fj] THE TENURE OF LAND BEFORE i860 I5 



revolutionary contest was in progress, the state govern- 

 ment adopted a policy the purpose of which was to en- 

 courage a further increase of a stable population. This 

 was the so-called head-right system of grants. The pre- 

 amble to an act opening a land office, passed in 1777, 

 says: 



Whereas there remains much vacant and uncultivated land in 

 this state, the settlement of which is of the highest importance, 

 wherefore it becomes necessary that all due encouragement 

 should be given to persons who come and settle in this state, 

 and by that means promote the increase of its inhabitants. 1 



According to this act every head of a family was allowed 

 to select and to come into possession of two hundred 

 acres of unoccupied land and fifty additional acres for 

 each member of his family, provided he would pay the 

 expenses of surveying the plot, and provided, also, he 

 would occupy with his family the land thus taken. Other 

 acts of the same general tenor were passed from time to 

 time in the latter part of the eighteenth century. 2 



The section of the state settled under the operation of 

 these laws lies south of Hall and Habersham counties 

 and east of the Oconee and Ocmulgee rivers, the latter 

 forming the western boundary only after the Oconee 

 flows into it. This part of the state was, therefore, first 

 settled ; here the lands have been longest under fee 

 simple ownership. In this region are to be found thus 

 early the beginnings of the large estates of a later 

 period, for even slaves up to the number of ten were 

 reckoned members of the family in the allotment of fifty 

 additional acres for each member. The terms of occu- 



Prince, Digest of the Laws of Ga. (1837), pp. 517-519- 

 ' Ibid., pp. 519-540. 



