Land Lottery System

 Land Lottery System

Eight land lotteries were conducted by Georgia between 1805-1833. They were one each in 1807 and 1820, 1821 and 1827. The two other land lotteries were in 1833 and 1833. This allowed public lands to be distributed to small yeoman farmer (i.e., farmers who own their land). It was based on a system that combines chance and eligibility. Georgia sold nearly three-quarters its state to around 100,000 people and families during the twenty eight years that it operated the lottery.


Georgia was ruled by a small group of aristocratic colonists. Indigo and rice flourished in the area around Savannah and Augusta. These men were able to control the region and enslave people while the rest of the white population was left poor and politically weak. The Revolutionary War (1775-83) and British occupation of Savannah, Augusta had a devastating impact on the plantation industry. This led to a decrease in the political and economic power for the colonial elites as well as an increase in the influence of the small yeoman farmer. This power shift was supported by the Georgia Constitution of 1877.


Common farmers were more in demand for land, which prompted westward migration. Georgia claimed territory as far west and as far as the Mississippi River following the Revolution. The enormous area allowed the state to grant land grants to those who fought against the British. Georgia allowed heads of households to receive 200 acres of land, or more, if their household included family members and enslaved individuals. However, legislators and speculators had begun to authorize more land for homesteading by the 1780s. The end of speculative fever was achieved in 1795 when the legislature passed Yazoo Act. It sold almost 60% of land in present-day Alabama/Mississippi to four companies at a cost of $500,000. The contract was won by the four companies, along with their allies, through bribery. Georgia abolished the unregulated land speculation system and established a lottery system for disposing of public lands.


The legislature approved the first land lottery on May 11, 1803, which involved 490-acre plots within Wayne County and 202.5 acre plots within Baldwin and Wilkinson. Common Georgians can acquire large land holdings by paying four cents an inch for a fee. Eligible participants are families that include a spouse, a child and at least one other person; widows with children and all white males who have been living in Georgia for at the least one year. They apply to the state and their names are entered on sheets of paper. Lot numbers and eligible properties are placed in a drum. The number of times a participant was entered into the first drum determined by their age, marital status and successful participation in previous lotteries.


The same principles were followed by the seven additional land lotteries. Georgians eventually moved westward to land once owned by Native Americans for an average of seven cents an an acre. After signing the Compact of 1802 between the U.S. and Georgia, this land was rapidly acquired. Georgia and the U.S. signed the Compact of 1802. In exchange for Georgia's surrendering its claims to Alabama and Mississippi, the federal government paid $1.25million to the state. The money was used by the federal government to settle disputed Yazoo land rights and promised to eliminate the Creek Indians remaining from Georgia's borders. Andrew Jackson's victory over Creeks during the War of 1812 (1812-15), effectively eliminated the Creeks. The 1805 and 1807 lotteries, the 1820, 1821 and 1827 lotteries, involved Creek lands. The 1820 lotteries were comprised of Cherokee and Creek lands. Cherokee land was included in the two 1832 lotteries, one in 1833, and one each in 1833. The lottery system was created in 1832 and distributed thousands of Georgia families with the dispersal of Cherokee land in present-day Bartow (Cherokee, Cobb, Floyd and Gilmer counties). In the same Cherokee region, a separate lottery was conducted in 1832 to distribute 40-acre gold districts for $10 each.


The land that was acquired by lotteries on the frontier was originally used to grow tobacco. But with the introductions of cotton and the invention of the cotton gin the focus shifted to large-scale production of cotton. Enslaved laborers were needed to work these plantations. Georgia had 44% of its population by 1820. Thus, the land lottery did more than increase the landholdings of common Georgians. It also gave them the opportunity to become slaveholders or enter the planter classes.


In 1833, the last land lottery was held to dispose of all the territory that had been drawn from the 1832 lotteries. However, the system had drastically changed Georgia so that the aristocrats had no longer been able to exercise political and economic control over the state in the same way they had before the Revolution. According to the Lotto System, Georgia planters had less land on average than their counterparts in other southern states. This was a result of the power shift away from large landholding aristocrats and towards yeoman.


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