On February 5, 1777, Georgia accepted the new state constitution that had been voted in by its citizens. Georgia also became the first state to take away the inheritance practices of primogeniture and entail. Primogeniture said that the oldest son in a family inherited the largest portion of his father’s property when his father died. Entail made sure that an inherited estate stayed in the hands of only one male heir. Since primogeniture and entail usually worked together, the oldest son got most of his father’s estate and kept it until his death when it went to his son.
Georgia rewrote the inheritance laws in Article LI of the state’s constitution, so that a person who died without a will would have his or her estate divided equally between the children. This also gave widows the freedom to choose whether to have a child’s share or her dower. Inheritance laws were changed for the good because the citizens of Georgia voted for it!
