In the Compact of 1802 , Georgia ceded its sparsely settled western lands beyond the Chattahoochee River to the United States in exchange for a guarantee that the federal government would extinguish all Native American claims to land within the state 's borders . The United States made good on its promise , removing the Cherokee nation to reservations in the new Mississippi Territory ( a process which would not end until the completion of the Trail of Tears forcible removals in 1838 ) . The Compact of 1802 specified that Georgia 's western boundary would be as follows : In 1817 , what is now the modern state of Mississippi was created from the western half of the Mississippi Territory , the remaining territory renamed the Alabama Territory . The territory became the modern state of Alabama in 1819
Trail of Tears
Trail of Tears
Alabama v. Georgia