"While prosperous planters controlled antebellum Georgia, for the most part north Georgia was home to farmers and merchants. These men had little time for leisure or academics and were overly middle-class. In the northern part of the state, only in Athens and Rome did an aristocracy form, and it was composed of a few planters and merchants. Among whites the illiteracy rate was 20 percent.

Map of North Georgia Railroads
Thanks to the farsightedness of Wilson Lumpkin and others, by 1850 Georgia had the best rairoad system in the deep south. In the northern part of the state, the Georgia Central RR cut across the state, meeting the Western and Atlantic in Atlanta. The WARR ran from the Chattahoochee to Chattanooga. Spurs connected Rome and Athens to the main line.
Starting in the 1830's an economic boom spurred growth throughout much of the north Georgia area. Railroads began to move cargo in the area in 1833 and the state completed a Chattanooga to Atlanta (formerly Marthasville) link in 1850. Textile mills sprang up across the area as the railroads were built. A severe depression following the Panic of 1837 and stretching into the mid-1840's delayed the growth of the area, but by 1860 Georgia had 1200 miles of track and the best rail system in the deep South.

Although largely regarded as an agricultural area, North Georgia also had numerous tanneries, brickworks, and iron foundries. Gold, discovered in 1828 in present-day White County and later in the area around Dahlonega (Lumpkin County), supported mining operations that were so productive that the United States built a mint in the town in 1838. Iron, clay, coal and marble were also taken from the ground.

Large cotton mills developed in Roswell and in Manchester The larger cities of the time included Ringgold, a warehouse district south of Chattanooga (History of Chattanooga), Cassville, a major cultural center until destroyed by Sherman during the War for Southern Independence, and Athens, home to the University of Georgia."