- Collection:
- Ad Hoc Collection
- Title:
- Yazoo Land Purchase Proposal from the Georgia Union Company
- Date of Original:
- 1794-12-11
- Subject:
- Land use--Georgia--History--18th century
Government sale of real property--Georgia
Yazoo Fraud, 1795 - People:
- Few, William, 1748-1828
- Location:
- United States, Georgia, 32.75042, -83.50018
- Medium:
- documents
- Type:
- Text
- Format:
- image/jpeg
- Description:
- Proposition for purchase of the western (Yazoo) lands of the State of Georgia for $500,000 by John Twiggs, William Few, John Wereat, Edward Telfair for William Gibbons, Jr., representing the Georgia Union Company.
The western boundary of Georgia originally extended to the Mississippi River. In 1794 the state legislature agreed to consider proposals for the sale of the western or Yazoo lands to private land companies. Four companies pushed through a bid of $500,000 for 35,000,000 acres in present-day Alabama and Mississippi while a bid which reached $800,000 with a $40,000 deposit in hard currency from the Georgia Union Company was ignored. Passage of the bill was secured by bribes of money and land to legislators, state officials, and newspaper editors, who were also shareholders in the land companies. The bill's supporters were voted out of office and in February 1796 the bill was rescinded by a reform legislature. Three days after the passage of the Rescinding Act, all but a handful of records of the bill and land sales were burned in front of the State Capitol in Louisville. The western territory and Yazoo claims were transferred to the federal government for $1.25 million in 1802. - Metadata URL:
- https://vault.georgiaarchives.org/digital/collection/adhoc/id/967
- Rights Holder:
- Users may download the images for personal or educational use
- Original Collection:
- Ad Hoc Collection
Yazoo Land Fraud Records, General Administrative Records, Surveyor General, RG 3-1-69, Georgia Archives - Holding Institution:
- Georgia Archives
- Rights:
-
