Georgia State Constitution: 1789
• Resembled new US Constitution
– Called for a bicameral legislature and three branches of government:
executive, judicial, and legislative
– Included plans for local governments
• Responsible for keeping records and establishing a system of law
• County seat was the center of local government: courthouse and
jail located there
• Counties had to be small enough so that citizens could make it
back home in one day
– As counties grew, they were divided into 2 seats
– Amendments
• Changed the way of electing governor: both houses would elect
• Legislature would meet in January
• Louisville (present-day Jefferson County) would be the new state
capital
Post-Revolutionary Georgia
Education
• Slow growth; many not schooled
• Governor Lyman Hall recommended state set aside land for
schools; few built
• 1784: set aside land and named trustees for a state college
– Land Grant University: federal government gave land
• 1785: University of Georgia (Oldest school of its kind)
– First Building: Franklin College
• 1786: Georgia Legislature required all counties to open
schools
• Wealthy could afford colleges
• Females not admitted to UGA until 1918
The building of the University of Georgia
Creating a Capital City
•
For much of Georgia’s early history, the capital rotated
between Savannah and Augusta
– Savannah became difficult to get to for citizens
who moved inland
– Augusta was too far east
– 1786: legislature appointed a commission to find a
site for the new, centrally located capital
• Funds to purchase 1000 acres of land—city
was to be modeled after then-US capital of
Philadelphia
– Legislature required that the new
location be 20 miles from an Indian
trading post on the Ogeechee River
(present-day Jefferson County)
– Insisted the new capital be called
“Louisville” to honor King Louis XVI of
France (helped in the Rev. War)
– 1796: New Capital in Louisville finished; served as
capital for 10 years
– February 21, 1796: Holy Fire From Heaven (Yazoo
land sales records burned in front of the capital
steps)
– 1804: With western expansion, legislature voted to
build a new capital in Baldwin County
(Milledgeville)