The Evolution of Landholding Patterns on the Georgia Piedmont, 1805-1830

THE EVOLUTION OF LANDHOLDING PATTERNS ON THE GEORGIA PIEDMONT, 1805-1830 Steven W. Engerrand" INTRODUCTION. Large regions such as the southern United States differ greatly over a distance of only a few miles; it is doubtful that any one small area or even several small areas can serve satisfactorily as a microcosm for the entire region. Several well-regarded and frequently quoted historians, however, derived sweeping generalizations concerning the South from research covering only limited areas. One such generalization described a cotton-dominated plantation system which relentlessly encroached upon the land of small farmers, driving them to the poorer land or on to newer areas. This generalization was most clearly articulated by the prominent historian, Ulrich B. Phillips. According to Phillips, the four choices open to nonslaveholders were 1) resettling as yeomen farmers, 2) becoming planters through thrift, 3) holding their own despite the disadvantage of competing with slave labor, and 4) living from hand to mouth as poor whites. Phillips wrote that the planters continued to encroach wherever they could upon the territory already occupied in part by the smaller . . . units. The very nature of the plantation system caused this phenomenon . . . . The economic history of the Old South in its plantation districts was made up very largely of extensions and repetitions of the same general phenomenon. (1) Phillips derived much of his plantation expansion theory from the study of the Georgia landholding system which was based on a public land lottery. (2) Because the Georgia system was different from that used in other southern states, Phillips' generalizations might not be valid interpretations of the development of landholding patterns in the South. In challenging Phillips, Frank L. Owsley concluded that the great planters and the nonslaveholders owned property side by side on land of equal value. (3) Although most historians now acknowledge the existence of large numbers of small farmers, little work is to be found in the literature to reveal the process by which the plantation-sized landholdings developed at the expense of small holdings. (4) In the absence of any study of this process, few historians have abandoned completely Phillips' rather simplistic and deterministic theory of relentless plantation expansion. The present study is an attempt to test the validity •Mr. Engerrand is a Ph.D. candidate in history at the University of Georgia. This paper was accepted for publication in March 1975. 74Southeastern Geographer of these standard historical-geographic generalizations through an analysis of the development of landholding patterns within the Georgia land lottery region. The Georgia Surveyor General Department, the official depository of the records of all grants of land made in the state, is a source of detailed land records. There are also many county records which supplement these grant records. (5) Deeds, tax lists, and will books in addition to the grant records provide an excellent means for the study of changing landholding patterns over time. (6) When this information is synthesized and compiled for particular points in time, it is well suited to cartographic expression and analysis. THE GEORGIA LAND LOTTERY. In 1803, the Georgia legislature authorized a lottery method of land distribution which, with only minor variations, distributed 31 million acres of public land. Proponents of the lottery hoped to encourage an influx of persons to the frontier areas of western Georgia where a large population of yeomen farmers could make up the militia for defense against Indian raids. (7) As Georgia forced the Indians to cede their tribal land, the legislature organized counties, and state surveyors proceeded to lay out land districts and land lots. A lottery was then held at the state capital to dispense farm-sized lots to fortunate, qualified citizens. In many areas, a lot size of 202M acres was chosen because of the ease of surveying squares of 45 chains. (8) In the state's first land lottery in 1805, Georgia distributed 202Ja acre lots in the fifth land district of Baldwin County (Figure 1). The first lottery also distributed land in nine other districts in the center of the state and in three districts in southeast Georgia. (9) ORIGINAL LAND GRANT PATTERNS. The lottery distributed 204 regular lots, or 41,310 acres, in the fifth land district...