The University of Georgia gymnastics team, known as the Gym Dogs, won the national title in 2005 for the sixth time in its history. The 2005 team also received a total of seventeen all-American honors. Photograph by John Kelley 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.

Alfred H. Colquitt, an active secessionist and brigade commander in the Civil War (1861-65), was a prominent political leader in his home state until his death. During his long career, the veteran officer was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate, as well as the governor of Georgia. Alfred Holt Colquitt was born in Walton County on April 20, 1824. In his youth Colquitt was educated at a local school in Monroe and eventually attended the College of New Jersey (later Princeton University), from which he graduated in 1844.

In February 1856 the Atlanta Gas Light Company was incorporated to provide gas lighting to the city of Atlanta. One of Georgia’s oldest companies, Atlanta Gas Light has provided gas light, heat, and power to many of Atlanta’s homes and still delivers natural gas to 1.5 million homes in Georgia. The company is a division of AGL Resources, a publicly traded multistate energy company. The Early Years When Atlanta’s leaders decided to light the city’s first gas streetlight on December 25, 1855, they sparked a new era in the city’s early history.

Over the course of forty-eight years, Savannah played an integral role in the Atlantic slave trade. Although Savannah’s participation in the slave trade was initially miniscule, the port of Savannah has historical transnational importance as a receiver of enslaved West Africans during the late eighteenth century. Despite a ban on African slavery in early Georgia, enslaved people and slavery were an integral part of the colony’s development. Following the settlement of Savannah in 1733, enslaved people from South Carolina cleared land, tended cattle, and labored on farms.

The Bark Camp Church, pictured around 1900, was a Baptist church established in 1788 on the Bark Camp site in Burke County. Bark Camp, founded prior to the Revolutionary War, served as a camp for incoming settlers to the area. 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.