This photograph shows the shell-damaged Potter House in Atlanta. As the official photographer for the Military Division of the Mississippi, George N. Barnard documented in 1864-65 some of the destruction left in the wake of the Civil War. Courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Photograph by George N. Barnard, #LC-B8171-2717. 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.

The Dixie Highway, a network of roads connecting Canada to Florida in the early decades of the twentieth century, was an ambitious undertaking to build the nation’s first north–south paved interstate highway. As the largest state in terms of area east of the Mississippi River, Georgia proved critical to the project’s success, mainly because the state’s size and location controlled access to Florida for anyone driving by car. Signs marked “Dixie Highway”  still exist on roadways throughout Georgia, particularly on old U.

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, Dorchester Academy, today an active community center and museum, was founded as a school for freedpeople. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. prepared for the 1963 Birmingham campaign, one of the first major victories of the civil rights movement, in this building. Courtesy of Winston Walker 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.

Fayette County is one of five counties created in 1821. It is home to the only preplanned community in the Southeast, a 16,000-acre community called Peachtree City, which was chartered in 1959. Part of the Atlanta metropolitan area, it has experienced significant population growth since the 1970s. Early History Following the forced removal of the Creek Indians to what is now Oklahoma, county land was divided into 202.5-acre lots that were drawn in a land lottery.

A coiled rattlesnake and the words "Our Motto Southern Rights, Equality of the States, Don't Tread on Me" appeared on a flag raised in Savannah upon Abraham Lincoln's election as U.S. president in November 1860. The words, adapted from a Revolutionary War motto, suggest that secessionists drew parallels between southern independence from the Union and American independence from England. Courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Farm Security Administration - Office of War Information Photograph Collection, #LC-USF34- 051632-D [P&P] LOT 1541.