is included in Volume W.
George Washington Carver (1864-1943), botanist and agricultural scientist,
gained international fame for his work in agricultural research at Tuskegee
Institute. He taught improvement of the soil and developed hundreds of
products from the peanut, sweet potato, and soybean. A biography of George
Washington Carver, who was born in Missouri and educated in Iowa, is
included in Volume C.
William Brockman Bankhead (1874-1940) was born in Moscow (now Sulligent),
Alabama. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1917 to 1940.
He was speaker of the House from 1936 to 1940. His daughter, Tallulah
Brockman Bankhead, became one of America's best-known actresses. His
father, John H. Bank-head, and his brother, John H. Bankhead, Jr., were
both U.S. senators.
Helen Adams Keller, who was born in Tus-cumbia in 1880, lost both sight
and hearing before she was 2 years old. Because she could not hear, she
also lost the ability to speak. In spite of her disabilities, she gained an
education, learned to speak, and then spent her life lecturing and writing
to raise money for the training of other disabled persons. Her biography is
included in Volume K.
George Corley Wallace (1919- ) was born in Clio, Alabama. He was a judge
and state legislator before his election in 1962 as governor of Alabama. He
was re-elected to that office in 1970, 1974, and 1982. He was also a
presidential candidate in 1964, 1968, 1972, and 1976. A bullet from an
assassination attempt during the 1972 campaign left him disabled.
Three Alabamians have become justices of the U.S. Supreme Court. Justices
John McKinley and John A. Campbell, who served during the I 800's, were
born in other states. Hugo L. Black, who became a justice in 1937, was born
in Clay County, Alabama.
Writers, musicians, and entertainers who were born in Alabama include
novelists Nelle Harper Lee (Monroeville) and Bordcn Deal(Tuscaloosa),
composer William C. Handy (Florence), and singer Nat "King" Cole
(Montgomery).
Famous names in sports include heavyweight champion Joe Louis (born Joe
Louis Barrow, Lafayette); baseball players Henry "Hank" Aaron (Mobile),
Frank Lary (North-port), and Willie Mays (Fairfield); and sports announcer
Mel Alien (born Melvin Alien Israel, Birmingham).
HISTORY
At the time of Columbus, Alabama was inhabited by four main groups of
Indians. They were the Cherokees, Creeks, Choctaws, and Chickasaws.
Sometimes there were skirmishes resulting from border disputes. But usually
the Indians lived in peace, hunting, fishing, and raising corn and
vegetables on small plots of land.
Exploration and Settlement
During the early 1500's Spanish explorers sailed along the coast of the
Gulf of Mexico. But Europeans were not seen in the interior of Alabama
until 1540, when Hernando de Soto passed through with a band of well-armed
soldiers. De Soto forced the peaceful Indians to provide him with food and
servants, and his harsh methods stirred up resentment. When he reached the
land governed by the gigantic Choctaw chieftain, Tuskaloosa, he ran into
trouble. De Soto captured the chief and took him to the tribe's strongly
fortified village. Here the Indians rose up to free their chief. For many
hours the bloody battle raged. The Spanish soldiers slaughtered Indian men,
women, and children alike. When the battle was over, the village was in
ruins and its population was destroyed. De Soto's troops also suffered
heavy losses. Later, in 1559, Spanish colonists started a settlement on
Mobile Bay, but storms and other troubles caused the settlers to leave.
English traders from the Carolinas and Georgia traded with the Indians
during the late 1600's, but the English made no permanent settlements in
Alabama at that time. In 1702 the French established Fort Louis on Mobile
Bay. This settlement was moved, in 1711, to the present site of Mobile. It
became the first permanent white settlement in what is now Alabama.
During the 1700's the French and the British fought over the territory
of which Alabama was a part. After the French and Indian War, the Treaty
of Paris, in 1763, gave the territory to England. Spain, Georgia, and the
Carolinas still argued over who owned the land. It was not until 1813 that
all of what is now Alabama passed into undisputed possession of the United
States and became part of the Mississippi Territory.
After 1800 more and more settlers came into Alabama from the states on
the Atlantic Coast. The invention of the cotton gin and the growth of the
cotton textile industry in England made cotton a valuable crop. The
settlers grew cotton on most of the land that they cleared. But settling
the territory was not without its perils. Much of the good farmland was
already being used by the Indians, whose ways of living easily adapted to
the settlers' ways. The Indians resisted the theft of their lands. The
Creeks, who held more than half the land in the
|IMPORTANT DATES |
|1540 Hernando de Soto marched across Alabama, |
|exploring and searching for gold. |
|1559 Tristan de Luna, Spanish colonizer, started a |
|temporary settlement on Mobile Bay. |
|1699 An expedition under the. French explorer Pierre |
|Lemoyne, Sieur d'lberville, explored the coast and |
|claimed the area for France. |
|1702 Pierre Lemoyne's brother, Jean Baptiste Lemoyne,|
|Sieur de Bienville, founded Fort Louis de la Mobile. |
|1711 The French moved Fort Louis to the present site |
|of Mobile. |
|1763 At the end of the French and Indian War, France |
|gave the area east of the Mississippi River, |
|including Alabama, to Great Britain. |
|1783 After the Revolutionary War, Great Britain gave |
|the Mobile area to Spain and the rest of Alabama to |
|the United States. |
|1813 United States captured Mobile and added it to |
|the Mississippi Territory. |
|1814 General Andrew Jackson defeated the Creek |
|Indians. |
|1817 Congress created the Alabama Territory. |
|1819 Alabama admitted to Union December 14, as 22nd |
|state. |
|1847 Montgomery became state capital. |
|1861 Alabama seceded from the Union January 11 and |
|formed the Republic of Alabama, which lasted until |
|February 8, when Alabama joined the Confederacy. 1868|
|Alabama re-admitted to the Union. |
|1875 A new constitution adopted, ending the period of|
|Reconstruction. |
|1888 First steel produced in Birmingham. |
|1901 Present state constitution adopted. |
|1944 First petroleum produced near Gilbertown. |
|1949 Redstone Arsenal, at Huntsville, became a center|
|for rocket and missile research. |
|1970 Black Alabamians won seats (two) In the state |
|legislature for the first time since Reconstruction. |
|1981 Tuskegee Institute celebrated its 100th |
|anniversary. |
territory,were
especially bitter. They sided with the British in the War of 1812. The
Indians raided Fort Mims and killed several hundred settlers. In a final
battle at Horseshoe Bend, the Creeks were defeated, and before long they
were moved out of the territory. The Cherokees, who had remained neutral in
the war, were later moved from their lands. They were the most progressive
of the Indian tribes. They lived in brick houses, grew cotton, raised
rattle, and even had a written language.
Alabama Becomes a State
When Mississippi became a state in 1817, the eastern half of the
Mississippi Territory was removed and made the Alabama Territory. Its
capital was St. Stephens, a small town lo the north of Mobile. At that time
settlers were found mainly in three regions—in the Tennessee Valley, around
Huntsville; along Ihc Tombigbee and Black Warrior rivers, with centers at
St. Stephens and Tusca-loosa; and along the Alabama and Coosa rivers, near
such towns as Wetumpka and Montgomery.
Alabama was not a territory very long. With the approval of Congress,
leading citi-/cns met at Huntsville on July 5, 1819, and drafted Alabama's
first constitution. Soon after, on December 14, 1819, Alabama became a
state. The capital was situated at Ca-haba, a town built for just this
purpose at the junction of the Cahaba and the Alabama rivers. The choice of
this town was bad. It lay in low, swampy land that flooded regularly. In
1825 the session of the legislature could be held only on the second floor
of the capital, and the legislators had to get there by row-boat. Because
of this situation the state capital was moved in 1827 to Tuscaloosa, where
it stayed for 20 years. In 1847 the increase in wealth and political
strength of the cotton planters of the Black Belt caused another move of
the state capital—this time to Montgomery, where it is today.
King Cotton, Slavery, and the Civil War
Between 1820 and 1860 Alabama's economy was closely tied to slavery. The
large cotton plantations could not be worked profitably without slaves. In
the 1840's Alabama was one of the wealthiest states in the Union. In 1860
forces in the North moved toward
the abolition of slavery. The leaders of Alabama opposed federal
interference in the affairs of their state. They proposed secession. After
a special election among the people, a convention was held in Montgomery on
January 7, 1861. On January 11 a resolution of secession was adopted, and
Alabama invited all the other southern states to meet in Montgomery to form
a new union.
On February 4, 1861, the convention met and drew up the constitution for
the Confederate States of America. Jefferson Davis was sworn in as the
president on February 18, 1861.
During the Civil War there were many minor battles in the state. No major
battles took place within its borders, but the state was badly hurt by the
fighting. When the war was over, Alabama's economy was destroyed.
Between 1865 and 1875 Alabama lived under a partly military government
called the Reconstruction. These were harsh times— times of agricultural
failures, general poverty, and great political confusion. In 1875 a new
constitution was adopted and approved by Congress. Between 1875 and 1900
Alabama went through a period of economic recovery. Cotton was still king,
but industry grew.
Modern Times and the Future
After the Reconstruction era, blacks in Alabama were stripped of their
newly won civil rights, including the right to vote. They had to attend
different schools from whites. Racial segregation of many kinds was the law
in Alabama for a long time.
In the 1960's, however, federal legislation enabled blacks in Alabama to
vote in large numbers. Progress has also been made against many forms of
racial segregation. Much of this progress in Alabama resulted from peaceful
protest conducted under the leadership of Martin Luther King.
Alabama has undergone many other. changes recently. Industry has grown
rapidly. The state's waterways are being enlarged and improved. With its
abundance of raw mate-trials, and its vital people, Alabama should continue
to be the industrial heart of the New South.
