Old Timers and Newcomers: Henry County through 200 Years

By Dr. Charles Pendley
Contributing Writer

This year, 2021, is our county’s Bicentennial year, marking 200 years since our County’s founding by an act of the state legislature on May 15, 1821. It is altogether fitting to look back on the last two centuries, on the people and events that made Henry County what it is today and – hopefully – to draw some lessons from our county’s history.

The last article told how our County was carved out of former Creek Indian land and was opened to settlement by white families, which set the stage for the next chapter in our county’s history – the reign of “King Cotton,” the coming of railroads with their “Iron Horses,” the plantation system, slave labor and divisive national and state politics that led the county into the destruction and devastation of the Civil War.

By 1830, the population of Henry County had reached over 10,000 souls. Forests were being cleared and crops planted by the new settlers. The first homes were mostly crude log cabins with dirt or rough plank floors and basic wooden furniture. Among the first crops were tobacco and corn, but with the arrival of the cotton gin, coupled with the demand for cotton in the northern states and England, and the expansion of railroads that linked the farms with distant markets, cotton soon became the dominant crop.

A photograph of a mass baptism from the period leading up to the Civil War.
Photo courtesy of the Georgia Archives

However, cotton cultivation required labor to plant, weed, and pick – a lot of labor. Small farmers could get by with the labor of their own family, but larger farms required large amounts of cheap labor, for which the slave labor already being used in sugar plantations and coastal Georgia was well-suited.

The first railroad to reach Henry County was the Macon and Western Railroad, which ran through the small community of Bear Creek (now Hampton) in 1845. This created a boom for Bear Creek, so much so that it was reported that people in McDonough tore down their houses and moved them on wagons to Bear Creek (Hampton), which would soon could boast a cotton gin and more taverns than churches. The railroad made it possible to ship bales of cotton from Bear Creek to Macon, and from there, on to the port of Savannah.  For better or worse, cotton and the railroads connected Henry County to the outside world and made the plantation system, along with its demand for slave labor, take root and grow in Henry County.

One reason the railroad passed through Bear Creek and bypassed the county seat of McDonough, was that Bear Creek lies on the continental divide between the Flint and Ocmulgee rivers, which meant that few, if any, trestles over rivers and creeks had to be built. In the mid-1800s, trestles were made mostly of wood and were expensive and dangerous – as McDonough was to tragically experience some 50 years later.

It is reported that, in the beginning, many residents of McDonough were against a railroad coming through their town, because it was claimed that the noise would scare their horses and other animals. By 1850, the population of Henry County had reached over 15,000 people, of which almost 10,000 were white, 15 free colored, and almost 5,000 were indentured slave laborers and their families. The population of the town of McDonough had reached 500, and large plantations in Henry County were the exception, not the rule.

By 1850, a social order was taking shape that would persist until the Civil War. At the top were owners of large plantations, some of whom had amassed up to 500 acres of land or more through inheritance or purchase. As of 1859, there were 726 slaveholders, of which only 88 had ten slaves or more, with the largest number being around 60. Next in the social hierarchy were merchants, government officials, lawyers, judges, doctors, bankers, teachers, and preachers. They were followed by craftsmen such as carpenters, blacksmiths, cobblers, wagoners, and buggy-makers. At the bottom of the social order were the two largest groups: small family farmers, and slave laborers and their families.

Among the largest and most prosperous of the plantation owners in the 1850s was Philip Fitzgerald, who had 400 acres under cultivation. In one year, the Fitzgerald plantation produced 57 bushels of wheat, 1,250 bushels of “Indian corn,” 50 bushels of oats, 300 pounds of butter, 50 pounds of honey, and, last but not least, 70 bales of cotton.

Another of Henry County’s large plantation owners was Thomas Dixon Weems. While we don’t have records from before the Civil War, we can get a glimpse of what the Weems plantation possessed and produced from the claims that were made of the damage caused by General Sherman’s troops on their infamous March to the Sea in November of 1864.  It was claimed that the Yankees burned or destroyed one new and one old gin house, a two-story barn, three tenant houses, four wagons, one shop building with tools, 150 bales of lint (ginned) cotton, 50 bales of cotton with seed, 18,000 bushels of corn burned in the field or in cribs, 180,000 bundles of animal fodder burned in buildings and in stacks, and an enclosed silver mounted carriage (the SUV of the day).

It was also claimed that the ravenous Yankees took away no fewer than 1,500 bushels of shucked corn, 20,000 bundles of animal fodder, 30 barrels of flour, 8,000 pounds of cured meat (hams, bacon, sausage, etc.), 3,000 pounds of lard, 550 cows, 600 sheep, goats and hogs, 600 chickens, 100 turkeys, 125 geese, 12,000 bushels of sweet potatoes, 1,200 gallons of syrup, 25 work mules, 6 horses, and 400 gallons of peach and apple brandy.

Even though the above claims are probably exaggerated, it is beyond doubt that the Weems plantation was both large and prosperous, and that the use of slave labor was an important reason for its prosperity.

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7 comments on “Old Timers and Newcomers: Henry County through 200 Years

  1. Sojourner

    Nothing fascinating about this article. Slavery was mentioned several times, not as a horror but as an item on the list of thing that “helped” grow Henry County. Henry County like many others has a horrific past and it grew soley on the backs of people who were traded or stolen from another land. Families broken up, identities lost; slaves beaten, tortured , raped, whipped, burned alive, hanged, and denied human decency. All these
    atrocities would carry over and forever be etched into the collective psyche of black America. Shame on Henry County.

    1. Charles Pendley

      Sojourner, thanks you for your observations. The treatment of Indians and the institution of slavery is in no way morally defensible, as is much in history, and the article is not meant to imply that. In Henry County the plantation system existed for a little more than one generation. It is a historical fact that can not be sugar-coated. There was a small group of plantation owners, along with populist firebrand Governor Joe Brown and the Southern Democrats who had whipped public opinion into an anti-federal frenzy by 1860. I strongly believe that in 1860 the majority of Henry Countians did not care about the institution of slavery or owning slaves, but simply wanted to raise their families the best they could and eke out a meager living from the land. You may find some justice in the devastation the Civil War brought to Henry County by 1865 and beyond.

  2. Jimmy Hightower

    Interesting article .
    My GGgrandfather was Sheriff for 3 terms 1860-71 and also a first Physician. Severely wounded in the battle of Griswoldville, Ga. 1864. Rich in History!

  3. Charles J. Pendley

    Mr. Hightower, I am aware that the Hightower name is associated with prominent families from Henry and Clayton counties dating back to the early 1800s.

    The Battle of Griswoldsville was unfortunate, as Gen. Sherman did not intend to attack Macon after all.

    If you have more information about your GGgrandfather ‘s work as sheriff and doctor in Henry County, I would appreciated receiving it

  4. Griot

    Why are the 5,000 enslaved people of 1850 described as “indentured”? This is a mischaracterization and white washing of their status. Indentured people had some hope for freedom and payment/land if they survived their limited time of servitude, whereas the 5000 people you speak of were held as slaves in perpetuity, as well as their offspring. There was no hope of freedom, as GA Act of 1818 and 1859 would not allow it. A correction needs to be made here to call it what it really is instead of try to “fluff” it up. Also, where are these 15 free people of color that you speak of? I have searched for them in the census.

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