What key change was made by the constitutional convention of 1865?

The key change made by the constitutional convention of 1865 was the abolition of slavery in Georgia. This convention was a response to the end of the Civil War and the requirements set forth by the federal government for the Southern states to be readmitted into the Union. The Thirteenth Amendment, which abolished slavery throughout the United States, had been ratified in December 1865, and the convention formally acknowledged this change by revising the state constitution to eliminate any language that supported or allowed slavery. This move marked a significant shift in the legal status and rights of enslaved individuals, transitioning Georgia towards a new social order post-Civil War.

The other options, such as granting women the right to vote or creating a new state capital, were not addressed by the 1865 convention. Women did not gain the right to vote in Georgia or federally until the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920. Similarly, the state capital of Georgia remained in Milledgeville until it was moved to Atlanta in 1868, which was after the 1865 convention. Establishing a state income tax was not a feature of the 1865 constitution either; income tax frameworks developed in various forms much later in U.S. history.