The period after the revolution and before the civil war were years of population growth and economic prosperity. [[Eli Whitney]] patented the [[cotton gin]], driving Georgia and much of the South into a cotton-based economy.
Seventy-three years after ratification of the U.S. Constitution, Georgia seceded from the Union and joined other Southern states to form the [[Confederate States of America]] in February 1861. War erupted on April 12, 1861 and Georgia contributed nearly one hundred thousand soldiers to the war effort. The first major battle in Georgia was the [[Battle of Chickamauga]], a Confederate victory, and the last major Confederate victory in the west. In 1864, [[William Tecumseh Sherman|William T. Sherman]]'s armies invaded Georgia as part of the [[Atlanta Campaign]].; OneSherman's ofMarch the last land battles ofto the CivilSea War,devastated thea [[Battlewide ofswath Columbus,from Georgia|BattleAtlanta ofto Columbus]],Savannah wasin foughtlate on1864. the Georgia-Alabama border.
After the war, Georgians endured a period of economic hardship. [[Reconstruction era of the United States|Reconstruction]] was a period of militaryRepublican rule designedthat attempted to implementbring sweepingequal politicalrights and social change uponto the defeatedFreedmen South(freed slaves). The end of Reconstruction marked the beginning of the Postbellum[[Jim Crow]] era,andin awhich centuryblacks longhad transitionsecond towardclass industriallegal, social and technologicaleconomic growthstatus. andThe awaystate fromwas heavily rural with an agrarianeconomy socio-economicbased on basegrowing cotton. DuringthatSome transition,textile Georgiansplants experiencedopened [[Woman'sGeorgia Sufferage]],was aone of the last states to provide votes for women in 1920. The [[Great Depression in the United States|Great Depression of the 1930s]] hit the state hard. Prosperity returned in World War II, andalthough Georgia remained among the poorer states. The [[Civil rights movement|Civil Rights Movement]].Thehad perioda fromstrong 1980role toin the presentstate, haswhich seenwas the base for [[Martin Luther King, Jr.]]. After 1950 Atlanta became a shiftmajor inregional politicancity, powerand the people left the farms for the industrial cities and continuedespecially economicthe suburbs, growth.
