United States, Georgia, 32.75042, -83.50018Gagnon, Michael J.2003-10-20Encyclopedia article about antebellum industrialization in Georgia. The state of Georgia earned the nickname "The Empire State of the South" in the antebellum period largely because of its textile industry. From 1840 until 1890 the state consistently led the South in textile production, the leading manufacturing sector of the United States in the years before the Civil War. Georgia's entrepreneurs began to experiment in factory-based industry between 1809 and 1820, but they failed in their first three attempts: the Bolton Factory in Wilkes County, Schley's Factory in Jefferson County, and Jacob Gregg's Factory in Morgan County. Although the details of these failures remain unclear, it may be that the sparse population in these counties near the Indian frontier proved too thin a market for profitable industrialization. Only after 1820 did Georgians push that frontier sufficiently west to develop the suitable waterpower factory sites along the fall line in Georgia.text/htmlengForms part of the New Georgia Encyclopedia.http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/Forms part of the New Georgia Encyclopedia.Textile industry--GeorgiaIndustrialization--GeorgiaGeorgia--History--1775-1865Georgia--Economic conditionsAntebellum industrializationText