Georgia Studies Unit 1 and 2 Exam Study Guide
Early People
 Paleo- first humans in Georgia, were nomads, and hunted Mastodons with
stone weapons
 Archaic-first to use pottery
 Woodland-first to farm; had the Three Sisters Crops
 Mississippians- most advanced and last of the prehistoric groups before
European colonization
European Colonization
 Hernando De Soto was the first to explore the Southeast and had a negative
impact on Native Americans by introducing deadly, new diseases
 The Spanish set up missions on Barrier Islands of Georgia to convert Native
Americans to Catholicism
 Spain, France, and England explored and colonized North American for the
primary reason of finding gold
Georgia as a Trustee Colony
 Founded by James Oglethorpe in 1732
 Reasons for settlement were: charity, defense, and economics
 Original charter banned rum, slaves, Catholics, and lawyers
 1732-1752 Georgia was a trustee colony governed by 21 trustees
 Chief Tomochichi was a Creek Indian who helped Georgia settlers
 Mary Musgrove served as a peace maker by translating for British colonists
and Native Americans
 Savannah was Georgia’s first city and constructed on Yamacraw Bluff in 24
square city blocks
 The Salzburgers were Protestants who came to Georgia from Austria and
Germany seeking religious freedom and settled a town called Ebenezer.
 The Battle of Kettle Creek took place at Fort Frederica on July 7, 1742 that
ended the Spanish threat to Georgia
 The Malcontents were Georgians who were unhappy and complained about
charter rules
 The Highland Scots were from the mountains of Scotland, known for military
skills, and settled Darien, Georgia
Georgia as a Royal Colony
 The three royal governors were John Reynolds, Henry Ellis, and James Wright
 GA was a royal colony from 1752-1776 and was governed by King
George II
The French and Indian War
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1754-1763
The French and its Indian allies fought the British and their Indian allies
Fought over land control in the Ohio River Valley
Georgia did not participate
Georgia benefited from the British victory by acquiring land west to the
Mississippi River
 The Proclamation of 1763 did not allow Georgians to move west of the
Appalachian Mountains
The Revolutionary War
 The stamp act was a tax placed on all printed documents that led to
American colonists protesting against the British government
 Three Georgians that signed the Declaration of Independence: Lyman Hall,
Button Gwinnett, and George Walton
 The British government passed the Intolerable Acts to punish the colonists for
protests such as the Boston Tea Party
 Loyalists/Tories were Georgians who wanted to stay with the King of
England
 Patriots wanted independence
 The Battle of Kettle Creek proved loyalists had little support in GA
 Elijah Clarke was the Patriot leader
 Austin Dabney was the only enslaved man to fight at Kettle Creek
 Nancy hart was the female Georgia patriot famous for capturing and killing
a group of Tories
 The siege of Savannah was the bloodiest hour in the Revolutionary war that
ended with the British maintaining control of Savannah
Georgia’s State Constitution
 Written in 1777
 Helped GA transition from a colony to a state
The Articles of Confederation
 America’s first constitution
 It helped unify they American colonies as a nation
 Its main weakness was it did not give the federal government the power to
tax states
 Was replaced with the U. S. Constitution
Georgia’s Role in the Constitutional Convention
 Purpose was to revise the Articles of Confederation
 Two Georgians helped write the U. S. Constitution: Abraham Baldwin and
William Few Jr.
 U. S. Constitution replaced the Articles of Confederation
 Georgia was the 4th state to ratify the U. S. Constitution
 Accepted it on January 2, 1788 because the state needed help from the U.
S. military against hostile Native Americans
Georgia’s Geography
 Georgia has a mild climate
 Located in the Northwestern hemisphere
 Georgia’s deepwater ports are Savannah and Brunswick that open the state
to international trade
 Intestate 95 connects GA to trade markets in Mid-western states like
Michigan
 Interstate 75 connects GA to trade markets on the eastern Atlantic coast
 The interstate highway system was created by President Dwight Eisenhower
to transport the military quickly if ever attacked
 The barrier islands of GA protect the coastline from erosion
 Georgia’s coastal plain is the largest, best for farming, and was once
covered by an ancient sea
 Georgia is north of Florida
 The Savannah river makes up the Georgia/South Carolina border
 The five states that border Georgia are Florida, Alabama, Tennessee, North
Carolina, and South Carolina
 Georgia is in the southeast region of the United States
 In the northwestern hemisphere