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Clash of Cultures: The Creek War in Alabama
By Mike Bunn and Clay Williams

Perhaps few events occurring in the lands that would become Alabama held such national importance as the original Creek War, which shocked Americans and held drastic consequences for the Creek Nation. Inspired by Tecumseh, a group of renegade Creeks called the Red Sticks harassed American settlers and assimilated Creeks in 1813, creating a climate of escalating violence vividly demonstrated at the attack on Fort Mims and reaching its full expression in the Creek War. Led by Andrew Jackson, American troops finally subdued the Red Sticks, propelling him to lasting fame and the U.S. presidency. But the struggle displaced many members of Creek nation, opening their lands to white settlers and eventually forcing the Creek Nation on its “Trail of Tears.”

About the Author
Mike Bunn has served as the Associate Curator of History at the Columbus Museum since 2004. He has worked with the Alabama Historical Commission, the Tuscaloosa County Preservation Society, and the Mississippi Department of Archives and History. He earned a BA in history from Faulkner University and MA’s in history and higher education administration from the University of Alabama. Bunn has authored numerous exhibition catalogs, articles, and book reviews, and is co-author of two books: Images of America: Lower Chattahoochee River, and the recently released Battle for the Southern Frontier: The Creek War and the War of 1812, which was co-authored with Clay Williams. He was recently named to the Board of Directors of the Historic Chattahoochee Commission. Mike and his wife, Tonya, live in Columbus.

Clay Williams graduated from Mississippi State University with a BA in political science (1993) and a MA in history and public policy administration (1995). From March 1999 to August 2005, Clay served as director of exhibits at the Old Capitol Museum of Mississippi History. In January 2006, he began serving as project liaison for the Old Capitol Restoration, and he was appointed director of the Old Capitol Museum in 2008. His writings have appeared in the Journal of Mississippi History and Mississippi History Now. He is married and lives in Brandon, MS, with his wife Kym and their child, Sarah.

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The Grown-Up Helen Keller: “Goodwill Ambassador to the World”
By Kim E. Nielsen

Although most people know Helen Keller for her childhood achievements—learning signed communication through the help of her teacher Anne Sullivan—few people know of Keller’s later life and the many accomplishments it contained. Keller never let her deafness and blindness impede her ambitions, and after graduating from Radcliffe (in an age when few women attended college at all), she established herself internationally as a famous and effective human and civil rights leader. Keller considered this some of her most important work, and she traveled extensively on behalf of the American Foundation for the Blind, visiting such far-flung countries as Egypt and Japan and enjoying audiences with many U.S. Presidents. Much more than an afterthought, Keller’s adult advocacy forms a substantial and influential aspect of her life as a person engaged in the world beyond her.

About the Author
Historian Kim E. Nielsen is an award-winning educator and the author of many books. These include The Radical Lives of Helen Keller and, most recently, Beyond the Miracle Worker: The Remarkable Life of Anne Sullivan Macy and Her Extraordinary Friendship with Helen Keller. She also edited Helen Keller: Selected Writings. Nielsen lives in Green Bay, Wisconsin, where she is professor of history and women’s studies at the University of Wisconsin–Green Bay.

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As the turn of the twentieth century approached, Alabama developed what would become a noted wine community. Though short-lived, Fruithurst, located about halfway between present-day Birmingham and Atlanta, was home to a hundred varieties of grapes. A booming tourism industry followed, immigrants flocked to the area from other locals, and for a time, Fruithurst enjoyed social and economic bounty. Several of the town’s wines were exhibited nationally, and the vineyards prospered from the attention. What looked like a sure success, however, was doomed by a confluence of environmental and social factors, from unexpected freezes to poor management. The advent of prohibition put a seeming end to Alabama’s wine experiment. But today a new vineyard celebrates Fruithurst’s history and legacy by producing muscadine wine on land that was first recognized as Alabama’s wine county nearly a century ago.

About the Author
Mary Stanton is a historian whose primary interest is white civil rights activism. She has written four books about the movement years in Alabama. Stanton has taught at the University of Idaho, the College of St. Elizabeth, and Rutgers University. Her articles have appeared in Southern Exposure, Gulf South Historical Review, Alabama Heritage, Callaloo, Studies in Religion, and Southern Jewish History. She lives in New York City and works as an administrator for the Town of Mamaroneck in Westchester County. Sources for this article include Fruithurst: Alabama’s Vineyard Village, the New York Times, and the Anniston Star.


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