Men astride a burro and a camel from the King Edwards Trained Wild Animal Arena, on Sea Island in the early 1900s. The King Edwards troupe was from Montreal, Canada. The New Georgia Encyclopedia does not hold the copyright for this media resource and can neither grant nor deny permission to republish or reproduce the image online or in print. Requests for permission to publish or reproduce the resource should be submitted to the Georgia Archives.

Coleman Barks, professor emeritus of literature at the University of Georgia, is renowned both for his translations of the thirteenth-century poet Rumi and for his own verse. Courtesy of University of Georgia Photographic Services The New Georgia Encyclopedia does not hold the copyright for this media resource and can neither grant nor deny permission to republish or reproduce the image online or in print. All requests for permission to publish or reproduce the resource must be submitted to the rights holder.

Columbia County lies along the Savannah River in east central Georgia, bordering South Carolina just northwest of Augusta. It was created by an act of the state legislature from a northern part of Richmond County on December 10, 1790. In the colonial era the territory that constitutes Columbia County was laid out as part of St. Paul Parish. Named for explorer Christopher Columbus, the county was created in response to a request by backcountry settlers that they be given court sessions that would be more convenient than those held in Augusta.

During the antebellum period, Georgia and the rest of the South relied heavily on enslaved labor for farming and jobs that required hard labor. But with emancipation and the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment, slavery as an institution and a form of labor became illegal. After the Civil War (1861-65), landowners had a difficult time finding, and controlling, a labor force. Some Georgians saw the prisoners at the state’s penitentiary in Milledgeville as the solution to their problems—a workforce that could be firmly controlled.

Covington, the seat of Newton County, is located approximately thirty miles from downtown Atlanta. Nicknamed “the city of beautiful homes,” it is perhaps better known today as the location where many episodes of the television shows In the Heat of the Night (1988-94),The Dukes of Hazzard (1979-85), and Vampire Diaries ​(2009-17), as well as much of the movie My Cousin Vinny (1992), were filmed. The county courthouse, built in 1884, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.