State of Alabama History
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Alabama shares the rich cultural history of the Southeastern region. From 1519, when the first Spanish explorer, Alonso Alvarez de Pineda, navigated Mobile Bay, the state was claimed, explored, and then settled by the Spanish, French, and British.
The first lasting European settlers in Alabama were French. The LeMoyne brothers, Pierre LeMoyne, Sieur d'Iberville, and Jean Baptiste LeMoyne, Sieur de Bienville, sailed into Mobile Bay in 1699. By 1702, Fort Louis (on the present site of Mobile) had been settled as the capital of the French colony called Louisiana.
With the Treaty of Paris in 1763, the French ceded most of Louisiana to Great Britain. When Spain declared war on Great Britain in 1779, the American Revolution came to Alabama. In 1780, Bernardo Galvez captured Mobile from the British. The Treaty of Paris in 1783 ceded to Spain the British holdings in the Mobile region.
In 1795, the Treaty of San Lorenzo more specifically stated that all Alabama lands below the 31st parallel belonged to Spain, and lands above the 31st parallel belonged to the US and successively to the Native Americans living there. Simultaneously the Ellicott Line was being surveyed, "squatters" (those having no legal claim to the lands they settled) began to move into Alabama, forcing the various tribes off their lands. The area below the 31st parallel was added to Mississippi Territory in 1812. Later counties were created as more white settlers entered ceded native lands until Alabama Territory was created on 3 March 1817. Alabama became a state on 14 December 1819 and, in 1835, the last native lands were ceded. Massive waves of settlement from both Europeans and African U.S citizens came with the opening of this territory as federal lands.
During the early years of statehood the most significant genealogical event was the opening of lands formerly held by Native Americans to white settlers between 1802 and 1838. These developments are detailed in Mary Elizabeth Young, Redskins, Ruffleshirts and Rednecks: Indian Allotments in Alabama and Mississippi, 1830-1860 (Norman, Okla.: University of Oklahoma Press, 1961). By 1840, all but a couple of scattered remnants of tribes had been moved west beyond the Mississippi River. Alabama suffered economic and agricultural problems in the 1840s and 1850s. The financial panic and depression that swept across the United States in 1837 lead to banking problems that caused many Alabamians to lose their savings. Crops were ruined by drought, and various epidemics of yellow fever brought added suffering.
Economic rivalry between the industrial North and the agricultural South raised disputes concerning states' rights and slavery. The unresolved conflict deepened until, on 11 January 1861, Alabama seceded from the Union and joined the Confederate States of The States.
When likened to other Confederate states, Alabama, with the exception of the Mobile area, experienced relatively little military action. Although, the conflict devastated the cost-effective, political, and social life of the state. The state was readmitted to the Union on 25 June 1868, though the Reconstruction period led to deepening poverty and mass migration. In the 1860s and 1870s, 10 to 15 percent of the whole white population of Alabama migrated, with a third of these migrants going to Texas.
Railroads were built across the state in the 1870s, expanding the industry of mining of Alabama's rich mineral deposits of coal, iron ore, and limestone. By 1880, steel, iron, lumber, and textile industries were rapidly expanding, creating the urban centers of Anniston, Birmingham, and Cullman.
Alabama's industry and commerce grew with the United States' entry into World War I. Agricultural production increased, and a significant growth in Mobile's shipbuilding industry led to increased foreign trade. During the Great Depression, Alabamians suffered new poverty and financial difficulties. The Tennessee Valley Authority, established in 1933 by the federal government, developed dams and engines on the Tennessee River for inexpensive electricity, boosting Alabama's industrial growth.
World War II led to expansion of the state's agricultural and industrial production, and the installation of several military training sites, including Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville—which released the United States into the space age. During the 1950s and 1960s, agriculture and industry became more diversified, requiring fewer agricultural workers who were forced to look for employment in urban areas outside the state. Alabama faced serious racial questions during the time period. The Montgomery Bus Boycott, which lasted from 1955 to 1956, the Birmingham demonstrations in 1963, and the Selma March in 1965 attracted much media attention. With the passage of the U.S. Voting Rights Act in August 1965, African U.S citizens played a growing role in local and state politics and commerce.
- The Spanish Inroads 1540 - 1543
- French Colonization and War 1697 - 1795
- British and Spanish Occupancy
- First Territorial Organization 1795 - 1832
- Alabama Constitution of 1865
- Alabama's Constitution of 1868
- Alabama Moments in American History
- Alabama History Timeline
- The Alabama Experience
- Famous or Historical Alabama People, Places & Events
- Photographs from University of South Alabama
- Historic Postcards of Alabama
- Penny Postcards from Alabama
- Auburn University Alabama Cooperative Extension Service Subject Photographs
- Cabeza de Vaca
- Cabeza de Vaca's La Relación
- DeSoto's Alabama Trails
- DeSoto's Conquest Trail
- Old Mobile Archaeology
- Louis LeClerc Milfort's Memoirs
- Old St. Stephens
- Fort Toulouse
- The Travels of William Bartram
- Bartram Among the Creeks
- Fort Toulouse & Fort Jackson Living History Groups
- AL-GHOSTTOWNS. A mailing list for anyone with a genealogical or historical interest in the ghost towns of Alabama. To subscribe send "subscribe" to al-ghosttowns-l-request@rootsweb.com (mail mode) or al-ghosttowns-d-request@rootsweb.com (digest mode).
Immigration - Mobile was a port of entry and is included in copies of National Archives microfilm lists of passengers arriving at various ports on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts and ports of the Great Ponds Region, 1820-1873 ( NARA Microfilm Publication M575). An index is around right index of passenger lists for ships calling at ports in Alabama, Florida, Georgia and South Carolina, 1890-1924 (T517). Most foreign-born immigrants to Alabama arrived through the Port of New York.
- American Family Immigration History Center at Ellis Island (http://www.ellisisland.org)
African American - Multiple sources to research African-American families in Alabama are available. As noted previously, separate slave slave census quoted simply with demographic information about slaves contained 1850 and 1860, additionally the censuses of slaves in earlier censuses. The minutes of the Bureau of Refugees, and Abandoned Lands released particulars that workplace to work the issues that freed after the Civil War relief. Three micro-filmed series are available from the National Archives: Records of Alabama Field Offices, Bureau of Refugees, Abandoned Countries, and freedmen, 1865-1870 (M1900, 34 rolls) the registration of the deputy commissioner for the state of Alabama, 1867-1870 (M809, 23 rolls) and records of the Superintendent of Education for the State of Alabama, 1865-1870 (M810, 8 rolls). Important surviving genealogical records Huntsville and Mobile branches Freedman's Savings and Trust Company, 1865-1874, abstracted by Genealogical Society of Utah and has been placed on CD-ROM computer disks.
A resource published by the Alabama Center for Higher Education, Collection and evaluation material about black U.S citizens program entitled Catalog of the archives of the Black Organizations in Alabama (Birmingham: Alabama Center for Higher Education, 1979) ought to be particularly helpful for researchers to entry to records of African-American business, religious, social, political, social and educational organizations. Records for 239 different organizations, briefly, when the establishment was established which data are available, and who to get in touch with to get admission to the records. See also brief discussion of the free African- American citizens in the county Probate Court Records.
- USF Africana Heritage Project
- 19th Century Village Life
- Alabama African American Genealogy
- Black Families of Alabama's Black Belt
- Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938
- Joseph G. Baldwin's The Flush Times of Alabama and Mississippi
- Using Primary Sources in the Classroom: Slavery Unit
- American Slave Narratives: An Online Anthology
- Montgomery Slave Auction: Harper's Weekly
- Narrative of James Williams, an American Slave: Electronic Edition.
- Kate E. R. Pickard, The Kidnapped and The Ransomed: Being the Personal Recollections of Peter Still and his Wife Vina after Forty Years of Slavery
- The Alabama Supreme Court and Slaves (http://www.lib.auburn.edu/archive/aghy/slaves.htm)
- AL-AfricaAmer. A mailing list for anyone with an interest in African American genealogy in Alabama. Additional information can be found on the Alabama African American Genealogy web site and the Alabama Slavery and History website. To subscribe send "subscribe" to al-africaamer-l-request@rootsweb.com (mail mode) or al-africaamer-d-request@rootsweb.com (digest mode).
- AL-AfriGeneas. A mailing list to coordinate, network and strengthen the efforts of African ancestored family researchers within Alabama. You can subscribe from http://groups.yahoo.com/group/al-afrigeneas/ or by sending the following to al-afrigeneas-subscribe@yahoogroups.com: subscribe
- AL-FREEDMEN. A mailing list for anyone with a genealogical interest in Freedmen in Alabama from all ethnic backgrounds (e.g., African, Native American, Caucasian). To subscribe send "subscribe" to al-freedmen-l-request@rootsweb.com (mail mode) or al-freedmen-d-request@rootsweb.com (digest mode).
Native American - Census records have already been cited as resources. A sizable group of materials on native inhabitants who occupied Alabama’s land has been microfilmed through the National Archives. Topics included are documents relating to the negotiation of ratified and unratified treaties (T494); Cherokee Indian Agency in Tennessee (M208), which concerns Alabama residents; and trading house rolls for the Creek and Choctaw (M4 and T500 respectively). The Family and Regional History Program, Wallace State College (see Archives, Libraries, and Societies) and the Anniston Public Library have extensive collections of materials for Native American research in the southeast.
- Guide to Tracing Your American Indian Ancestry
- Indian Tribes of Alabama
- The Great Indian War
- Alabama Indian Affairs Commission (http://aiac.state.al.us)
- Alabama Indian Tribes (http://www.accessgenealogy.com/native/alabama/index.htm#Muskogee)
- American Indians (http://factasy.com/american_indians/index.shtml)
- Southeastern Prehistory: Paleoindian Period (http://www.cr.nps.gov/seac/outline/02-paleoindian/index.htm)
- Southeastern Prehistory: Archaic Period (http://www.cr.nps.gov/seac/outline/03-archaic/index.htm)
- Southeastern Prehistory: Woodland Period (http://www.cr.nps.gov/seac/outline/04-woodland/index.htm)
- Southeastern Prehistory: Mississippian and Late Prehistoric Period (http://www.cr.nps.gov/seac/outline/05-mississippian/index.htm)
- Mississippian and Late Prehistoric Period (http://www.cr.nps.gov/seac/misslate.htm)
- Arrowhead Pictures (http://www.mindspring.com/~scottr/arrows/arrow.html)
- Alabama-Coushatta Indians (http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/AA/bma19.html)
- Among the Creeks (http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~cmamcrk4/)
- Muscogee: A Study of the Creek Indians (http://jrshelby.com/creek/index.htm)
- A Creek Indian Bibliography (http://www.rhus.com/Creeks.html)
- Creek Lanuguage Archive (http://www.wm.edu/linguistics/creek/)
- Creek Indian Researcher (http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~texlance/main.htm)
- Poarch Band of Creek Indians (http://www.poarchcreekindians-nsn.gov/xhtml/index.htm)
- The Dawes Commission and the Enrollment of the Creeks (http://www.archives.gov/genealogy/tutorial/dawes/)
- Laws of the Cherokee Nation
- 1835 Cherokee East of the Mississippi Census Index
- Sequoyah
- The Chickasaw and Their Cessions
- "Chokmah!" The Chickasaw Historical Research Page
- Mississippi History Now -- Chickasaws: The Unconquerable People (http://mshistory.k12.ms.us/index.php?id=8)
- Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma (http://www.choctawnation.com/)
- Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians
- Mississippi History Now -- Pushmataha: Choctaw Warrior, Diplomat, and Chief (http://mshistory.k12.ms.us/index.php?id=14)
- U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Indian Affairs (http://www.doi.gov/bureaus/bia.cfm)
- Lost Worlds, Alabama -- Public Indian Sites in Alabama (http://www.lostworlds.org/alabama_indian_sites.html)
- AL-INDIAN-TRIBES. A mailing list for anyone researching their Indian ancestors to discuss and share information regarding Indian tribes that lived in or traveled through Alabama. To subscribe send "subscribe" to al-indian-tribes-l-request@rootsweb.com (mail mode) or al-indian-tribes-d-request@rootsweb.com (digest mode).
Alabama History by County
