lj] THE TENURE OF LAND BEFORE i860 iy 



vided for the distribution of the land through the draw- 

 ing of lots. The lot numbers were to be placed in " the 

 wheels " together with a sufficient number of blanks to 

 give every person so entitled one or two draws. 



The act recited that every free white male person 

 twenty-one years old or over, if a citizen of the United 

 States, and an inhabitant of Georgia for at least one year 

 preceding the act, should be allowed one draw. In case 

 such a person had a family he might have two draws. 

 Likewise widows with children might have two draws ; 

 families of orphans, one draw ; revolutionary officers and 

 soldiers, two draws. The fees required of successful 

 drawers before they could come into full ownership of 

 the land were small. By paying into the treasury the 

 sum of four dollars per one hundred acres " in lieu of all 

 fees of office and other charges for surveying and grant- 

 ing said lands," the prize drawers received titles to their 

 respective tracts. 



As indicated above, the general tenor of the other 

 lottery acts was similar to the first. Later eighteen 

 instead of twenty-one was made the minimum drawing 

 age, and three years' residence in the state instead of one 

 was required of the drawers. A most important provi- 

 sion of subsequent acts was that those who had drawn 

 lots in previous distributions were not to be allowed 

 further drawing privileges. Each lottery act named a 

 period within which the grants had to be taken out. 

 Failure to take out the grants within the period specified 

 would result in reversion of the lands to the state. Not- 

 withstanding the last-mentioned provision of each act an 

 authoritative writer in 1837 said that "the privilege of 

 taking out grants has been continued by annual revivals 

 down to the present time." 



Prince, Digest of Ga. Laws (1837), p. 568. 



