AGE OF EXPANSION
AGE OF EXPANSION
• U.S. CONSTITUTION – replaced the Articles of
Confederation.
– Provided 3 branches of Government
• Executive – President
• Legislative – Congress (Senate – 2 reps.
Per state and House - rep. based on
population)
• Judicial – Law, Courts, Constitutionality
AGE OF EXPANSION
• 3/5TH Compromise – There were many more
slaves in the Southern states, states wanted to
count slaves for representation but not be
taxed on slaves in household population.
Northern states do not want slaves counted
but do want them included in taxation.
Compromise - every five slaves would count as
three people, with 3/5th of the slave
population counted as a whole.
Age of Expansion
• Bill of Rights – one of the first acts of the new
federal government.
– The Bill of Rights insured protection of Americans
against the power of government that was so
greatly opposed under the realm of a monarchy.
– The first ten amendments (additions) to the
Constitution.
Age of Expansion
• Georgia Constitution of 1777 – set up a
unicamerial legislature
– Delegates: William Few and Abraham Baldwin
attended the Constitutional Convention
– Georgia adopted a new Constitution in 1789
which resembled the new U.S. Constitution.
• Bicameral (two-house) legislature (called the General
assembly)
• Three branches of Government
AGE OF EXPANSION
• LAND DISTRIBUTION
– Georgia was giving away any size lots as public
domain.
– Headright System - where each white male
counted as head of a family will receive up to
1,000 acres.
– Land Lottery - land west of the Oconee River - any
white male, 21 years of age can buy a chance on
the spin of a wheel to win land.
AGE OF EXPANSION
Yazoo Land Fraud
• George Mathews (Governor)
• Yazoo Act – passed by Georgia Legislature
allowing Georgia to sell large areas of its
western land to private companies.
• Land companies bought most of the land and
sold it to the Georgia settlers at a much higher
price.
AGE OF EXPANSION
Results of Yazoo Land Fraud
• All legislatives involved in this Yazoo Land Fraud are to
be voted out of office
• The Yazoo Act is repealed and all records of this land
sell are to be burned in public at the state capital in
Louisville Georgia.
• Georgia lost a large part of its land because the Land
Companies claimed their purchase was legit.
• Georgia had to pay a fine to the courts and “cede” land
to the federal government.
• Georgia’s western boundary was cut to the
Chattahoochee River.
AGE OF EXPANSION
• Louisiana Purchase – doubled the size of the
United States
• President Thomas Jefferson approved the
purchase from French leader Napoleon
Bonaparte for $15 million.
AGE OF EXPANSION
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INVENTIONS
Eli Whitney – Cotton Gin (know the story)
Cyrus McCormick – Mechanical Grain Reaper
Samual Slater – Spotlight on the Economy
(cash crop, textile, etc.)
• Benjamin Franklin – Spotlight, Poor Richard’s
Almanack
AGE OF EXPANSION
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Transportation
Deep water ports (Savannah & Brunswick)
Railroads (Western & Atlantic), Terminus
Moving Freight (cotton)
– Wagon Trains
– Ferries
– Train
AGE OF EXPANSION
Religion
• Circuit Riders – ministers who traveled from district to
district
• Joseph Smith – Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day
Saints
• Richard Allen – African Methodist Episcopal Church
• 1st Catholic Church in Georgia established in Wilkes
County Georgia
• Springfield Baptist Church – founded by Free Blacks in
Augusta, original site of Morehouse College
AGE OF EXPANSION
Education
Few southern farmers have reading
and math skills. Governor Lyman Hall
attempted to promote education but
lacked the necessary funding.
AGE OF EXPANSION
• University of Georgia
(Franklin College) –
Georgia’s first land grant
university, oldest land
grant university in the
nation.
AGE OF EXPANSION
• Academy of Richmond County –
oldest educational institution in the
state of Georgia, established prior to
the legislative law mandating that all
counties establish and academy of
learning, one of the oldest
educational institutions in the
nation.
AGE OF EXPANSION
• The Georgia Female College,
later known as Wesleyan College,
opened in Macon and while
tuition seemed low by today’s
standards, only the daughters of
the wealthy were able to attend.
AGE OF EXPANSION
• Tools:
– Play script
– Chapter questions completed for homework
– Worksheets
– Vocabulary
– Notes
GOOD LUCK TOMORROW!