- Survey
- Early
- Act of May 15, 1821; drawings Nov. 7-Dec. 12, 1821
- City of Atlanta
- Location approximate
The 1821 land lottery
Georgia surveyed the 1821 Creek cession into numbered districts and 202.5-acre land lots and gave them away by lottery to white Georgians. Property in Atlanta and DeKalb is still described by district and land lot.
The record
The lottery act passed May 15, 1821, and drawings ran from November 7 to December 12, 1821 (Georgia Archives). The cession became five counties: Dooly, Fayette, Henry, Houston and Monroe. Henry was surveyed into 18 districts and Fayette into four (numbered 6, 7, 9 and 14). Every lot was 202.5 acres, a square 45 chains (2,970 feet) on a side, and a winner paid a grant fee of $19. Eligible drawers included white men, widows and orphans, with extra draws for some groups; earlier winners, draft refusers, convicts and tax defaulters were excluded. Georgia held eight lotteries between 1805 and 1833 on Muscogee and Cherokee land (NGE); this point marks where four of the districts that became Fulton and DeKalb meet.
Today: District and land-lot numbers remain part of every parcel's legal description.