Maybe some of you have been to Atlanta, Georgia. It is a large capital city with the busiest airport in the world. Two interstates, 75 and 85, cut through the heart of the city, revealing an impressive skyline of buildings. Atlanta is home to Coca-Cola and the 1996 Summer Olympics. The city has a rich historical and cultural legacy. Did you know Atlanta was burned down toward the end of the Civil War? Georgia as a whole was devastated by the ''War Between the States.''
During the war, Union General William T. Sherman boasted that he would ''make Georgia howl,'' and he did. He ordered the business district of Atlanta be burned to the ground. It is believed 40% of the city was destroyed. Toward the end of 1864, Sherman became famous for his ''March to the Sea,'' in which he and his men cut a 50-mile-wide path of destruction throughout the state of Georgia. The path stretched from Atlanta to the port city of Savannah. Railroad lines were torn up, and farms and businesses set on fire, as Union troops adopted a scorched earth policy.
Before the Civil War, the capital of Georgia was Milledgeville. Upon readmittance to the Union, the capital was changed to Atlanta. Atlanta was founded in the 1830s as a railroad hub. Despite being burned down by Union forces in 1864, Atlanta was rebuilt and grew during Reconstruction. By 1880 it was Georgia's largest city. With freed people leaving agricultural jobs and moving to the city, Atlanta quickly became a modern industrial city. In the 1880s electric street cars began operating in the city. In 1886 a former Confederate soldier named John Pemberton developed a soft drink called Coca-Cola. The company thrived, bringing jobs and money to Atlanta.
Georgia was among the first Southern states to make use of a convict leasing system. Under this system, convicts were ''leased'' out to private companies in order to provide free labor. Under this system, African-Americans were disproportionately represented. Convicts were often treated poorly and forced to work under horrible conditions. Progressive reformers regarded the convict leasing system as little better than slavery. Through convict leasing, Georgia was able to industrialize quickly. Railroads, iron work plants, mines, and other industrial projects throughout the state often made use of unpaid convict labor. Through the system, businessmen like Joseph E. Brown acquired tremendous wealth.
Answer:
Answer in explanation.
Explanation:
Reconstruction in Georgia was both a success and a failure. At the beginning of the reconstruction, Georgia created a new constitution. It was rejected by Congress, and Georgia created a new one, one that gave African Americans full rights. This, along with the presence of Union troops secured rights for African Americans. With this republicans managed to win a slight majority in the state legislator. This was mostly thanks to the fact that African Americans could exercise their rights to vote. As well as whites having power in the state legislative, reconstruction in Georgia also saw African Americans become part of the state legislative. At first this met opposition, but in the end the African Americans were allowed seating. All of this gave African Americans new rights and increased power. Also, with the help of organizations like the Freedman's Bureau, African Americans were able to adjust to the freedom and really start their lives.
However, this also led to organizations like the Ku Klux Klan to rise. These groups consisted of democrats and angry white southerners who didn't want the African Americans to have freedoms. They used terrorization and threats to get what they wanted. Eventually, when the Union troops left, Republicans were unable to maintain the control they once had. They lost control of the state legislator to the Democrats. Once Democrats took over, laws that treated African Americans unequally came back. African Americans who were part of the state legislator were forced out by pressure. African Americans lost their newfound rights because of new laws. They were also scared out of exercising their rights by people and organizations like the Ku Klux Klan. This meant the African Americans were pretty much in enslavement again.
Lastly, not only social changes happened. With government assistance, Georgia managed to recover. Once again they made profits from the crops that the economy relied on. Many of the railroads were rebuilt, allowing the industry to flourish once more. Also, during this time, the process of economic recovery also led to things like tenant farming and sharecropping to become common. People who tenant farmed would rent land and sometimes supplies for farming to make crops to sell. Others did sharecropping where they would work for someone else and help harvest crops in exchange for a percentage of the harvest. However, the economy managed to recover.
