ed in Africa is so startling, that a well-known abolitionist,
writing twenty years after emancipation, has described slavery as a
great university, which the negroes entered as barbarians, and came out
of as Christians and citizens.

The efforts of the Colony to secure a repeal of the act prohibiting
slavery were successful. The trustees in London concluded that it would
be better to permit slavery, with such restrictions and limitations as
might be proper, than to permit the wholesale violations that were then
going on; and so in 1749 the colonists of Georgia were allowed by law to
own and use negro slaves.

Thus, when the cotton gin came fairly into use, slavery had been legally
allowed in Georgia for nearly half a century. The rest of the Colonies
had long enjoyed that privilege. The cotton gin, therefore, had a
twofold effect,--it increased the cotton crop and the value of the
lands, and it also increased the use of negro slaves. The Virginians and
North Carolinians, who came to Georgia, brought their slaves with them;
and the Georgians, as their crops became profitable, laid out their
surplus cash in buying more negroes. The slave trade became very
prosperous, and both Old England and New England devoted a large amount
of capital and enterprise to this branch of commerce.

As the population increased, and the cotton crop became more valuable,
the demand for land became keener. To this fact was due the intense
excitement kindled by the Yazoo Fraud in 1794. The cotton gin had been
introduced the year before, and the people were beginning to see and
appreciate the influence the invention would have on their prosperity.
Instead of selling land to speculators, they wanted to keep it for
themselves and children, or at least to get something like its real
value.

The cotton gin had increased not only the demand for negro slaves, but
also the demand for land; and indirectly it was the cause of the various
troubles the State had with the Indians after the close of the War for
Independence. The troubles with the Indians also led finally to serious
misunderstandings between the United States Government and that of
Georgia. In May, 1796, a treaty was made between the United States and
the Creeks. This treaty created some indignation among the people, and
was denounced as an interference by the General Government with State
affairs. The lands which the Indians ceded to the United States were a
part of the Territory of Georg