Georgia and Alabama Railroad

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The Georgia and Alabama Railroad was formed in 1895 from the failed Savannah, Americus and Montgomery Railway. The G&A expanded rapidly, acquiring the Abbeville and Waycross Railroad and building it further South to Ocilla, GA, obtaining a lease from the Central of Georgia Railroad for trackage rights between Lyons, GA and Meldrim, GA, and then acquiring the Columbus Southern Railway, all in 1896. The railroad was also known by the nickname of the Savannah Short Line which was to draw attention to its more direct route between Montgomery, AL and Savannah, GA as compared to its competitor's routes. In 1900, the G&A became a part of the Seaboard Air Line Railway.

The rail road was built using the labor of former slaves in prisons. On May 11, 1868, Thomas Rugor, Georgia's provisional governor, issued a convict lease for 100 African American prisoners to William Fort for work on the Georgia and Alabama Railroad as a solution to the labor shortage problem.^[1] Convict leasing was a system of penal labour instituted in the American South after the emancipation of slaves by the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1865.

[edit] References

1. ^ Todd, W. (2005). Convict Lease System. In The New Georgia Encyclopedia. Retrieved October 1, 2006, from [1]