Template:Wp-Milledgeville, Georgia-History

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Milledgeville, named after Georgia governor John Milledge (in office 1802–1806), was founded by European Americans at the start of the 19th century as the new centrally located capital of the state of Georgia. It served as the state capital from 1804 to 1868.

In 1803 an act of the Georgia legislature called for the establishment and survey of a town to be named in honor of the current governor, John Milledge. The Treaty of Fort Wilkinson (1802) had recently forced Native American tribes to cede territory immediately west of the Oconee River. The white population of Georgia continued to press west and south in search of new farmland. The town of Milledgeville was developed in an area that had long been occupied by indigenous peoples.

In December 1804 the state legislature declared Milledgeville the new capital of Georgia. The new planned town, modeled after Savannah and Washington, D.C., stood on the edge of the frontier at the Atlantic fall line, where the Upper Coastal Plain meets the foothills and plateau of the Piedmont. The area was surveyed, and a town plat of was divided into 84 squares. The survey also included four public squares of each.

Life in the antebellum capital

After 1815 Milledgeville became increasingly prosperous and more respectable. Wealth and power gravitated toward the capital. Much of the surrounding countryside was developed by slave labor for cotton plantations, which was the major commodity crop of the South. Cotton bales regularly were set up to line the roads, waiting to be shipped downriver to Darien.

Public-spirited citizens such as Tomlinson Fort (mayor of Milledgeville, 1847–1848) promoted better newspapers, learning academies, and banks. In 1837-1842 the Georgia Lunatic Asylum (later the Central State Hospital) was built here. Oglethorpe University, where the poet Sidney Lanier was later educated, opened its doors in 1838. (The college, forced to close in 1862 during the war, was rechartered in 1913. It moved its campus to Atlanta.)

The cotton boom in this upland area significantly increased the demand for slave labor. The town market, where slave auctions took place, was located on Capital Square, next to the Presbyterian church. Skilled black carpenters, masons, and laborers were forced to construct most of the handsome antebellum structures in Milledgeville.

Two events epitomized Milledgeville's status as the political and social center of Georgia in this period:

• In 1825 the capital was visited by American Revolutionary War hero and aristocrat, the Marquis de Lafayette. The receptions, barbecue, formal dinner, and grand ball for the veteran apostle of liberty seemed to mark Milledgeville's coming of age.
• The Governor's Mansion was constructed (1836-38/39); it was one of the most important examples of Greek revival architecture in America.

By 1854 Baldwin County had a total population of 8148, of whom 3566 were free (mostly white), and 4602 were African-American slaves.

American Civil War and its aftermath

On January 19, 1861, Georgia convention delegates passed the Ordinance of Secession, and on February 4, 1861, the "Republic of Georgia" joined the Confederate States of America. In November 1864 Union general William T. Sherman and 30,000 Union troops marched into Milledgeville during his March to the Sea. Before leaving a couple of days later, they poured sorghum and molasses down the pipes of the organ at St. Stephen's Episcopal Church.

In 1868, during Reconstruction, the state legislature moved the capital to Atlanta—a city emerging as the symbol of the New South as surely as Milledgeville symbolized the Old South.

Milledgeville struggled to survive as a city after losing the business of the capital. The energetic efforts of local leaders established the Middle Georgia Military and Agricultural College (later Georgia Military College) in 1879 on Statehouse Square. Where the crumbling remains of the old penitentiary stood, Georgia Normal and Industrial College (later Georgia College & State University) was founded in 1889. In part because of these institutions, as well as Central State Hospital, Milledgeville developed as a less provincial town than many of its neighbors.

Twentieth century to present

In the 1950s the Georgia Power Company completed a dam at Furman Shoals on the Oconee River, about north of town, creating a huge reservoir called Lake Sinclair. The lake community became an increasingly important part of the town's social and economic identity.

In the 1980s and 1990s Milledgeville began to capitalize on its heritage by revitalizing the downtown and historic district. It encouraged restoration of historic buildings and an urban design scheme on Main Street to emphasize its character.

By 2000 the population of Milledgeville and Baldwin County combined had grown to 44,700. Community leaders have made concerted efforts to create a more diversified economic base, striving to wean the old capital from its dependence on government institutions such as Central State Hospital and state prisons. The state has recently closed some prisons and reduced jobs at Central State, due to tightening state budgets.