Population.—The latest official census of Georgia (1870) gives a population of 1,184,709 souls, 638,926 being white and 545,142, or nearly one half, black. This population is distributed among 136 counties, which include 8 cities and 134 incorporated towns. Georgia, which ranks tenth in area, is the twelfth of the Union in respect to population. Though showing an increase of 127,423 persons in the previous decade, which embraced the period of the war with the North, she has fallen behind one in her rank; but indications of prosperity in her agricultural and manufacturing interests warrant the belief that Georgia will show a marked gain in 1880. A large proportion of this anticipated increase may be confidently assigned to the northern section of the State, though the middle section is at present most thickly settled.
Counties.—There are 136 counties in the State, viz.:—Appling, Baker, Baldwin, Banks, Bartow, Berrien, Bibb, Brooks, Bryan, Bullock, Burke, Butts, Calhoun, Campbell, Camden, Carroll, Cass, Catoosa, Charlton, Chatham, Chattahoochee, Chattooga, Clarke, Cherokee, Clay, Clayton, Clinch, Cobb, Coffee, Colquitt, Columbia, Cowetta, Crawford, Dade, Dawson, Decatur, De Kalb, Dodge, Dooly, Dougherty, Douglas, Early, Echols, Effingham, Elbert, Emmanuel, Fannin, Fayette, Floyd, Forsyth, Franklin, Fulton, Gilmer, Glasscock, Glynn, Gordon, Greene, Gwinnett, Habersham, Hall, Hancock, Haralson, Harris, Hart, Heard, Henry, Houston, Irwin, Jackson, Jasper, Jefferson, Johnson, Jones, Laurens, Lee, Liberty, Lincoln, Lowndes, Lumpkin, Macon, Madison, Marion, M‘Duffie, M‘Intosh, Meriwether, Miller, Milton, Mitchell, Monroe, Montgomery, Morgan, Murray, Muscogee, Newton, Oglethorpe, Paulding, Pickens, Pierce, Pike, Polk, Pulaski, Putnam, Quitman, Rabun, Randolph, Richmond, Rockdale, Schley, Scriven, Spalding, Stewart, Sumter, Talbot, Taliafero, Tatnall, Taylor, Telfair, Terrell, Thomas, Towns, Troup, Twiggs, Union, Upson, Walker, Walton, Ware, Warren, Washington, Wayne, Webster, White, Whitfield, Wilcox, Wilkes, Wilkinson, and Worth.
Cities and Towns.—Georgia has no large cities. Savannah, the chief sea-port, has a population of about 30,000; Atlanta, the capital, 35,000; Augusta, 23,768; Macon, 10,810; Columbus, 7401; Athens, 4251; Milledgeville, 2750; and Rome, 2748. The important towns are Albany, Americus, Bainbridge, Brunswick, Cartersville, Covington, Cuthbert, Dalton, Dawson, Eatonton, Fort Valley, Griffin, La Grange, Marietta, Newnan, Thomasville, Valdosta, Washington, and West Point. Columbus, Americus, Atlanta, and Rome, as well as Savannah, are considerable shipping points, for cotton; Athens is the seat of the university of Georgia; Augusta and Columbus are manufacturing centres; Macon has three religious colleges; Darien, Brunswick, and St Mary’s manufacture and export lumber. Andersonville, in Sumter county, acquired terrible celebrity during the civil war as the site of the chief military prison of the Southern Confederacy. Atlanta is by far the best example of rapid growth the State affords. From a population of 21,189 exhibited by the census of 1870 the city advanced to 35,000 in 1876. It is a railway and manufacturing centre. In the vicinity and for its possession were conducted some of the most important military operations of the secession war.
Manufactures.—Georgia is the foremost southern State in her railway and manufacturing enterprises. Both have been chiefly developed since the war, from which everything in the south of the Union dates. Her rivers and railways afford abundant facilities for the movement of merchandise as well as crops. Her streams also provide excellent and unfailing water-power. In the development of her industries a great future is predicted for Georgia. Indeed some of the more sanguine claim that she is already becoming a formidable rival of New England in the manufacture of cotton and woollen fabrics.
There are in the State 38 cotton factories, with 123,233 spindles and 2125 looms. There are 14 woollen factories, with 4200 spindles and 135 looms. Augusta and Columbus take the lead in the number and capacity of these works, for which certain important advantages are claimed. The water-power is so ample that the mills are run by it alone. The streams do not freeze in winter. The cotton and wool are grown at the factory door, saving to the mill-owner the cost of transporting his raw material from a great distance. Labour is cheaper. Finally, the State in order to encourage the investment of foreign capital in manufactures, has by law exempted such capital from taxation for ten years. The product of the Georgia mills finds a ready market in the Southern and Western States. It is asserted on good authority that during the years 1875, 1876, and 1877—years of unparalleled depression to the manufacturing interests of the United States—the mills of Georgia, especially those of Augusta and Columbus, were never idle, and paid a handsome return on their invested capital. Besides the 52 factories which convert so large a share of her raw product into cloths, there are 1375 grain mills, having 1453 run of stones for corn and 556 for wheat. There are 734 sawmills, 77 waggon and carriage factories, 6 iron-furnaces, 7 iron-foundries, 11 limekilns, 4 potteries, 68 tanneries, 6 turpentine-distilleries, 2 rolling-mills, 5 paper-mills, 12 furniture manufactories, 3 rice-mills, &c. The manufacture of rope, bagging, twine, tobacco, ice, sashes and blinds, agricultural implements, boilers and machinery, fertilizers, &c., is carried on more or less extensively. Besides Augusta and Columbus, the largest manufacturing city of the State, there are cotton factories at Athens, Macon, West Point, Decatur, and Atlanta. The latter city also has large iron works. Thomasville, Dalton, Albany, Marietta, and Rome are also manufacturing points.
Commerce.—Large vessels can enter only four harbours, viz., Savannah, Darien, Brunswick, and St Mary’s. The inlets or sounds which divide the coast islands from each other or from the mainland are generally only navigable for small craft. At mean low tides the bar of the Savannah (Tybee entrance) has 19, the Altamaha 14, that of St Simon’s sound (entrance to Brunswick) 17, and that of St Mary’s river 14 feet of water. Savannah, Brunswick, and St Mary’s are ports of entry. Cotton and lumber are the principal exports. Of the former 610,419 bales of Upland, and 11,309 of Sea-island were exported during the year ending September 2, 1878. The shipment of wool for the same time was 988,389 ℔. These figures should not be taken to represent the crop of the State. The ship-timber, boards, deals, clapboards, &c., are chiefly shipped from the other ports. About 100 vessels, of 22,000 tons burden, are employed in the foreign and coastwise trade. For the year ending December 31, 1878, the total tonnage of the port of Savannah was—entered, 280,995 tons foreign and 385,532 coastwise; cleared, 223,885 foreign and 418,958 coastwise; value of imports $505,596, and of exports $24,014,535. In the district of Brunswick and Darien the entries were 124,711 and the clearances 32,579 tons; value of exports $1,030,943. The St Mary’s entries were 16,052 tons foreign and 20,065 coastwise; value of exports $120,186, and of imports $1421.
Railways.—Atlanta, Columbus, Macon, Albany, and Augusta are railway centres. In 1860 there were in Georgia 1404 miles of completed railway; in 1878 there are 2340 miles. The Atlantic and Gulf Railway crosses the State from Savannah to Bainbridge, in the extreme south-west, on the Flint river. It is 236 miles long, passing through Blackshear, Valdosta, and Thomasville (from which there is a branch line to Albany—58 miles—and Macon), while from Dupont there is a junction with the Florida lines. The Brunswick and Albany also extends from the coast at Brunswick to Albany, 172 miles, whence it is to be continued in a westerly direction to the Chattahoochee, in Early county. A third line connects Brunswick with Macon (187 miles); and another, the Central Georgia, unites Savannah with Macon and Atlanta (294 miles). The Central Georgia works a branch-line from Millen to Augusta; the Milledgeville and Eatenton from Gordon to Eatonton (22 miles); the South-Western from Macon to Eufaula, Ala. (144 miles), with branches from Fort Valley to Columbus (72 miles), Smithville to Albany (23 miles), Cuthbert to Fort Gaines (20 miles), Fort Valley to Perry (13 miles), and Albany to Arlington (36 miles); the Macon and Western from Macon to Atlanta; and the Upson County line from Barnesville to Thomaston (16 miles).
Atlanta is situated on the great iron highways from Boston, New York, and Philadelphia to Mobile and New Orleans, and from Chicago to Florida. The Western and Atlantic connects Atlanta and the Georgia system with the Tennessee lines at Chattanooga (138 miles). Several great battles were fought for the possession of this railway during the secession war. The Atlanta and Charlotte Air Line extends to Charlotte, N.C. (269 miles). The Georgia railway connects Atlanta with Augusta (171 miles), with lateral lines from Carnak to Warrenton (4 miles), Union Point to Athens (40 miles), and Barnet to Washington (18 miles); it also works the Macon and Augusta line from Carnak to Augusta (70 miles). The Atlanta and West Point (80 miles) unites those places. The Alabama and Chattanooga crosses the N.W. corner of the State. The Cherokee extends from Cartersville on the Western and Atlantic to Rockmart (23 miles). The Columbus and Atlanta, projected between Columbus and Rome, the Memphis branch (Rome to Decatur, Ala.), and Savannah, Griffin, and N. Alabama, from Griffin to Newnan, to be extended to Guntersville, Ala., are in progress. The Georgia Southern extends from Dalton to the Ala. State line (portion of Selina, Koine, and Dalton road); North-Eastern from Athens to Lulah (39 miles); Ocmulgee and Horse Creek (7 miles); Rome Railroad, Rome to Kingston (20 miles).
Government.—The executive power is vested in a governor elected for four years by a majority of the people. If there is no election by the people, the general assembly chooses one of the two receiving the highest number of votes. The legislative authority is conferred upon a senate, members of which are elected for four years, and a house of representatives elected for two years. The legislature holds annual sessions, beginning on the second Wednesday of January. The State judiciary consists of a supreme court of three judges, who hold office for twelve years, one retiring every four years, and of inferior courts, presided over by nineteen judges, appointed by the executive with the consent of the senate. Except in probate cases, these courts have original jurisdiction, civil and criminal, in law and equity. County courts are established in most of the counties. There is an ordinary for each county elected for four years, who holds a court of ordinary and probate. The organic law of the State now forbids slavery or involuntary servitude except for the punishment of crime. Imprisonment for debt, and legislation affecting the free exercise of that personal liberty guaranteed to the citizen by the amendments to the constitution of the United States, are also prohibited. All male inhabitants between eighteen and forty-five are subject to military duty. There is a homestead exemption of $2000 on real and $1000 on personal property, except for taxes, for money borrowed or expended on the homestead, or for labour or materials used upon it. The property held by a married woman at the time of marriage, or subsequently inherited or acquired by her, is not liable for the husband’s debts. A married woman may also sue and be sued in matters pertaining to her separate estate, and may carry on trade as if single. Georgia is entitled to seven representatives and two senators in Congress.
