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Augusta, Georgia

City in the United States

  • 15 min read
  • 13 chapters
Downtown Augusta, Georgia as seen across the Savannah River, on the Fifth Street Bridge.
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According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Augusta had a 2020 population of 202,071 and a 2025 estimated population of 201,999, not counting the independent cities of Blythe and Hephzibah located within the boundaries of Augusta-Richmond County. It is the 124th-most-populous city in the United States and the 92nd-largest metropolitan area. The process of consolidation between the city of Augusta and Richmond County began with a 1995 referendum in the two jurisdictions. The merger was completed on July 1, 1996, but it excluded the municipalities of Blythe and Hephzibah. Augusta is the principal city of the Augusta metropolitan area. In 2020, the metro area had a population of 611,000, making it the second-largest in the state (after Atlanta) and the ninth-most-populous urban center in the Deep South.

Augusta was established in 1736 and is named in honor of Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha (1719–1772), the bride of Frederick, Prince of Wales and the mother of the British monarch George III. During the American Civil War, Augusta housed the principal Confederate Powderworks. Augusta's warm climate made it a major resort town of the Eastern United States in the early to mid-20th century. Internationally, Augusta is best known for hosting professional golfing's Masters Tournament each spring. The Masters brings over 200,000 visitors from around the world to the Augusta National Golf Club.

Augusta lies about 148 miles from downtown Atlanta (two hours by car) via I-20. The city is home to Fort Gordon, a major U.S. Army base formerly known as Fort Eisenhower. In 2016, the new National Cyber Security Headquarters was announced to be based in Augusta.

History

Establishment

In 1735, two years after James Oglethorpe founded Savannah, he sent a detachment of troops to explore the upper Savannah River. He gave them an order to build a fort at the head of the navigable part of the river. The expedition was led by Noble Jones, who the following year created a settlement as a first line of defense for coastal areas against potential Spanish or French invasion from the interior. Oglethorpe named the town in honor of Princess Augusta, the mother of King George III and the wife of Frederick, Prince of Wales.

Oglethorpe visited Augusta in September 1739 on his return to Savannah from a perilous visit to Coweta Town, near present-day Phenix City, Alabama. There, he had met with a convention of 7,000 Native American warriors and concluded a peace treaty with them in their territories in northern and western Georgia. During the American Revolutionary War, the Siege of Augusta resulted in the retaking the city from the British by the Americans. Augusta was the second state capital of Georgia from 1785 until 1795. A historical marker in Augusta reads:

Augusta served as the capital of Georgia from 1785 until 1795 when the seat of government was moved to the new capital, Louisville. The Georgia General Assembly met at this site in a two-story building on the corner of Elbert (Fourth) and Bay Streets. The building was known as both the State House and Government House and was adjacent to the Academy of Richmond County. In Augusta on January 2, 1788, Georgia became the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution. In 1789 the General Assembly, meeting here, adopted a new state constitution creating today's bicameral (two-house) state legislature consisting of the Senate and House of Representatives.

Development

Augusta developed rapidly as a market town as the Black Belt in the Piedmont was developed for cotton cultivation. Invention of the cotton gin made processing of short-staple cotton profitable, and this type of cotton was well-suited to the upland areas. Cotton plantations were worked by slave labor, with hundreds of thousands of slaves shipped from the Upper South to the Deep South in the domestic slave trade. Many of the slaves were brought from the Lowcountry, where their Gullah culture had developed on the large Sea Island cotton and rice plantations.

During the American Civil War, Augusta was home to many war industries, including the main facilities of the vast Confederate Powderworks. After the war, Augusta had a booming textile industry, lead by the construction of many mills along the Augusta Canal to include Enterprise Mill, Sibley Mill, and King Mill.

The devastating Augusta fire of 1916 damaged 25 blocks of the city's downtown and wiped out many buildings of historical significance, some dating back to the 18th century.

Augusta was a major center of economic activity during Reconstruction and thereafter. In the mid-20th century, it was a site of civil-rights demonstrations. In 1970, Charles Oatman, a mentally disabled teenager, was killed by his cellmates in an Augusta jail. A protest against his death broke out into a riot involving some 500 people; during the unrest, six Black men were killed by police, each found to have been shot in the back. Noted singer and entertainer James Brown, a native of Augusta, was called in to help quell lingering tensions, at which he succeeded.

Hyde Park contamination

In 1993, an area known as Hyde Park in Augusta was investigated by the EPA for contamination. The investigation totaled $1.2 million. Air, groundwater, and soil were all believed to be contaminated, and people living in the area were hoping for government assistance to move away from Hyde Park. Two of five neighborhoods in Hyde Park appeared to have arsenic, chromium, and dioxin, while all five were found to have PCBs and lead. However, residents were told it was not a risk to their health unless they somehow ingested it on a regular basis. At the time the article was written, the citizens still questioned why the EPA and the Agency for Toxic Disease Registry did not consider these chemicals as a threat to them. Hyde Park also has higher rates of certain illnesses (such as cancer, infections, and rashes) than the average in America, and the citizens question why that was not considered.

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