This is the fourth of a series column that will look at the history of all 50 States,
all 5 territories, and the Capital and the influence history has on our
current political environments. The aim of this column is to capture that
our country is not just red or blue, but rather many shades in between.
Each Lower 48 state’s current political landscape can be traced back to
its early settlement and geography and its particular involvement in the
Civil War, the Industrial Revolution, and the Civil Rights Era.
The last of the original Thirteen Colonies to be founded, Georgia became the fourth state to ratify the Constitution in 1788. Throughout much of its history, the state has been of massive political significance and continues to be today.
Early History and Revolutionary War
Georgia was the only colony to not be ruled by local governance – at least not for the first two decades of its life – but instead by the Board of Trustees, based in London. Georgia earns a rare pin in American history as the only colony that explicitly banned slavery at its formation. Along with slavery, rum, Catholics, and even lawyers were banned in the early days.
The colony was founded by James Oglethorpe, whose idea was to create a colony as a refuge for debtors crowding prisons in London. However, the British government was more concerned with using Georgia as a military buffer between South Carolina and Spanish-ruled Florida. The Spanish were, at the time, Britain’s greatest rival for North American conquest.
Since Georgia was a fledgling colony by the time of the Revolution, it only played a remote role, sympathizing with the British with whom they owed trade prosperity and protection from the Natives. The Siege of Savannah in 1779 was the most significant battle, as Americans and the French failed to take the city from British control.
The state first voted blue for Andrew Jackson (D-TN) in 1828, starting the state’s long history with the Democratic party.
Civil War
When the Trustees lifted the ban on slavery, the residents quickly moved to develop a coastal plantation economy, bolstered primarily by cotton and rice. After the 1793 invention of Eli Whitney’s cotton gin, the cotton economy boomed, and with it, the slave trade. The fertile regions of central and southwestern Georgia became known as the “Black Belt” region, named for the distinctly dark and fertile soil, that contained the bulk of the cotton farms and slave population.
Georgia’s alignment with the Confederacy was not a shock, due to sheer economic reliance on slavery. They seceded from the Union in 1861, out of fear President Lincoln (R) would abolish slavery.
Georgia’s most prominent moment in the Civil War is undoubtedly Sherman’s March to the Sea. Union General William Tecumseh Sherman led a march that captured Atlanta and moved to Savannah, cutting off food and supplies and destroying towns as they went along. His specific brand of psychological warfare is what is often credited with furthering Southern desertion and the eventual surrender of the Confederacy.
Reconstruction and Jim Crow
Perhaps only a few other states had as tumultuous a time during Reconstruction as Georgia did. Upon ratifying the 14th Amendment in 1868, Georgia was readmitted to the Union, but swiftly ousted after the General Assembly expelled 28 black Republican lawmakers. Georgia was re-readmitted in 1870, after legislators agreed to allow some black members in the body.
While Georgia, like the rest of the South, was controlled by the Union North until the 1876 Election, some Republicans were able to take power. However, when Samuel Tilden (D-NY) conceded the contested election – hung up by faithless electors from three Southern states – despite winning the popular vote, Rutherford B. Hayes (D-OH) became the 19th President. It was here that the Union North pulled their troops out of the South, ending Reconstruction and ushering in the brutal period of Jim Crow.
The state was run by the so-called “Bourbon Triumvirate,” a corrupt group of former Confederates who used their influence to disenfranchise blacks and poor whites, mainly through voter suppression and racial segregation. Between 1889-1918, about 500 lynchings occurred in Georgia, more than any other state. The Ku Klux Klan was revived in 1915.
The Democratic rule would continue to govern Georgia firmly until the mid-Twentieth Century.
Industrialization and Civil Rights
Georgia experienced good economic growth after the Civil War. The agrarian profile still contributed to the state’s economy, tied together with railroads and steamboats. Textile centers sprouted up, along with logging and coal mining. In 1885, when Atlanta’s Fulton County enacted Prohibition against alcohol, a pharmacist John Pemberton invented a new soda drink. He later sold the drink to Asa Chandler, a businessman who sold it as Coca-Cola. Coca-Cola is headquartered in Atlanta today.
The Civil Rights movement is what marked a major development in Georgia’s political history. Democrats, angered by the liberalism of JFK and Lyndon Johnson (LBJ) and their embrace of Civil Rights, rallied around their own figure for the 1964 Election: George Wallace, the governor of Alabama whose segregationist policies fit well with Southern Democrat powerbrokers. However, Wallace did not run in 1964, and Democrats were not interested in putting Johnson in office for a full term.
They instead rallied behind Barry Goldwater, a Republican Senator from Arizona. Goldwater has been misunderstood by history because of his lack of hindsight. A product of his time, he stressed “state’s rights” above sweeping legislation to prevent more violent outbreaks. Thus, he voted against the Civil Rights Act in Congress. Despite being a frequent donor of the NAACP, Goldwater is credited with the GOP’s turn to the South’s racist roots. Having no other palatable option, Democrats voted lock-step with Goldwater in 1964, as he carried five Southern states plus Arizona. This was the first time Georgia would vote for a Republican candidate.
Current Political Leanings
Georgia would have a difficult political history thereafter. George Wallace did run a segregationist campaign in 1968, in which he carried Georgia and five Southern states, but lost the election to Richard Nixon (R-CA). Georgia would vote for native son Jimmy Carter (D) in 1976 and 1980, for Bill Clinton (D-AR) in 1992, and the not again until Joe Biden (D-DE) in 2020. All post-Civil Rights Democrats who have won Georgia were from Southern states.
Republicans have controlled the governorship since 2003, a position they had not held since 1872.
Republicans had not held a Senate seat from 1873 until 1981. The GOP last held both seats in 2021.
Georgia’s top industries are agriculture, energy, manufacturing, and believe it or not, film. Georgia’s climate, pro-business focus, and proximity to Atlanta International Airport, the busiest in the world, it’s a world-leader in film locations.
Georgia’s political geography is still heavily governed by the Black Belt, as large amounts of the black population of stayed concentrated in the southwestern-central parts of the state. Those counties are some of the most Democratic in the state. The rest of the state is almost solidly-Republican, with the exception of Atlanta’s rapidly-leftward leaning suburbs. The affluent Atlanta suburbs continue to race to the left as the young and diverse population continues to outpace the older, white demographics. From 1996-2016, Georgia was on its longest GOP voting streak in its history, but the GOP may have to start fighting harder for the state’s lucrative 16 electoral votes going forward.
