JLobacco stabilizes 



Following the Revolution both South Carolina and 

 Georgia adopted tobacco as a staple crop and intro- 

 duced regular warehouse and inspection systems. 



Thomas JeflFerson noted the potential growth of a 

 Georgia tobacco industry in 1782 when he referred to 

 the area in his notes as a substitute state for Virginia 

 tobacco growth which he believed to be nearly ex- 

 hausted: 



. . . But the midlands of Georgia, Jmving fresh 

 and fertile lands in abundance, and a hotter 

 sun, will be able to undersell these two states 

 [Virginia and Maryland]. 



In 1786, one Dioneysius Oliver erected a tobacco 

 warehouse in the fork between the Savannah and Broad 

 Rivers at Petersburg— believed to be the first tobacco 

 warehouse built in the state. By the early 1790's, Geor- 

 gia ranked third among the southern states producing 

 tobacco. 



E 



nter "King" cotton 



But tobacco growth in Georgia and in other areas 

 of the South was soon to be overshadowed by that of 

 cotton. In 1793, along with Eli Whitney's creation of 

 the cotton gin, came an agricultural revolution in 

 America. Georgia tobacco was being eclipsed by the 

 state's blossoming cotton industry. 



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