Chains of Knowledge: Slavery, Low-Wage Labor, and the Role of Intellectual Property in Antebellum Georgia (1789 to 1865)

This article investigates Georgia’s engagement with intellectual property from 1789 to 1865, with an epilogue to 1920, arguing that the state’s economic reliance on unfree labor systems profoundly shaped its approach to technological innovation. Drawing from a newly constructed, state-specific patent database, the study reveals that Georgia’s low patenting rates—examining the areas of in mining and metallurgy, textiles, and the establishment of the Confederate Patent Office during the American Civil War—was not indicative of technological stagnation, but rather evidence of a region where innovation was informal, experiential, and embedded in labor hierarchies. The article advances the argument that the absence of formal patent activity should be treated as historical evidence in itself, reflecting a distinct Southern model of development grounded in tacit knowledge and labor control. By reframing the historiography of invention away from technological determinism, this research offers a new interpretation of how intellectual property, labor, and regional economies intersected in antebellum Georgia.