Question

When the Revolutionary War ended, Georgia gained control of large
amounts of land. Georgia covered a huge area in the southeastern United
States. The land stretched from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi River.
The leaders of Georgia believed that people should have easy access to
own the land. The veterans of the war especially believed this. Dividing up
the land was a big debate. The three mainland policies were the headright
system, lotteries, and Yazoo Land Fraud.
The first attempt to divide the land was known as the headright system.
It started in 1783. This system was created to give land to as many people
as possible. Veterans were able to claim the most amount of new land.
They claimed thousands of acres. White men that were over 21 years old
could claim up to 200 acres. Men with enslaved people or families could
claim some land. The headright system ended up not working very well. So
many people claimed the land that there was not enough land for all of
them.
The second idea to spread land was the Yazoo Land Act of 1795. The
Yazoo was a river in Mississippi. Under this land act, Mississippi and
Alabama were sold to large land companies. This act was infested with
fraud and bad deals. Men who represented the land companies bribed
politicians to sell them the land. Citizens and some other politicians were
outraged. The Yazoo Land Act was canceled. The land was then sold to the
U.S. government. In exchange for selling the land to the federal
government, the U.S. was responsible for removing Creek Indians from
Georgia. The Creek Indians were an American Indian tribe that lived in the
land that Georgia controlled. This act is referred to as the Yazoo Land
Fraud due to the fuss surrounding it. James Jackson was a senator from
Georgia who was firmly against the Yazoo Land Act and its corruption.
Jackson even set a copy of the document on fire to show his opposition and
the opposition of many others.
The last idea to distribute the rest of the land was a land lottery system.
Between 1805 and 1833, Georgia would offer eight land lotteries. These
lotteries would be nearly free. For the cost of a ticket, many average white
people were able to enter the lottery for a chance to claim the land. Some
people were able to enter more than once depending on their life situation.
War service, age, and marital status increased your number of entries in the
lottery. The land lotteries proved to be the fairest and best of the three
methods of distributing Georgia’s land. The land lotteries allowed over
100,000 people to settle on the land.
Impact Land Policies on Georgia Land
1700 1730 1760 1790 1820 1850 1880
1783 - 1833

What?
Where?
When?

Answer 1

What?
- How Georgia distributed large tracts of land it gained after the Revolutionary War: the headright system, the Yazoo Land Act (the Yazoo Land Fraud), and the land lottery system.

Where?
- In Georgia’s vast claims in the southeastern United States — land stretching from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi River, including territory that became parts of present-day Alabama and Mississippi and lands inhabited by the Creek Indians.

When?
- After the Revolutionary War, broadly 1783–1833. Key dates: headright system began in 1783; the Yazoo Land Act was passed (and later cancelled) in 1795; Georgia ran land lotteries between 1805 and 1833.