This handsome, illustrated book chronicles the history of the Lower Chattahoochee River and the people who lived along its banks from prehistoric Indian settlement to the present day. In highly accessible, energetic prose, Lynn Willoughby takes readers down the Lower Chattahoochee River and through the centuries. On this journey, the author begins by examining the first encounters between Native Americans and European explorers and the international contest for control of the region in the 17th and 19th centuries.Throughout the book pays particular attention to the Chattahoochee's crucial role in the economic development of the area. In the early to mid-nineteenth century--the beginning of the age of the steamboat and a period of rapid growth for towns along the river--the river was a major waterway for the cotton trade. The centrality of the river to commerce is exemplified by the Confederacy's efforts to protect it from Federal forces during the Civil War. Once railroads and highways took the place of river travel, the economic importance of the river shifted to the building of dams and power plants. This subsequently led to the expansion of the textile industry. In the last three decades, the river has been the focus of environmental concerns and the subject of "water wars" because of the rapid growth of Atlanta. Written for the armchair historian and the scholar, the book provides the first comprehensive social, economic, and environmental history of this important Alabama-Georgia-Florida river. Historic photographs and maps help bring the river's fascinating story to life.

The Chattahoochee River has dramatically shaped the heritage of the lower Chattahoochee Valley of east and southeast Alabama and west and southwest Georgia. As the regions dominant geographic feature, the Chattahoochee has served residents of the area as an engine for commerce and as an important transportation route for centuries. It has also been a natural and recreational resource, as well as an inspiration for creativity. From the streams role as one of the Souths busiest trade routes to the dynamic array of water-powered industry it made possible, the river has been at the very center of the forces that have shaped the unique character of the area. A vital part of the communitys past, present, and future, it binds the Chattahoochee Valley together as a distinctive region. Through a variety of images, including historic photographs, postcards, and artwork, this book illustrates the importance of the Chattahoochee River to the region it has helped sustain.

The Chattahoochee River has dramatically shaped the heritage of the lower Chattahoochee Valley of east and southeast Alabama and west and southwest Georgia. As the region's dominant geographic feature, the Chattahoochee has served residents of the area as an engine for commerce and as an important transportation route for centuries. It has also been a natural and recreational resource, as well as an inspiration for creativity. From the stream's role as one of the South's busiest trade routes to the dynamic array of water-powered industry it made possible, the river has been at the very center of the forces that have shaped the unique character of the area. A vital part of the community's past, present, and future, it binds the Chattahoochee Valley together as a distinctive region. Through a variety of images, including historic photographs, postcards, and artwork, this book illustrates the importance of the Chattahoochee River to the region it has helped sustain.

!--StartFragment-- Examines a small part of slavery’s North American domain, the lower Chattahoochee river Valley between Alabama and Georgia In the New World, the buying and selling of slaves and of the commodities that they produced generated immense wealth, which reshaped existing societies and helped build new ones. From small beginnings, slavery in North America expanded until it furnished the foundation for two extraordinarily rich and powerful slave societies, the United States of America and then the Confederate States of America. The expansion and concentration of slavery into what became the Confederacy in 1861 was arguably the most momentous development after nationhood itself in the early history of the American republic. This book examines a relatively small part of slavery’s North American domain, the lower Chattahoochee river Valley between Alabama and Georgia. Although geographically at the heart of Dixie, the valley was among the youngest parts of the Old South; only thirty-seven years separate the founding of Columbus, Georgia, and the collapse of the Confederacy. In those years, the area was overrun by a slave society characterized by astonishing demographic, territorial, and economic expansion. Valley counties of Georgia and Alabama became places where everything had its price, and where property rights in enslaved persons formed the basis of economic activity. Sold Down the River examines a microcosm of slavery as it was experienced in an archetypical southern locale through its effect on individual people, as much as can be determined from primary sources. Published in cooperation with the Historic Chattahoochee Commission and the Troup County Historical Society. !--EndFragment--