Category: History

  • Land Swap or Cop City?: A Visual Guide

    Land Swap or Cop City?: A Visual Guide

    The land known as the Weelaunee Forest, or South River Forest, is today under threat on two fronts: a proposed police training facility, and a land swap between DeKalb County and movie industry executive Ryan Millsap. This map is intended to be a guide to the basic geography and jurisdictional boundaries of the area. We…

  • City of ATL land purchase record

    These documents are from the Dekalb county courthouse. City of ATL purchased the land known as the prison farm on Nov 10, 1911 for $15,000.

  • 1860 slave census record for George Key

    This record shows that George Key enslave 19 people, who acquired the land we know as the prison farm through land lottery after it was stolen from the Muscogee people. We’ve noted that there is a middle initial “P” listed, we feel confident this is the same George Key as he was the only George…

  • Brief Historical Timeline of the “Prison Farm” land P2

    Time as a prison farm to present- By Atlanta Community Press Collective. For further context read our report “A brief history of the Atlanta City Prison Farm”. Note: This is a working document with information added to it as more history is uncovered. Introduction: Run as a city prison farm uninterrupted from 19221 to somewhere…

  • Brief Historical Timeline of the “Prison Farm” land P1

    Muscogee land- By Lily Ponitz. For further information watch her presentation “Deep Dive: Atlanta City Prison Farm From the Archaic to Now” 8,000 BC – 1,000 BC The property is on naturally resource-rich land in the South River watershed, a headwaters of the Ocmulgee/Altamaha river system, one of the three largest river basins on the…

  • A brief history of the Atlanta City Prison Farm

    Slave Labor, Overcrowding, and Unmarked Graves — The Buried History of Atlanta City Prison Farm from the 1950s to 1990s Shows It’s No Place of Honor The official histories of the Atlanta Prison Farm paint a rosy picture of “respect,” “trust,” “reform,” and “the dignity of work.” But digging deeper reveals a much darker history…