With the nation facing the potential threat of disunion over the passage of the Compromise of 1850, Georgia, in a special state convention, adopted a proclamation called the Georgia Platform. The act was instrumental in averting a national crisis. Slavery had been at the core of sectional tensions between the North and South. New territorial gains, westward expansion, and the hardening of regional attitudes toward the spread of slavery provoked a potential crisis of the Union, which in many ways portended the tragic events of the 1860s.

The Georgia State College of Agriculture in Athens, shown here in 1919, became part of the University of Georgia in 1932. 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. ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7qLHOq56imZWjsLqvy6innpyZlnuwvsZomKusmZi5pr%2BOnpuum5GptrC6jq6loq6Vp8CqwNhmpp9ll5q8s7PImmamZWhnhHF7

Styled as the “Mother of the Blues,” Gertrude Pridgett Rainey, better known as “Ma” Rainey, was one of the most important of the early blues singers. In her thirty-five years of touring and recording, the Georgia native did much to establish the “classic” blues as a staple in American musical life. Rainey played a central role in connecting the less polished, male-dominated country blues and the smoother, female-centered urban blues of the 1920s.

Ghost Image—Athens (1974) by James Sitton is part of Georgia's State Art Collection. Pencil, 26 x 40 inches 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 Council for the Arts. ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7qLHOq56imZWjsLqvy6innpyZlnuwvsZomqiknJqwtbXOp6pon5Wkv6i1wKxkrKyRqbJurdGtZJynnKGypMDIqKVon5ikwLV5yKaYoJ1dlsGpsc2slqyhpKm8r6uPaWhmal8%3D

In 1975 the number of children receiving home-based instruction in the state of Georgia was about 10,000. According to the Georgia Home Education Association, that number had grown to 34,363 by the end of 2004, an increase of nearly 25,000, or three and a half times the number in 1975. This growing trend of home-based instruction is not confined to Georgia. A number of factors contribute to a family’s decision to homeschool.