360-444: The Alliance "calamity" howlers, who are traveling from State to State, county to county, town to town, township to township, schoolhouse to schoolhouse, not for the good of the people, but for the money they make and in hopes of political promotion. The people should organize at once in opposition to this gigantic scheme. As a widespread movement consisting of three independent branches and existing for more than two decades, reduction of

6480-568: The Alliance was dominated by these local groups, with state-level bodies floundering. The locals did organize themselves at the state level, however, with delegates gathering in founding conventions in Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota and Michigan between January 1881 and the middle of 1882. The new movement strove to protect farmers from the capitalistic and industrial powers of monopolies (such as railroads) and unsympathetic public officials. The Northern Alliance sought to enact

6600-439: The Alliance was reborn as the People's Party (commonly known as the "Populists"), and included both Alliance men and Knights of Labor members from the industrialized Northeast. The Populists, who fielded national candidates in the 1892 election, essentially repeated all the demands of the Alliance in its platform. Crop-lien system The crop-lien system was a credit system that became widely used by cotton farmers in

6720-512: The Atlanta metropolitan area became a national center of finance, insurance, technology, manufacturing, real estate, logistics, and transportation companies, as well as the film, convention, and trade show businesses. As a testament to the city's growing international profile, in 1990 the International Olympic Committee selected Atlanta as the site of the 1996 Summer Olympics . Taking advantage of Atlanta's status as

6840-478: The Democratic Union Labor - Farmers Alliance combination in politics. One of their circulars from 1891 reads: The only way for the farmers to meet the Alliance secret political society is with a secret society the object of which shall not be to nominate men for office, but to assist in educating the people and making them thoroughly acquainted with the wants of all the people and the fallacies of

6960-468: The Farmers' Alliance in his newspaper's pages. State and local organizations became moribund. A fall of wheat and livestock prices following the harvest of 1884 reinvigorated the Farmers' Alliance and activity again exploded. In 1885 a new Alliance group was established for the Dakota Territory , where wheat reigned supreme, followed by a state organization for Colorado , as interest spread westward. New national principles were composed and mailed out to

7080-542: The Farmers' Alliance to a few universal objectives is problematic. As Southern Alliance leader C.W. Macune noted in 1891, the agenda of the organization was both amorphous and dynamic, a response to local problems and conditions: No man ... can give a perfect definition of the purposes of the Farmers' Alliance; and he who attempts a definition simply gives his own personal conception of the subject, which may be more or less valuable, according to whether his field of observation and his accuracy of judgment are good or otherwise. In

7200-492: The Georgia coastline, brushing the coast on their way north without ever making landfall. Hurricane Matthew of 2016 and Hurricane Dorian of 2019 did just that. Due to anthropogenic climate change , the climate of Georgia is warming. This is already causing major disruption, for example, from sea level rise (Georgia is more vulnerable to it than many other states because its land is sinking) and further warming will increase it. Atlanta , located in north-central Georgia at

7320-579: The Knights claimed 125,000 members and had lodges in Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, Arkansas, Tennessee, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Ohio. Founders included Masons , Oddfellows and Pythians . Its program included trade reciprocity, protection of American industries, just pensions for Union veterans and disenfranchisement of those who accepted or offered a bribe for a vote. The Knights were adamant in their opposition to what they called

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7440-461: The Midwest and Democratic Party in the South — although these often proved fickle in supporting the agenda of the Alliance. The Alliance failed as an economic movement, but it is regarded by historians as engendering a "movement culture" among the rural poor. This failure prompted an evolution of the Alliance into a political movement to field its own candidates in national elections. In 1889–1890,

7560-468: The National Farmers' Alliance and Cooperative Union united with a large rival organization known as the Agricultural Wheel to form a new group called the National Farmers' and Laborers' Union of America. Negotiations were begun to further unify forces by joining this newly expanded Southern Alliance with its Northern Alliance counterpart. While merger of the two organizations would have created

7680-483: The National Farmers' Alliance and Industrial Union — the name by which it would be known for the rest of its existence. The Southern Farmers' Alliance was unapologetic about its color bar banning black farmers from membership. The Alliance's National Secretary-Treasurer J.H. Turner, himself the son of a former slave-owner , wrote that in fact the liberated slaves' "worst enemies" had been the Northern carpetbaggers of

7800-750: The Supreme Court's ruling in Worcester v. Georgia (1832) that U.S. states were not permitted to redraw Indian boundaries, President Jackson and the state of Georgia ignored the ruling. In 1838, his successor, Martin Van Buren , dispatched federal troops to gather the tribes and deport them west of the Mississippi . This forced relocation, known as the Trail of Tears , led to the death of more than four thousand Cherokees. In early 1861, Georgia joined

7920-437: The United States, the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir Atlanta , located in the suburb city of Lilburn . Georgia is home to large Sikh religion population with 4 gurudwaras (Sikh religious worship places). Georgia is home to several historic synagogues including The Temple (Atlanta) , Congregation Beth Jacob (Atlanta) , and Congregation Mickve Israel (Savannah) . Chabad and the Rohr Jewish Learning Institute are also active in

8040-423: The colonial period, that they choose to identify simply as having "American" ancestry or do not in fact know their own ancestry. Their ancestry primarily goes back to the original thirteen colonies and for this reason many of them today simply claim "American" ancestry, though they are of predominantly English ancestry. Historically, about half of Georgia's population was composed of African Americans who, before

8160-399: The colony's settlement, known as the Oglethorpe Plan , which envisioned an agrarian society of yeoman farmers and prohibited slavery. The colony was invaded by the Spanish in 1742, during the War of Jenkins' Ear . In 1752, after the government failed to renew subsidies that had helped support the colony, the Trustees turned over control to the crown . Georgia became a crown colony , with

8280-502: The cotton crop was harvested farmers turned it over to the merchant to pay back their loan. In most cases, the crop did not cover the debt, and the farmer started the next year in the red as an indentured servant . Working through a vicious cycle of trying to pay off debt and accumulating more and more debt left many farmers working the rest of their lives under their landowner, usually a white farmer. Additionally, sharecroppers had no mules or tools, but tenant farmers had them and commanded

8400-407: The crops that a farmer grew. Many plantations saw the profit local merchants made off their sharecroppers and created their own plantation stores . These operated on the same principle but further concentrated the community wealth. Georgia (U.S. state) Georgia is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States . It borders Tennessee to the northwest, North Carolina to

8520-399: The current state of affairs was felt by the small-holding and tenant farmers of the South. The National Farmers' Alliance, commonly known as the "Northern Alliance," was established on March 21, 1877, by a group of members of the Grange movement from New York state . The group sought to organize in order to fight what they deemed the unfair practices of the railroad transportation mill, for

8640-411: The emergence of the so-called "share system" or "cropping system," in which non-landowners paid rent for the use of the land they farmed in the form of a fixed percentage of the output generated. This system in theory served the needs of landowners and poor farmers alike, as the sharecroppers would have the incentive to produce more and benefit from increased output while landowners would be provided with

8760-402: The end of the organization's first year. The Northern Alliance made its greatest inroads in areas which were stricken by drought in 1881, including the states of Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, and Minnesota. Growth was slower in states less severely affected, including as Illinois , Wisconsin , and Michigan . Local organizations proved easier to launch than did statewide bodies and in its first years

8880-537: The entire readership of Western Rural and a 5th Convention was successfully held in November 1886. A system of dues was established, thereby funding and energizing the state organizations. The program of the organization became steadily more radical in this interval, including demands for government ownership of one or more of the intercontinental railroad lines as well as for unlimited coinage of silver at its historic ratio to gold. Connections began to be forged with

9000-411: The establishment of a cotton monoculture , as merchants demanded this easily storable, readily marketable commodity to be produced for the satisfaction of debt. Not accidentally, the requirement by merchants for cotton production made production of adequate food and fodder for sustenance virtually impossible, further deepening the debt of the farmer to his merchant-creditor. A sense of deep discontent with

9120-534: The establishment of chartered local organizations, beginning in Filley, Nebraska and soon spreading throughout the American Midwest. Dues were not collected in the earliest phase of Northern Alliance's existence, with editor George financing the group's launch — a fact which spurred growth. Within a month more than 200 locals had been chartered, with claims made that 1,000 local groups had been established by

9240-511: The government to buy land. The Alliance also tried to do away with foreign competitors who owned land in America. It wanted to directly elect federal judges and senators. The Alliance gained powerful political strength and controlled elections in states in the South and the West. In the South, the agenda centered on demands of government control of transportation and communication, in order to break

9360-422: The grounds that this would alleviate the contraction in the money supply that led to falling prices and scarcity of credit (see gold standard ). The Alliance wanted to change the way Americans worked by pushing for an eight-hour workday . It did away with national banks so private, local banks could be formed. The Alliance wanted an income tax, the freedom to coin its own money and the freedom to borrow money from

9480-545: The group's goals through a political organization. The roots of the National Farmers' Alliance and Industrial Union, commonly known as the "Southern Alliance," dated back to approximately 1875, when a group of ranchers in Lampasas County , Texas organized as a Texas Alliance as a means of cooperating to apprehend horse thieves, round up stray animals, and cooperatively purchase large stores of supplies. This group gradually moved into more extensive action in response to

9600-527: The gutted financial market to make loans was grossly insufficient for the needs of the region, exemplified by the 123 counties in Georgia with no banks whatsoever even in 1895. Merchants, finding a sellers' market, extracted extraordinary profits through inflated prices and usurious credit terms. A new mode of production replaced the slave-based large-scale agriculture of the pre-war years. Now it would be small-scale agrarian enterprise that would proliferate and

9720-400: The largest Asian groups in Georgia. In addition, according to census estimates, Georgia ranks third among the states in terms of the percent of the total population that is African American (after Mississippi and Louisiana ) and third in numeric Black population after New York and Florida. Georgia also has a sizeable Latino population. Many are of Mexican descent. Georgia is the state with

9840-691: The largest of which was the Cherokee (21,525 people). Other tribes reported in Georgia in 2010 included for example the Muscogee (2,370 people), the Choctaw (1,419), the Sioux (1,027), the Seminole (664) and more. Georgia's 2018 total gross state product was $ 602 billion. For years Georgia as a state has had the highest credit rating by Standard & Poor's (AAA) and is one of only 15 states with

9960-441: The last of which are produced in state hatcheries for restocking. Popular saltwater game fish include red drum , spotted seatrout , flounder , and tarpon . Porpoises , whales, shrimp , oysters , and blue crabs are found inshore and offshore of the Georgia coast. The majority of the state is primarily a humid subtropical climate . Hot and humid summers are typical, except at the highest elevations. The entire state, including

10080-417: The movement also made attempts to unite the two Alliance organizations, along with the Knights of Labor and the Colored Farmers' National Alliance and Cooperative Union, into a common movement. The efforts and unification proved futile, however. As an economic movement, the Alliance had a very limited and short term success. Cotton brokers who had previously negotiated with individual farmers for ten bales at

10200-525: The name Colored Farmers' National Alliance and Cooperative Union. A national newspaper was launched by the organization called The National Alliance. The organization rapidly spread across the American South , establishing a presence in every Southern state of the union. The Colored Farmers' Alliance sponsored cooperative stores at which members could obtain necessary goods at reduced prices, published newspapers which attempted to educate members of

10320-599: The national group in this period, such a relationship was more theoretical than practical. The adoption of a dues system in the middle part of the decade forced the Texas group to closely consider its organizational affiliation. Charles W. Macune , the son of a Methodist preacher, emerged as the leader of this Texas organization when he was elected Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Texas organization in 1886. Macune immediately stifled an impending split of

10440-495: The north, South Carolina to the northeast, the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, Florida to the south, and Alabama to the west. Of the 50 United States , Georgia is the 24th-largest by area and eighth most populous . According to the U.S. Census Bureau , its 2023 estimated population was 11,029,227. Atlanta , a global city , is both the state's capital and its largest city. The Atlanta metropolitan area , with

10560-557: The one to "protect and defend him in his business affairs." Such a view of the indebted and impoverished black sharecroppers of the South, also typical of Southern whites of the era, did nothing to reassure African-American farmers that their concerns were shared by their European-American counterparts. With their presence from the Southern Farmers' Alliance barred due to racism , African-American farmers were forced to establish an organization of their own. In December 1886

10680-536: The organization as to new farming techniques, and in some places raised money to help support the underfunded segregated black schools of the region. The Colored Farmers' Alliance's organizational strength peaked in 1891, with some 1.2 million members claimed. The Alliance was opposed by a group called the Knights of Reciprocity , founded in Garden City, Kansas in winter of 1890 by a group of Republicans including Jesse Taylor, D. M. Frost and S. R. Peters. By 1895

10800-618: The organization threatened by a faction inside the Texas Alliance pushing to launch the group as an independent political party. He then united the group around a vision of organizational independence from the Northern Alliance coupled with a program of active expansion. As a first step towards this end, Macune negotiated a merger with the Louisiana Farmers' Union, a group established in 1880 and transformed into

10920-548: The original thalweg of the rivers. Since then, several have been inundated by lakes created by dams, including the Apalachicola/Chattahoochee/Flint point now under Lake Seminole . An 1818 survey erroneously placed Georgia's border with Tennessee one mile (1.6 km) south of the intended location of the 35th parallel north. State legislators still dispute this placement , as correction of this inaccuracy would allow Georgia access to water from

11040-571: The perceived abuses towards smaller operators engaged in by land speculators and massive cattle operations. The organization grew and was organized on a statewide basis in 1878 but was almost immediately killed when it attempted to enter the political field and was torn asunder by antagonistic factions favoring the Democratic and Greenback parties. In 1879 the influence of the Northern Alliance made itself felt in Parker County, Texas when

11160-469: The plan. The failure of the Democratic Party to endorse this initiative was instrumental in causing the Farmers' Alliance to become directly involved in partisan politics through an organization largely of its own making, the People's Party . The Southern Alliance also demanded reforms of currency, land ownership, and income tax policies. Meanwhile, the Northern Alliance stressed the demand for free coinage of large amounts of silver . Political activists in

11280-476: The post- Reconstruction period, Georgia's economy underwent significant changes, driven by a coalition of influential politicians, business leaders, and journalists, notably Henry W. Grady , who promoted the " New South " ideology focused on reconciliation and industrialization . In the mid-20th century, several notable figures from Georgia, including Martin Luther King Jr. , emerged as key leaders in

11400-434: The power of corporate monopolies. From 1890 it also included a demand for a national "Sub-Treasury Plan" calling for the establishment of a network of government-owned warehouses for the storage of non-perishable agricultural commodities, operated at minimal cost to participating farmers. Farmers would then be permitted to draw low interest loans of up to 80% of the value of warehoused goods, payable in U.S. Treasury notes, under

11520-507: The privately owned railways as part of this process. A great part of this massive stockpile of land needed to be converted into cash by the railways to finance their building activities, since railroad construction was a costly undertaking. New settlement had to be attracted to the virgin lands west of the Missouri River , which had been previously regarded by the public as worthless to the needs of agriculture due to insufficiencies of

11640-560: The question of exploitative terms of credit, insufficient money supply to sustain the economic needs of society, super-profits extracted by merchants, millers, and other middlemen, systemically unfavorable terms of trade levied upon small-scale agricultural shippers by the railroad industry, negative impacts on land prices caused by speculation. The accomplishments of the Farmers' Alliance are numerous. For example, many Alliance chapters all set up their own cooperative stores, which bought directly from wholesalers and sold their goods to farmers at

11760-472: The raising of funds for collective benefits for "sick or disabled members, or their distressed families." The initial form of the organization was that of a secret society . In February 1887 the group was chartered under the laws of Texas as the Alliance of Colored Farmers. This was followed by a convention in Lovelady, Texas held on March 14, 1888, at which the group was redefined as national in scope under

11880-470: The reform of the tax system, and for the legalization of Grange-sponsored insurance companies. This first organization proved largely ineffectual but does seem to have provided the inspiration for the first effective Alliance group, which was established on April 15, 1880, by newspaper editor Milton George in Chicago . George's paper, Western Rural, gave the new organization public exposure and inspired

12000-475: The region well into the decade of the 1880s. Unfortunately for those who chose to attempt to farm new lands in such places as Kansas, Nebraska, the Dakotas, and Eastern Colorado , the unusually rainy years of the early 1880s which had buoyed land prices gave way to a protracted drought beginning in the summer of 1887, bringing an end to the giddy, speculative boom. With crops failing, artificially inflated land prices plummeted; Eastern capital began to withdraw from

12120-608: The region. Banks collapsed and credit dried up. A decade of hard times followed, marked by the abandonment of entire communities. A sense of deep discontent with the current state of affairs was felt by the farmers who remained. The agrarian and plantation -based economy of the Southern United States was virtually destroyed by the American Civil War . Those who had their fortunes invested in Confederate bonds and currency saw them lost, as did those whose wealth

12240-478: The same) in exchange for credit for current purchases. Written contracts made these loans legally enforceable and those so enmeshed frequently found themselves forced to pay inflated prices at high rates of interest. If the value of the credit exceeded the cash value of the crop, the arrangement was automatically rolled over for another year and a never-ending cycle amounting to a condition of perpetual servitude resulted. Moreover, this crop-lien system contributed to

12360-503: The second-highest total of these extralegal executions of any state in the South. The overwhelming number of victims were black and male. Political disfranchisement persisted through the mid-1960s, until after Congress passed the Voting Rights Act of 1965 . An Atlanta-born Baptist minister who was part of the educated middle class that had developed in Atlanta's African-American community, Martin Luther King Jr. , emerged as

12480-585: The soil as well as the arid climate. Millions of advertising dollars were spent by the railway companies promoting the agricultural development of the land which they had to sell. This effort was to be rewarded, particularly after the Panic of 1873 left many unemployed and seeking a new start. Settlers began to flood into the Midwest and Northern Great Plains in response to the railway companies' blandishments. Populations skyrocketed. The state of Kansas grew from

12600-625: The split reached a climax in August 1886 at the statewide convention in Cleburne . The political activists successfully lobbied for passage of a set of political demands that included support of the Knights of Labor and the Great Southwest Railroad Strike of 1886 . Other demands include changes in governmental land policy, and railroad regulation. The demands also included a demand for use of silver as legal tender , on

12720-399: The state and into the neighboring Indian Territory (today's Oklahoma). By the end of 1885 this growing organization claimed a membership of approximately 50,000, scattered between more than 1200 local groups, known as "Sub-Alliances." During the early 1880s this Texas Farmers' State Alliance was considered to be a loose part of the Northern Alliance organization. Owing to the lack of dues of

12840-489: The state during the colonial era. As of 2011 , 58.8% of Georgia's population younger than 1 were minorities (meaning they had at least one parent who was not non-Hispanic white) compared to other states like California with 75.1%, Texas with 69.8%, and New York with 55.6%. The largest European ancestry groups as of 2011 were: English 8.1%, Irish 8.1%, and German 7.2%. As of 2021 , 85.62% (8,711,102) of Georgia residents age   5 and older spoke English at home as

12960-489: The state is Brasstown Bald , reaching 4,784 feet (1,458 m) above sea level, while the lowest point is at the Atlantic Ocean . Except for some elevated areas in the Blue Ridge, Georgia predominantly experiences a humid subtropical climate . Among the states located entirely east of the Mississippi River, Georgia ranks as the largest in terms of land area . Before settlement by European colonists , Georgia

13080-540: The state, with 300 congregations and 100,000 members. The other large body, Presbyterian Church in America , had at its founding date 14 congregations and 2,800 members; in 2010 it counted 139 congregations and 32,000 members. The Roman Catholic Church is noteworthy in Georgia's urban areas, and includes the Archdiocese of Atlanta and the Diocese of Savannah . Georgia is home to the second-largest Hindu temple in

13200-423: The state. By the 2022 Public Religion Research Institute 's study, 71% of the population were Christian; throughout its Christian population, 60% were Protestant and 8% were Catholic. Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons collectively made up 3% of other Christians according to the study. Judaism , Islam , Buddhism , and Hinduism collectively formed 4% of the state's non-Christian population; New Age spirituality

13320-561: The state. The population of the Atlanta metropolitan area added 1.23 million people (24%) between 2000 and 2010, and Atlanta rose in rank from the eleventh-largest metropolitan area in the United States to the ninth-largest . The Atlanta metropolitan area is the cultural and economic center of the Southeast ; its official population in 2020 was over 6 million, or 57% of Georgia's total population. The United States Census Bureau reported Georgia's official population to be 10,711,908 as of

13440-462: The third-lowest percentage of older people (65 or older), at 12.8 percent (as of 2015 ). The colonial settlement of large numbers of Scottish American , English American and Scotch-Irish Americans in the mountains and Piedmont, and coastal settlement by some English Americans and African Americans, have strongly influenced the state's culture in food, language and music. The concentration of African slaves repeatedly "imported" to coastal areas in

13560-470: The way to the Mississippi River , until Tennessee was divided from North Carolina , and the Yazoo companies induced the legislature of Georgia to pass an act, approved by the governor in 1795, to sell the greater part of Georgia's territory presently comprising Alabama and Mississippi . The state's western border runs in a straight line south-southeastward from a point southwest of Chattanooga , to meet

13680-764: Was 2% of the religious population. Approximately 23% of the state was irreligious . Population percentage of Georgia in the United States 2010: 3.14% 2020: 3.23% Tribes which historically lived in what is now Georgia include the Muscogee (including the Hitchiti subgroup), the Cherokee , the Oconi , the Guale , the Yamasee and the Apalachee . Other tribes which at various times lived in or migrated through Georgia include

13800-533: Was 70% Protestant, 9% Catholic, 1% Mormon, 1% Jewish, 0.5% Muslim, 0.5% Buddhist, and 0.5% Hindu. Atheists , deists , agnostics, and other unaffiliated people make up 13% of the population. Overall, Christianity was the dominant religion in the state, as part of the Bible Belt . According to the Association of Religion Data Archives in 2010, the largest Christian denominations by number of adherents were

13920-561: Was another way to exclude black people from politics. They constituted 46.7% of the state's population in 1900, but the proportion of Georgia's population that was African American dropped thereafter to 28%, primarily due to tens of thousands leaving the state during the Great Migration . According to the Equal Justice Initiative 's 2015 report on lynching in the United States (1877–1950), Georgia had 531 deaths,

14040-419: Was claimed. This proved to be a high-water mark for the organization, however, as prosperity returned to Midwestern agriculture in 1883 and the 4th Convention was poorly attended and no convention was held at all in 1884. With work to do and money to be made, early enthusiasm in the new radical reform organization fell precipitously. Even National Secretary Milton George lost heart, publishing less and less news of

14160-763: Was discovered in the North Georgia mountains leading to the Georgia Gold Rush and establishment of a federal mint in Dahlonega , which continued in operation until 1861. The resulting influx of American settlers put pressure on the federal U.S. government to take land from the Cherokee Nation . In 1830, President Andrew Jackson signed into law the Indian Removal Act , sending many eastern Indian nations to reservations in present-day Oklahoma, including all of Georgia's tribes. Despite

14280-581: Was inhabited by the mound building cultures. The Province of Georgia was founded by British General James Oglethorpe at Savannah on February 12, 1733, a year after its creation as a new British colony. It was administered by the Trustees for the Establishment of the Colony of Georgia in America under a charter issued by (and named for) King George II . The Trustees implemented an elaborate plan for

14400-418: Was tied up in the ownership of African American slaves . Great landed estates were broken up or rendered unworkable by the lack of a free labor supply and the flood of land sold on the marked depressed prices and reduced the economic possibilities of those who counted their dollars in acres. The region faced enormous costs to replace the buildings destroyed in the war and the factories looted. The capacity of

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