[8] Madison was described in an early 19th-century issue of White's Statistics of Georgia as "the most cultured and aristocratic town on the stagecoach route from Charleston to New Orleans.

"[citation needed] While many believe that William Tecumseh Sherman spared the town because it was too beautiful to burn during his March to the Sea, the truth is that Madison was home to pro-Union Congressman (later Senator) Joshua Hill.

Hill had ties with General Sherman's brother in the House of Representatives, so his sparing the town was more political than appreciation of its beauty.

[citation needed] Against the backdrop of this Jim Crow-era prosperity, white Madisonians participated in at least three documented lynchings of African Americans.

In February 1890, after a rushed trial involving knife-wielding jurors, Brown Washington, a 15-year-old,[11] was found guilty of the murder of a 9-year-old local white girl.

After the verdict, though the sheriff with the governor's approval called up the Madison Home Guard to protect Washington, "only three militiamen and none of the officers" responded to the order.

Afterwards, in the patriarchal exhibition-style common of southern lynchings, a sign was posted on the telegraph pole: "Our women and children will be protected.

Shared attitudes toward women, sexuality, and black criminality, combined with local bonds of community and family, focused the fears and rage of whites on Washington and guaranteed mass involvement in his execution.

[14] In 1919, ten years after the erection of a Confederate memorial one block from the newly built Morgan County courthouse, another lynching occurred in the dark of night a few days before Thanksgiving.

"[16] The Confederate monument erected in 1909 by the Morgan County Daughters of the Confederacy one block from the courthouse where Mr. Baynes was not afforded a trial was inscribed in part: "NO NATION ROSE/SO WHITE AND FAIR, NONE FELL SO PURE OF CRIME.

[citation needed] Madison has one of the largest historic districts in the state of Georgia, with visitors coming to see the antebellum architecture of the homes.

Preservation of the district and of each property within its boundary provides for the protection of Madison's unique historic character and quality environment.

[22] In Madison, the south side of the ridge drains to tributaries of Sugar Creek, which flows southeast to the Oconee River, while the north side drains via Mill Branch to Hard Labor Creek, an east-flowing tributary of the Apalachee River, which continues to the Oconee.

The southwest part of the city drains to Little Indian Creek, a tributary of the Little River, which flows to the Oconee north of Milledgeville.

The center occupies an elegantly restored 1895 Romanesque Revival building and is located in the heart of Madison's nationally registered historic district.