1. Technological Innovations
Westward Expansion
Technological Innovations

2. Georgia Agriculture After the American Revolution
Tobacco
Cotton

3. Tobacco was ruining the soil in GA

4. Cotton was not a good crop to grow
There were tiny seeds inside the bolls that were difficult to remove.

5. Eli Whitney Was a Northern visiting Mrs. Catherine Green Miller
at Mulberry Grove Plantation
near Savannah, Georgia
Heard farmers talking about problems with deseeding cotton

6. Cotton Gin Whitney “invented” it to comb the seeds out of the cotton
50 pounds could now be processed a day

7. Impact of the Cotton Gin
The South became dependent upon one crop

8. Impact of the Cotton Gin
Southern farmers began to grow more cotton
They needed
more people to
help them plant
and harvest it—
MORE SLAVES

9. Railroads
Businessmen in Athens, GA wanted a better and faster way to transport cotton to market in Augusta
By the 1840s and 1850s, GA had the most railroad tracks in the Deep South

10. Western and Atlantic Railroad
Owned most of the rail lines in Georgia
Ran from Chattanooga, TN to the Southeast bank of the Chattahoochee River
End point was called Terminus (end of the railroad line)

11. Terminus
Stores, hotels, and other businesses grew around the railroad hub
The city
was later
renamed
Atlanta