By the mid-18th century, the Cherokee people moved into what is now northwest Georgia, establishing a settlement near the confluence of the Coosa River, referring to the area as "Head of Coosa." The Cherokee had allowed a few white traders, settlers and missionaries, but encroachment by European Americans intensified after the American War of Independence. The United States and Georgia executed the Compact of 1802, in which Georgia sold its claimed Western lands to the United States. In exchange, the United States agreed to ignore Cherokee land titles and remove all Cherokee people from Georgia.
The commitment to evict the Cherokee people was not immediately enforced, however. The Indian Removal Act of 1830, which fulfilled the Compact of 1802, was prompted by the discovery of gold near Dahlonega, Georgia, in 1829, bolstered by President Andrew Jackson's strong support for removal. In 1831 Georgia's General Assembly claimed all Cherokee land in Northwest Georgia.
1832 Land LotteryThe 1832 Land Lottery was authorized by the Georgia General Assembly to redistribute land to be taken from the Cherokee Nation in the forced removal that came to be known as the Trail of Tears.
The territory was divided into four sections, and each section was divided into districts. There were a total of 60 land districts, each was divided into 160-acre land lots. Over 18,000 parcels of land in what is now Floyd County, as well as Bartow, Cherokee, Cobb, Forsyth, Gilmer, Lumpkin, Murray, Paulding, and Union Counties, were distributed by lottery.
Most adult males residing in Georgia for the three years leading up to 1832 were eligible for one draw in the lottery if they paid the 12.5¢ registration fee. Widows, orphans, and certain veterans were eligible for two draws. Lists of the eligible population were constructed by each county government and forwarded to the state capital in Milledgeville.
The drawing involved two barrels, one filled with paper slips containing the information on each eligible person and the second barrel filled with slips specifying a parcel, with blank slips added to the parcel barrel to equalize the number of slips in each barrel. A slip was drawn simultaneously from each barrel to determine who had won which parcel. (Thus, lottery losers were those matched to a blank piece of paper.)
Very few requirements were imposed on winners - they simply had to register their claim with the state government and pay $18. They were not required to homestead the parcel for any amount of time. They were not even required to set foot on their parcel. They could immediately resell title to that parcel. The Cherokee nation fought the removal, however, and the state of Georgia was prevented from evicting the Cherokees until 1838.
Rome, 1834-1864Rome is the county seat of Floyd County, Georgia, and was founded in 1834. It developed as a trade center at the confluence of three rivers, the Oostanaula, the Coosa, and the Etowah.
Many prominent Rome business owners and officeholders advocated an 1860 "non-intercourse" campaign to boycott Northern-made products. In February of that year the Rome Courier gave much space to these views, opposing the pacifistic stand taken by its rival newspaper Southern & Advertiser. A mass meeting of citizens at the Rome city hall on December 3, 1860 resulted in a resolution demanding that all "personal liberty bills" affecting slaves be repealed and that fugitives be surrendered by abolitionist groups that provided sanctuary for escapees. Included was a stipulation that slave owners be granted the right to settle anywhere in the nation without freeing their bondsmen, and that laws giving free Black people the right to vote in congressional and presidential elections be abrogated. On January 16, 1861, delegates to the Georgia Convention of Secession, including those from Floyd County, voted to secede from the Union.
In June 1864, U.S. Gen. William T. Sherman issued Special Field Order No. 16 forbidding recruiting officers to enlist Black people who were employed by the army in any capacity. Despite Sherman's opposition, the enrollment of Black soldiers began in occupied areas of northwestern Georgia under authority of Col. Reuben D. Mussey, the commissioner for the Organization of U.S. Colored Troops in the Department of the Cumberland. Most activity took place between July and September 1864, when the 44th U.S. Colored Infantry was stationed in Rome. By late summer, the 44th contained some 800 Black enlisted men commanded by Col. Lewis Johnson, who was white.
Oil painting by Peter Blume, "The Two Rivers," 1943, at Federal Building, Post Office & U.S. Courthouse, Rome, Georgia