Alabama Heritage
  • Home
  • Magazine
    • Current Issue
    • Back Issues >
      • Back Issues 131-140 >
        • Issue 131, Winter 2019
      • Back Issues 121-130 >
        • Issue 130, Fall 2018
        • Issue 129, Summer 2018
        • Issue 128, Spring 2018
        • Issue 127, Winter 2018
        • Issue 126, Fall 2017
        • Issue 125 Summer 2017
        • Issue 124, Spring 2017
        • Issue 123, Winter 2017
        • Issue 122, Fall 2016
        • Issue 121, Summer 2016
      • Back Issues 111-120 >
        • Issue 120, Spring 2016
        • Issue 119, Winter 2016
        • Issue 118, Fall 2015
        • Issue 117, Summer 2015
        • Issue 116, Spring 2015
        • Issue 115, Winter 2015
        • Issue 114, Fall 2014
        • Issue 113, Summer 2014
        • Issue 112, Spring 2014
        • Issue 111, Winter 2014
      • Back Issues 101-110 >
        • Issue 110, Fall 2013
        • Issue 109, Summer 2013
        • Issue 108, Spring 2013
        • Issue 107, Winter 2013
        • Issue 106, Fall 2012
        • Issue 105, Summer 2012
        • Issue 104, Spring 2012
        • Issue 103, Winter 2012
        • Issue 102, Fall 2011
        • Issue 101, Summer 2011
      • Back Issues 91-100 >
        • Issue 100, Spring 2011
        • Issue 99, Winter 2011
        • Issue 98, Fall 2010
        • Issue 97, Summer 2010
        • Issue 96, Spring 2010
        • Issue 95, Winter 2010
        • Issue 94, Fall 2009
        • Issue 93, Summer 2009
        • Issue 92, Spring 2009
        • Issue 91, Winter 2009
      • Back Issues 81-90 >
        • Issue 90, Fall 2008
        • Issue 89, Summer 2008
        • Issue 88, Spring 2008
        • Issue 87, Winter 2008
        • Issue 86, Fall 2007
        • Issue 85, Summer 2007
        • Issue 84, Spring 2007
        • Issue 83, Winter 2007
        • Issue 82, Fall 2006
        • Issue 81, Summer 2006
      • Back Issues 71-80 >
        • Issue 80, Spring 2006
        • Issue 79, Winter 2006
        • Issue 78, Fall 2005
        • Issue 77, Summer 2005
        • Issue 76, Spring 2005
        • Issue 75, Winter 2005
        • Issue 74, Fall 2004
        • Issue 73, Summer 2004
        • Issue 72, Spring 2004
        • Issue 71, Winter 2004
      • Back Issues 61-70 >
        • Issue 70, Fall 2003
        • Issue 69, Summer 2003
        • Issue 68, Spring 2003
        • Issue 67, Winter 2003
        • Issue 66, Fall 2002
        • Issue 65, Summer 2002
        • Issue 64, Spring 2002
        • Issue 63, Winter 2002
        • Issue 62, Fall 2001
        • Issue 61, Summer 2001
      • Back Issues 51-60 >
        • Issue 60, Spring 2001
        • Issue 59, Winter 2001
        • Issue 58, Fall 2000
        • Issue 57, Summer 2000
        • Issue 56, Spring 2000
        • Issue 55, Winter 2000
        • Issue 54, Fall 1999
        • Issue 53, Summer 1999
        • Issue 52, Spring 1999
        • Issue 51, Winter 1999
      • Back Issues 41-50 >
        • Issue 50, Fall 1998
        • Issue 49, Summer 1998
        • Issue 48, Spring 1998
        • Issue 47, Winter 1998
        • Issue 46, Fall 1997
        • Issue 45, Summer 1997
        • Issue 44, Spring 1997
        • Issue 43, Winter 1997
        • Issue 42, Fall 1996
        • Issue 41, Summer 1996
      • Back Issues 31-40 >
        • Issue 40, Spring 1996
        • Issue 39, Winter 1996
        • Issue 38, Fall 1995
        • Issue 37, Summer 1995
        • Issue 36, Spring 1995
        • Issue 35, Winter 1995
        • Issue 34, Fall 1994
        • Issue 33, Summer 1994
        • Issue 32, Spring 1994
        • Issue 31, Winter 1994
      • Back Issues 21-30 >
        • Issue 30, Fall 1993
        • Issue 29, Summer 1993
        • Issue 28, Spring 1993
        • Issue 27, Winter 1993
        • Issue 26, Fall 1992
        • Issue 25, Summer 1992
        • Issue 24, Spring 1992
        • Issue 23, Winter 1992
        • Issue 22, Fall 1991
        • Issue 21, Summer 1991
      • Back Issues 11-20 >
        • Issue 20, Spring 1991
        • Issue 19, Winter 1991
        • Issue 18, Fall 1990
        • Issue 17, Summer 1990
        • Issue 16, Spring 1990
        • Issue 15, Winter 1990
        • Issue 14, Fall 1989
        • Issue 13, Summer 1989
        • Issue 12, Spring 1989
        • Issue 11, Winter 1989
      • Back Issues 1-10 >
        • Issue 10, Fall 1988
        • Issue 9, Summer 1988
        • Issue 8, Spring 1988
        • Issue 7, Winter 1988
        • Issue 6, Fall 1987
        • Issue 5, Summer 1987
        • Issue 4, Spring 1987
        • Issue 3, Winter 1987
        • Issue 2, Fall 1986
        • Issue 1, Summer 1986
    • Links of Interest
  • Bonus Materials
    • Adventures in Genealogy
    • Alabama Heritage Blog
    • Alabama Territory
    • Becoming Alabama >
      • Creek War Era
      • Civil War Era
      • Civil Rights Movement
    • From the Vault
    • History in Ruins
    • Places in Peril
    • Recipes
  • Customer Service
  • Online Store
  • About Us
    • Awards
    • Board of Directors
    • Corporate Sponsors
    • Employment Opportunities
    • Meet Our Team
    • News
    • Social Media
    • Writer's Guidelines and Submissions
  • Donate to Alabama Heritage
  • Calendar of Events
  • Search
  • Join our Email List
Published by The University of Alabama,
The University of Alabama at Birmingham,
and the Alabama Department of Archives and History

Fall 1818

11/21/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
In the late summer of 1818, a special-ordered seal and press designed for use by the Alabama Territory’s executive office finally arrived in St. Stephens from Philadelphia. The emblem featured a map of the territory showcasing its famed river system, the future state’s literal arteries of commerce. On the surface it seemed a common symbol of unity, highlighting the natural abundance that drew Alabama’s people together and augured a bright future. Viewed another way, however, the seal could be understood to reveal the underlying reasons for the territory’s pervasive sectional and political rivalries that seemed to only grow more pronounced as economic activity increased. 

Read More
0 Comments

Summer 1818

7/7/2018

0 Comments

 
Two story dogtrot
While most settlers who descended on the Alabama Territory hoped to carve farms and plantations from their little corners of the future state, others pursued a more urban vision of the path to prosperity. The year 1818 featured some of the Alabama Territory’s most frenzied and optimistic speculation, investment, and general dreaming and scheming in this regard. In one of the most elaborate examples of a common territorial phenomenon, for example the Cypress Land Company offered the first lots for sale in the planned city of Florence on July 22.

Read More
0 Comments

Spring 1818

4/3/2018

0 Comments

 
PictureAn engraving based on "Gang of Negro Slaves shipping Cotton from a Plantation on the Alabama River, by torchlight--on a Steam Boat for Mobile," painted by William Henry Brooke in 1839. (Alabama Archives)
The Alabama Territory’s cultural and economic landscape was well defined by spring 1818. As the territory entered its second year of existence, cotton, transportation networks to facilitate its trade, and a fundamental reliance on slave labor had meshed to form the key parts of the structural bedrock on which the new state would rise. During the year ahead, these aspects of the territorial experience would both cement and extend their influence into virtually every aspect of Alabama life. One particularly significant area was transportation. Alabama’s first steamboats were a far cry from the floating palaces of river travel’s heyday—slower, smaller, and far less powerful or reliable than those of the coming generation—but they marked the beginning of the era of revolution in riverine transportation.


Read More
0 Comments

Winter 1817

1/10/2018

0 Comments

 
George Shorter St. Stephens excavations
Indian agent John Crowell
Chickasaw chief George Colbert headpiece
On January 19, 1818, the members of the Alabama Territory’s legislature gathered in St. Stephens for the first of two lawmaking sessions conducted prior to statehood. All thirteen members present—twelve lower house members and one upper—originally had been elected to the Mississippi Territory’s General Assembly. To facilitate organizing the government of Alabama, the act enabling division of the territory had specified these representatives would serve the remainder of their terms as Alabama’s legislators. Befitting Alabama’s humble and hurried origins, they met in rented rooms at the Douglas Hotel. Appointed Gov. William Wyatt Bibb set the tone for administering business at hand in his written address to the assembly, which recommended careful attention to internal improvements and the promulgation of the means of education. Thus keeping one eye firmly on the future state they planned to erect, over the course of the next four weeks the legislators laid the groundwork for their own government.

Read More
0 Comments

Fall 1817

10/9/2017

1 Comment

 
Judge SE Ferrell House c 1820 Monroe County Federal Road
1817 Henry Hitchcock
“The Alabama Feaver [sic] rages here with great violence and has carried off vast numbers of our citizens,” wrote a startled North Carolinian to a friend in November of 1817. “There is no question that this feaver is contagious…, for as soon as one neighbor visits another who has just returned from the Alabama he immediately discovers the same symptoms which are exhibited by the person who has seen the allureing [sic] Alabama.” While these words may contain as much sarcasm as genuine alarm, the Alabama Territory did seem to possess a magnetic attraction to aspiring emigrants. The movement of people it inspired would become the enduring hallmark of Alabama’s formative years.

Read More
1 Comment

Spring-Summer 1817

7/7/2017

 
With the proverbial stroke of a pen in the nation’s capital, Alabama’s long road to independent territorial status entered its final act on March 3, 1817. The newly designated Alabama Territory, the eastern half of the enormous tract of the American southwestern frontier known as the Mississippi Territory, on that date began its transition to a separate political entity by the terms of an enabling act passed by Congress and signed into law by Pres. James Madison. The act set out the process by which the western portion of the territory, the future state of Mississippi, would enter the Union and organized the eastern section into the Alabama Territory. For the first time since the formation of the Mississippi Territory a generation prior in 1798, the circuitous path towards statehood for the region at last lay clear.

Read More

    Author

    Mike Bunn currently serves as director of operations at  Historic Blakeley State Park in Spanish Fort, Alabama. This department of Alabama Heritage magazine  is sponsored by the Alabama Bicentennial Commission and the Alabama Tourism Department.

    Archives

    November 2018
    July 2018
    April 2018
    January 2018
    October 2017
    July 2017

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

UA Disclaimer
UA Diversity Statement
UA Privacy Policy 
Website comments or questions?  
Email ah.online@ua.edu