A Southern lady's legacy: The Italian ‘Terraces’ of La Grange, Georgia

Abstract

Abstract In 1821, when the Creek Indian nation sold and ceded to the state of Georgia all of their lands between the Flint and Ocmulgee Rivers — the largest area surrendered up to that time — the Creek Assembly decreed in council that they would yield no additional territory in the future unless by unanimous consent of the representatives of the federated tribal communities, under pain of death. Just four years later the half-breed Chief William McIntosh, President of the Creek nation, violated this edict by negotiating with the United States government a series of treaties which relinquished the remaining Creek holdings in western Georgia and consented to the removal of the Indian population to new lands west of the Mississippi River, a betrayal for which he was ceremoniously executed by the dissenting chiefs. The state proceeded expeditiously to survey, divide into districts and lots, disperse by lottery and organize into counties the land acquired in this legally shadowed cession, but sporadic forays by hostile Creeks over the next few years troubled the pioneer settlements on Georgia's new western frontier.