History of Alabama, USA

Overall History of Alabama

admin — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 03:32:50 +0000

Alabama was among the first states to secede in the Civil War. Montgomery was the first Confederate capital, Mobile was a major Confederate port and Selma was a munitions center. Alabama lost around 25, 000 soldiers in the war, and reconstruction came slowly and painfully.

Racial segregation and Jim Crow laws survived into the mid-20th century, when the Civil Rights movement campaigned for desegregation of everything from public buses to private universities, a notion that Governor George Wallace viciously opposed. In perhaps the most famous moment in civil rights history, an African American woman named Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat to a white passenger and was thus arrested; the ensuing uproar sparked a bus boycott and began to turn the tide in favor of racial equality. Alabama saw brutal repression and hostility, but federal civil rights and voting laws eventually prevailed. At a political level, reform has seen the election of dozens of African American mayors and representatives. And from funky Muscle Shoals all the way down to genteel Mobile, Alabama has contributed in positive ways to Southern culture.

Civil War and Reconstruction

admin — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 07:38:42 +0000

In Alabama the slave-owning planters were dominant because of the prosperous cotton crop, and as the Civil War loomed closer, the support of Southern rights and secession sentiment grew under the urging of “fire-eaters” such as William L. Yancey. Alabama broke away from the Union on Jan. 11, 1861, when its second constitutional convention passed the ordinance of secession. The government of the Confederacy was organized at Montgomery on Feb. 4, 1861. Union troops held the Tennessee valley after 1862. One of the principal naval battles of the war was won by Admiral D. G. Farragut in Mobile Bay in 1864, but most of the state was not occupied in force until 1865. Alabama ratified the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1865, but in 1867 it refused to ratify the Fourteenth Amendment and was placed under military rule. That rule ended the following year when a new state legislature operating under a new constitution approved the Fourteenth Amendment. However, federal troops did not leave Alabama until 1876, and African Americans continued to suffer enormous oppression for decades.

In the Reconstruction era Alabama’s government was dominated by the so-called carpetbaggers and scalawags, and corruption was widespread. Few reforms emerged during the period; but the mining of coal and iron was expanded by Daniel Pratt and his successor, H. F. De Bardeleben, marking the rise of industry in Alabama.

Industrialization

admin — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 07:33:10 +0000

The railroads built during Reconstruction were a major impetus to the industrialization of Alabama’s economy. Birmingham was founded in 1870, and its first blast furnace began operations in 1880. The cotton textile industry developed in the 1880s. At that time farming was still dominant, and the fortunes of the state rose and fell with the market price of cotton. Constant use and erosion, however, began to exhaust the land.

Diversification of crops, much advocated in the 20th cent., was accelerated in 1915 when the boll weevil invaded the cotton fields and the demand during World War I brought high prices for food crops. The Great Depression and the agricultural program of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal caused more farmers to produce subsistence crops and took more land away from the wasting cotton culture. Beginning in the 1920s, there was a large migration of African Americans out of the state to northern manufacturing centers.

Industrialization was greatly increased during World War II with the appearance of factories producing machines, munitions, powder, and other war supplies. Huntsville became a center for rocket research, and its population more than quadrupled between 1950 and 1960. Industrialization and commerce increased throughout the state. Adding impetus to that growth was an ambitious development program of Alabama’s inland waterways to provide cheap water transportation, more hydroelectric power, and flood-control measures.

Early History to Statehood

admin — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 03:54:17 +0000

Agriculture was practiced by groups such as the Creeks and Cherokee in the east, and the Choctaws and Chickasaws in the west when Spanish explorers arrived. Cabeza de Vaca (and possibly Pánfilo de Narvaez) visited Alabama in 1528, and Hernando De Soto spent some time in the region in 1540. European settlement was begun, however, not by the Spanish but by the French in the Mobile area in 1702. The French and British contended for the furs gathered by Native Americans. In 1763 the region passed to the British, who were victorious over France and Spain in the French and Indian Wars.

At the close of the American Revolution, Great Britain ceded (1783) to the United States all lands east of the Mississippi except the Floridas (see West Florida Controversy). The Territory of Mississippi, which included parts of present-day Alabama, was set up in 1798, but the land was still largely a wilderness with a considerable fur trade, centered at Saint Stephens, and with only the beginnings of cotton cultivation.

Both the fur trade and cotton production were interrupted during the War of 1812, when part of the Creek Confederacy began attacking under William Weatherford. Andrew Jackson defeated a group of Native Americans at Horseshoe Bend on Mar. 27, 1814. That victory, coupled with the British demand for cotton, ushered in a period of heavy settlement. New settlers poured into the Alabama region, especially from Georgia and Tennessee. The wealthy newcomers settled in the fertile bottomlands and established large plantations based on slave labor, which helped to produce cotton for the markets of Southern ports. Poorer newcomers took over less fertile uplands, where they eked out a living. The population grew to such an extent that the Territory of Alabama, taking Saint Stephens as its capital, was set up in 1817 with William W. Bibb as governor; two years later it became a state.

The Spanish Colonial Militia, in Mobile, Alabama, 1780-1813

admin — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 09:49:53 +0000

The Spanish Garrison here in Mobile was composed of at various times between 1780-1813, of Troop Regiments, from both Spain and her Colonies, including the Fixed Regiment of Louisiana. The defense of the colony included the local Militia, which was composed basically of all the males, who could use a weapon. The Militia was a true family affair and whole families can be found in its composition. The outlying villages and settlements outside Mobile, such as Fish River, in Baldwin County, had both mounted and un-mounted companies, as did a few other locations around the Colony of Spanish West Florida. The Milita was composed of White Creoles, as well as Free “Creoles of Color”. The following individuals have been mentioned in correspondence as being members of the Militia between 1780 and 1813 : 2^nd Corp. Alexander Baudin, 1^st Lt. Narcisse Broutin, 1^st Corp. Julian De Castro, 1^st Corp. Bernard Dubroca, Sub.Lt. Jean Baptiste Dubroca, 1^st Corp. Louis Dubroca, Lt. Louis Durette, Capt. Miguel Eslava, 2^nd Sgt. Jean Baptiste Ham, Capt. Charles LaLande of the Mobile Mulatto and Negro Militia, 2^nd Sgt. Matias LeFlore, 1^st Lt. Nicolas Mongoulas of the Mobile Mulatto and Negro Militia, Lt. Cornelius McCurtin – of Pensacola detached in 1799, to Mobile, Lt. Augustin Rochon, 2^nd Corp. Savari Saucier, 1^st Sgt. Jean Trouillet, Capt. Pierre Trouillet.

History of Alabama Genealogy

admin — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 09:44:02 +0000

Alabama County records vary widely from county to county in both quality and quantity. Some have been carefully preserved while others have been much abused and neglected. Some Alabama records have simply disappeared. Other scattered records are now preserved by the Alabama Department of Archives and History, the University of Alabama Library, and the Samford University Library. Each Alabama County Page includes genealogy and Family History information and addresses for County Court Records , Probate Records, Land Records, Tax Records, County Census Records, History County, Birth Records, Marriage Records, Divorce Records, Death Records, Cemeteries, Graveyards, Church & Bible Records.

Alabama was admitted as the 22nd state on December 14, 1819. Alabama has 67 Counties. Montgomery is the capital of Alabama.

Alabama is bordered by Florida (south), Georgia (east), Mississippi (west) and Tennessee (north). Alabama has a land area of 52,423 square miles making it the 30th largest state.

The 2010 population of Alabama was 4,779,736. Alabama’s largest cities are Birmingham (231,483), Montgomery (200,127), Mobile (191,544), Huntsville (166,313), Tuscaloosa (81,358), Hoover (67,469), Dothan (62,713), Decatur (54,909), Auburn (49,928), Gadsden (37,405). [All pop. number are as of 2005].

The State name of Alabama is dirived from the Alabama River by early European explorers and named “Alibamu” after the local Indian tribe. The early pioneers spelled the name in many ways, including “Kaintuckee” and “Cantuckey.” The Alabama State Nickname is Heart of Dixie, “Yellowhammer State”. The Alabama State Motto is “Audemus jura nostra defendere” – We Dare Defend Our Rights

Alabama contains some counties that no longer exist because they were discontinued, renamed or merged with another county. These are important for Alabama genealogy research purposes. Those Alabama counties are:

Benton County, Alabama: (Formed 1832 from former Creek Indian territory and named for Colonel Thomas Hart Benton. Renamed Calhoun County in 1858, honor of John C. Calhoun of South Carolina)
Jones County, Alabama: (Formed 1867, renamed Sanford County in 1868, Renamed Lamar County in 1877)
Hancock County, Alabama: (Formed 1850, renamed Winston County in 1858)
Sanford County, Alabama: (Formed in 1867 as Jones County, renamed Sanford County in 1868, renamed Lamar County in 1877)
Cahawba County, Alabama: (Renamed Bibb County in 1820)
Baine County, Alabama (renamed Etowah County in 1868)
Baker County, Alabama (renamed Chilton County in 1874)