Ed Jackson and Charly Pou

Carl Vinson Institute of Government

The University of Georgia

March 2

1807 Congress passed legislation prohibiting the importation of slaves into the U.S. as of Jan. 1, 1808.

1867 Congress passed the first Reconstruction Act, which assigned Georgia and the other seceded states into five military districts.

1874 Gov. James Smith approved an act allowing anyone convicted of a crime and sentenced to a fine, but who did not have the resources to pay the fine, to hire themselves out to any person willing to pay the fine. Both the convict and person paying the convict's fine had to sign an agreement in the presence of a judge stating the kind of work the convict would have to do, the place where it would be done, and the length of time or nature of the work project that would fulfill the contract -- with the conditions of the contract approved by the judge.

1875 Georgia's General Assembly got out of the business of approving name changes. Previously, lawmakers had to pass a private act to change a person's name. However, by an act approved by Gov. James Smith on this day, authority to approve name changes was bestowed on the superior court.

1883 Former Georgia congressman and Confederate general Dudley McIver DuBose died in Washington, Ga. Born Oct. 28, 1834, in Shelby County, Tenn., DuBose was admitted to the bar in 1857. After marrying the daughter of Robert Toombs, he practiced law in Memphis until 1860, when they moved to Augusta, Ga. In 1861, he joined the 15th Georgia Volunteer Infantry as a lieutenant. DuBose fought in the battles of Seven Days, Second Manassas, and Sharpsburg. Promoted to colonel in Jan.1863, he fought in the battles of Gettysburg, Chickamauga, and the Wilderness. In Nov. 1864, DuBose was promoted to brigadier general and given command of his own brigade in Kershaw's Division, which participated in the battle of Petersburg and the Appomattox campaign. He was captured on April 6, 1865, and served several months as a prisoner of war. After the war, DuBose moved to Washington, Ga., though his wife died the following year. He resumed the practice of law, becoming a partner with Robert Toombs after Toombs' return from exile. He represented Georgia for one term in the U.S. House of Representatives (1871-73). Failing to win reelection, he returned to Washington, Ga., where he practiced law until his death.

1944 The National Labor Relations Board announced the result of union certification elections at the Bell Aircraft plant in Marietta. Some 76 percent of the mold loft workers voted to be represented by the International Association of Machinists (AFL), while 18 percent voted no union, and 6 percent CIO. Meanwhile the United Auto Workers (CIO) became the bargaining agent for maintenance and production workers by a vote of 51.6 percent for the CIO, as opposed to 44.4 percent for the AFL and 3.6 percent for no union. (Contributed by Dr. Tom Scott, Kennesaw State University)

1950 Groundbreaking ceremonies were conducted for construction of Buford Dam, the key element in creating what would become Lake Lanier. After Georgia's congressional delegation obtained loans of $250,00 in 1947 and $450,000 in 1948 for construction of a dam and lake, Congress appropriated $750,000 for the project in 1949. The idea of a lake and dam north of Atlanta traced to Atlanta Mayor William Hartsfield, who was interested in controlling downstream flooding, a reliable source of drinking water, hydroelectric power, and a lake for recreation purposes. Eventually, $45 million in federal funds went into creation of Buford Dam and Lake Lanier.

1968 President Lyndon B. Johnson attended ceremonies as the first Galaxy C5A -- the world's largest airplane -- rolled off the assembly line at Lockheed's Marietta plant.

1981 Fifteen year old Joseph "Jo-Jo" Bell disappeared in Atlanta. Almost a month and a half later his body, probably strangled, was discovered in a river. He was the latest victim in the Atlanta Child Murders case.

2005 Leah Ward Sears became the first woman elected cheif justice of the Georgia Supreme Court, and the first African-American state chief justice in the country.

2007 A bus carrying members of the Bluffton (OH) University baseball team crashed off of Northside Dr. onto Interstate 75 in Atlanta, killing six people.

Georgia cities and towns first incorporated by acts approved by the governor on March 2:

1874 Belton (Hall and Banks counties), High Shoals (Clarke [now Oconee], Morgan, and Walton counties), Summerville (Chattooga County), and Whitesburg (Carroll County)

In Their Own Words on This Day. . .

1839 Fanny Kemble's Journal was actually a series of 31 entries from Dec. 30, 1838 to April 17, 1839 written while visiting the rice and cotton plantations of her husband [Pierce Butler] on the coast of Georgia. The entries were written in the format of letters addressed to "Dear Elizabeth" [her friend Mrs. Elizabeth Sedgwick of Lenox, Mass.] They were never mailed, though apparently it was her intent to one day allow Elizabeth to read them. In her "letter" for this day, Kemble continued to show her distress over the conditions faced by her husband's slaves:

". . .Before closing this letter, I have a mind to transcribe to you the entries for today recorded in a sort of daybook, where I put down very succinctly the number of people [slaves] who visit me, their petitions and ailments, and also such special particulars concerning them as seem to me worth recording. You will see how miserable the physical condition of many of these poor creatures is; and their physical condition, it is insisted by those who uphold this evil system, is the only part of it which is prosperous, happy, and compares well with that of Northern laborers. Judge from the details I now send you; and never forget, while reading them, that the people of this plantation are well off, and consider themselves well of, in comparison with the slaves on some of the neighboring estates.

"Fanny has had six children; all dead but one. She came to beg to have her work in the field lightened.

"Nanny has had three children; two of them are dead. She came to implore that the rule of sending them into the field three weeks after their confinement might be altered.

"Leah, Caesar's wife, has had six children; three are dead.

"Sophy, Lewis's wife, came to beg fro some old linen. She is suffering fearfully; has had ten children; five of them are dead. The principal favor she asked was a piece of meat, which I gave her.

"Sally, Scipio's wife, has had two miscarriages and three children born, one of whom is dead. She came complaining of incessant and weakness in her back. . . .

"Charlotte, Renty's wife, has had two miscarriages, and was with child again. She was almost crippled with rheumatism, and showed me a pair of poor swollen knees that made my heart ache. . . .

"Sarah, Stephen's wife; this woman's case and history were alike deplorable. She had had four miscarriages, had brought seven children into the world, five of whom were dead, and was again with child. She complained of dreadful pains in the back, and an internal tumor which swells with the exertion of working in the fields; probably, I think, she is ruptured. . . .

"Sukey, Bush's wife, only came to pay her respects. She had had four miscarriages; had brought eleven children into the world, five of whom are dead.

"Molly, Quambo's wife, also only came to see me. Hers was the best account I have yet received; she had had nine children, and six of them were still alive.

"This is only the entry for today, in my diary, of the people's complaints and visits. Can you conceive a more wretched picture than that which it exhibits of the conditions under which these women live? Their cases are in no respect singular, and though they come with pitful entreaties that I will help them with some alleviation of their pressing physical distresses, it seems to me marvelous with what great patience (I write it advisedly, patience of utter despair) they endure their sorrow-laden existence. . . ."

Source: John A. Scott (ed.), Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation in 1838-1839 by Frances Anne Kemble (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1984), pp. 229-231.

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© Carl Vinson Institute of Government, University of Georgia

If you have a date related to Georgia history or people that ought to be included, or if know of entries that should be corrected, send a note to Ed Jackson or Charly Pou.

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