Georgia

A colony named for a king

Georgia was the last of the thirteen original colonies, and its name is simple to explain: it honors King George II, who granted the colony’s charter on June 9, 1732. James Oglethorpe led the first settlers to Savannah in 1733. During the Revolution Georgia joined the other colonies, and on January 2, 1788, a state convention voted unanimously to ratify the US Constitution, making Georgia the fourth state.

Five capitals

Georgia moved its government more than most states, always following its population inland and west. Savannah, the colonial capital on the coast, came first, though the Revolution sent the government wandering between towns. Augusta, upriver on the Savannah River, took over in the 1780s. In 1796 the capital moved to Louisville, a planned town named for King Louis XVI to thank France for its help in the Revolution. In 1807 it moved again, to Milledgeville, a new town at the head of navigation on the Oconee River.

The last move came after the Civil War. Atlanta, a railroad hub that had been burned in 1864, offered free buildings and land for a capitol, and the Reconstruction constitution of 1868 made it the seat of government. Voters confirmed the choice in 1877. The capital page tells the story of all five, and of the Capitol dome gilded with gold carried from Dahlonega by mule-drawn wagons.

Three flags in 27 months

Georgia has changed its flag more often than almost any other state in recent decades. In 1956, during the resistance to school desegregation, the legislature adopted a flag dominated by the Confederate battle emblem. In 2001 Governor Roy Barnes replaced it with a new design showing the state seal over a row of historic flags. In 2003 Governor Sonny Perdue signed a third flag into law, modeled on the first Confederate national flag, the “Stars and Bars,” and in 2004 more than 73 percent of voters chose it over the 2001 design. The flag page has the full history.

The state motto, “Wisdom, Justice, and Moderation,” is written on the three pillars of the state seal, which dates from 1799.

The Peach State

Georgia is known everywhere as the Peach State, and the peach became the official state fruit in 1995, but the nickname has never been made official by itself. The state’s other symbols are a Southern menu and a nature guide in one. The Cherokee rose has been the floral emblem since 1916, the brown thrasher the state bird since 1970 and the live oak the state tree since 1937. Georgia has an official prepared food (grits), an official vegetable (the Vidalia sweet onion), an official crop (the peanut) and, since 2025, an official stew and bread: Brunswick stew and cornbread. It even has an official ’possum, Walt Kelly’s comic-strip character Pogo. See every symbol on the Georgia symbols page.

The state song is “Georgia on My Mind.” Hoagy Carmichael and Stuart Gorrell wrote it around 1930, and Ray Charles, born in Albany, Georgia, made it famous in 1960. On March 7, 1979, Charles sang it before the General Assembly, and a month later his version became the official state song.

Land and people

Georgia covers 59,425 square miles, the largest state east of the Mississippi River by land area, and had about 11.3 million residents in 2025, eighth in the country. It borders Florida, Alabama, Tennessee, North Carolina and South Carolina, and has an Atlantic coastline of barrier islands and marshes. Atlanta, with about 529,000 people, is the largest city and the center of a metropolitan area of more than six million. Columbus, Augusta, Macon and Savannah follow.