Issue 134, Fall 2019

Issue 125, Summer 2017

On the cover: Cupola of the Lowndesboro AME Church, believed to have graced the first statehouse in Cahawba. [Photo Courtesy of Robin McDonald]

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Editor’s Note: ​We are honored to have the support of the Alabama Bicentennial Commission (ABC) for this special issue of Alabama Heritage. Please see Alabama200.org for more information about the ABC and upcoming bicentennial-related events.

Features

Clement Comer Clay was a delegate to the constitutional convention and chaired the Committee of Fifteen that wrote the first draft. (Photo Courtesy of Alabama Department of Archives and History)

Constitution and Crisis

Outside the Convention Hall, Huntsville, Alabama in the Summer of 1819

By Thomas Reidy

In the ten-plus years prior to its statehood, Alabama experienced substantial growth and prosperity—confidence-building indicators for what life in the area might be like. However, as statehood dawned, many around Huntsville—the state’s initial capital—suffered from economic distress, largely fueled by debts incurred for land. This economic reality contributed to Alabama’s growing population of enslaved persons and shaped the new state socially, culturally, politically, and legally, establishing laws and attitudes that would remain in place for years to come. 

The Committee of Fifteen met in the law office of committee chairman Clement Comer Clay, re-created here in Huntsville’s Alabama Constitution Village. (Photo Courtesy of Robin McDonald)

The Adoption of the 1819 Constitution of Alabama

By Herbert James Lewis

In the summer of 1819, men from across Alabama met to undertake one of the most important events of the proposed state’s origins: drafting its constitution. Many of the forty-four individuals held political experience from other places, but all collaborated to position the new state for success and prosperity. The resulting draft, modeled largely on the United States Constitution, established the form of state government and codified citizens’ rights. In under one month, its drafters had created the document that would guide the state for its first four decades—and shape it for generations.

Thomas Bibb, who had been serving as president of the Alabama senate, completed his brother’s term as governor. (Photo Courtesy of Alabama Department of Archives and History)
A very early map of Cahawba showing its position at the confluence of the Cahaba and Alabama Rivers. (Photo Courtesy of Alabama Department of Archives and History)
Virginia-born William Wyatt Bibb came to Alabama following a distinguished political career in Georgia. (Photo Courtesy of Alabama Department of Archives and History)

William Wyatt Bibb

Alabama’s First Governor

By Samuel L. Webb

Born in Virginia and established as a key figure in Georgia politics, William Wyatt Bibb also made a significant impact on the Alabama Territory and the new state. Bibb served in both the Georgia and federal legislature, building allies—and some enemies—with his dogmatic positions on contemporary issues. When opportunity opened in the Alabama Territory, Bibb acquiesced, becoming the territorial governor and cementing the authority and prominence for the Broad River Group, a political faction of his Georgia associates. Bibb served as Alabama’s first state governor, a tenure shortened by his untimely death but marked by his influence on the young state’s course.

This 1823 map shows the Creek and Cherokee land left in Alabama and Georgia nine years after the Treaty of Fort Jackson. (Photo Courtesy of Alabama Department of Archives and History)

The Creek Nation and Alabama

By Kathryn H. Braund

For white settlers, the formation of the state of Alabama held promise and opportunity, but for many of Alabama’s Native Americans, statehood brought disruption, displacement, and destruction. Creek Indians petitioned to retain their land in the face of encroaching settlers, all too often realizing that the legal protections they had been been granted were no longer honored. Though some Creeks managed to retain some land, changes in the area’s population density and economy disrupted traditional Creek ways of life. And American settlers and politicians often exploited opportunity, setting different tribes against one another and pushing many natives farther west—just one indication of the horrors that lay ahead.

Huntsville’s first newspaper, the Alabama Republican, was edited by John Boardman, who echoed the views of the political and financial elite, including the directors and investors of the Planters and Merchants Bank. (Photo Courtesy Alabama Department of Archives and History)
An Alabama Constitution Village guide demonstrates a working printing press in a re-creation of John Boardman’s print shop. (Photo Courtesy of Robin McDonald)
William B. Long, publisher and editor of The Democrat, positioned his newspaper in support of the populist political philosophy of Thomas Jefferson. (Photo Courtesy of Alabama Department of Archives and History)

“Liberty is a jewel too precious for compromise or exchange”

The Politics of Banking, Newspapers, and Class in Frontier Alabama

By Thomas Chase Hagood

In the early days of Alabama’s statehood, newspapers helped influence events and, perhaps more dramatically, their perception. As the young state’s leaders navigated how its banking system should function, the issue became a flashpoint representing broader political belief systems. A pair of rival newspaper editors—the Alabama Republican’s John Boardman and The Democrat’s William B. Long—used their respective platforms with abandon, each hoping to shape the state and advance his party’s agenda.

In 1936 the Historic American Building Survey visited James Tait’s Dry Forks Plantation, photographing the former dwellings of Tait’s enslaved workers. (Photo Courtesy Library of Congress)

A “Peculiar Institution”

Slavery in Alabama

By Justin A. Rudder

The practice of enslaving people has a long history in the Americas, and Alabama is no exception. As a territory and a new state, Alabama allowed this inhumane practice, which enabled the region’s economic growth even as it exploited entire generations of people. Using primary and historical sources, Justin Rudder surveys how slavery and its legacy shaped early Alabama and continues to affect the state today.

The Joel Eddins House (circa 1812), now at Huntsville’s Burritt Museum, typifies the kind of hewn-log dwelling described by Mai Taylor in pre-statehood Madison County. A board partition divides the interior into a main room and smaller adjacent chamber with separate loft spaces, each reached by a narrow stair. (Photo Courtesy of Robin McDonald)
The Travis House originally measured only 18×25 feet and recalls the modest wooden dwellings of territorial and early statehood days in southwest Alabama. Its frame construction was the exception in 1820s southwestern Alabama. Relocated from Claiborne to Perdue Hill in the 1980s, it has been restored by the Bedsole Foundation. (Photo Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)
Mobile’s Vincent House. (Photo Courtesy of Robin McDonald)

“This Beautiful and Rapid Rising State”

Architecture of the Early Territorial and State Years

By Robert Gamble

As people moved into the Alabama Territory and settled into life in the new state, the structures they constructed reflected a number of different aspects of life on the frontier, including available materials and resources, builders’ relative economic status, and the architectural styles of the time. Whether a frame house, a log cabin, or a stately brick home, buildings from the state’s first days reveal a wealth of historical and socio-cultural information about their inhabitants and the communities in which they lived.

Courtland, in Lawrence County, is home to several early statehood period houses, such as the 1829 Trotter-McMahon House. (Photo Courtesy of Robin McDonald)

Survivors

A Roster of Alabama’s Oldest-Known Standing Buildings–Plus an Album of Losses

By Robert Gamble

Though many of Alabama’s early architectural structures have been lost to age and time, some remain, offering contemporary visitors and historians a wealth of information about the eras of their creation and the people who inhabited them. Renowned architectural historian Robert Gamble surveys the most notable buildings from Alabama’s early years, offering insightful commentary about their history and origins and commemorating some significant structures that no longer remain extant. 

Department Abstracts

Letter from Senator Orr: Commemorating our 200th Anniversary

By G. Ward Hubbs

In a special feature to Alabama Heritage, Sen. Arthur Orr, Chairman of the Alabama Bicentennial Commission, reminds us of the state’s origins and looks toward its promising future.

Alabama 200

Celebrate Alabama!

Jay Lamar, Executive Director of the Alabama Bicentennial Commission, reflects on the Alabama Bicentennial celebrations and their lasting significance. Throughout the three-year commemoration, the bicentennial has highlighted the state’s history through educational, civic, and cultural programming; books, monuments, and many other events.

In 1825 Alabama welcomed the Revolutionary War hero Marquis de Lafayette as part of his grand tour of the United States. From 1824 to 1825, Lafayette traveled more than six thousand miles, visiting every state. (Photo Courtesy Library of Congress)

The Alabama Territory

Quarter by Quarter: Fall 1819

By Mike Bunn

The final installment of “The Alabama Territory” concludes the history of the territorial period and ushers in the first days of statehood, including the state’s first legislative session. It also surveys the state’s early years—through its first several governors and the economic growth of its antebellum period. Perhaps the young state’s most proud moment, however, came from abroad, when the Marquis de Lafayette decided to stop in Alabama during his celebratory return to tour the United States, a country his Revolutionary War efforts helped create. Alabama emptied its coffers to host the veteran, a sign not just of its patriotism but also of its excitement at being counted, finally, as a state all its own. 

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