United States v. Darby (1941) was a highly influential case in the history of the relationship between federal and state law. In this case, the U.S. Supreme Court set a groundbreaking precedent by allowing federal interference with local wage regulations in Georgia. In many cases of the last half of the twentieth century—including the important Heart of Atlanta Motel v. United States (1964) and other decisions upholding modern antidiscrimination laws—the U.

On December 16, 1853, Webster County, in the southwestern part of the state, was carved out of Lee and Stewart counties to become Georgia’s 103rd county. The Creek Indians ceded the land to the United States in the treaty of 1826. Creek influence is still apparent in the names of three of the area’s slow-moving creeks, the Kinchafoonee, Choctahatchee, and Lanahassee. The county was originally called Kinchafoonee (a Creek word meaning white bones) for the main creek running from north to southeast, but the name drew so much criticism that in 1856 it was changed to Webster, in honor of Daniel Webster, the New Hampshire orator and statesman.

Wilkinson County, near the geographic center of Georgia, was established in 1803 from territory between the Oconee and Ocmulgee rivers ceded by the Creek confederation. The Georgia state legislature divided the area into Wilkinson and Baldwin counties. A later treaty, which pushed the frontier of Georgia west to the Ocmulgee River, added land to the earlier portion and gave rise to the need for smaller county areas. The legislature then partitioned Laurens and Telfair counties from Wilkinson and established their boundaries in 1807.

As Union troops entered the state during the Civil War, enslaved Georgians took the opportunity to escape under their protection. The Union army established "contraband" camps to provide food and shelter for the newly freed African Americans. Photograph by Wikimedia 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.

Since the appearance of his first book of poems in 1976, Alfred Corn has distinguished himself as one of the most original poets writing in the United States. In addition to his poems, Corn has also published one novel, a highly praised manual of prosody, a collection of essays, translations of poetry and drama, and critical writing on art, music, and the theater, as well as an edited collection of essays on the New Testament.