Editing History of Alabama (section)

==Early statehood==
In 1819, Alabama was admitted as the 22nd state to the Union. Its constitution provided for equal [[suffrage]] for white men, a standard it abandoned in its constitution of 1901, which reduced suffrage of poor whites and most blacks, disenfranchising tens of thousands of voters.<ref>{{EB1911|wstitle= Alabama |volume= 01 | pages = 459&ndash;464; see pages 462 to 464 |quote= History.—...}}</ref>

[[File:1823 Map of Alabama counties.jpeg|thumb|right|250px|1823 Map of Alabama]]
One of the first problems of the new state was finance. Since the amount of money in circulation was not sufficient to meet the demands of the increasing population, a system of state banks was instituted. State bonds were issued and public lands were sold to secure capital, and the notes of the banks, loaned on security, became a medium of exchange. Prospects of an income from the banks led the legislature of 1836 to abolish all taxation for state purposes. The [[Panic of 1837]] wiped out a large portion of the banks' assets, leaving the state poor. Next came revelations of grossly careless and corrupt management. In 1843 the banks were placed in liquidation. After disposing of all their available assets, the state assumed the remaining liabilities, for which it had pledged its faith and credit.<ref>{{cite book|author=Murray Rothbard|title=The Panic of 1819: Reactions and Policies|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TmH6BLCkBj4C&pg=PA81|year=1962|page=81|publisher=Ludwig von Mises Institute |isbn=9781610163705}}</ref>

In 1830 Congress passed the [[Indian Removal Act]] under the leadership of President Andrew Jackson, authorizing federal [[Indian removal|removal]] of southeastern tribes to west of the Mississippi River, including the Five Civilized Tribes of Creek, Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, and [[Seminole]] (in Florida). In 1832, the national government provided for the removal of the Creek via the [[Treaty of Cusseta]]. Before the removal occurred between 1834 and 1837, the state legislature organized counties in the lands to be ceded, and European-American settlers flocked in before the Native Americans had left.<ref>{{cite book|author=John T. Ellisor|title=The Second Creek War: Interethnic Conflict and Collusion on a Collapsing Frontier|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZqsAQF2EBSIC&pg=PA48|year=2010|publisher=U of Nebraska Press|page=48|isbn=9780803234215}}</ref>

Until 1832, the Democratic-Republican Party was the only one in the state, descended from the time of Jefferson. Disagreements over whether a state could [[Nullification (U.S. Constitution)|nullify]] a federal law caused a division within the Democratic party. About the same time the [[Whig party (United States)|Whig party]] emerged as an opposition party. It drew support from planters and townsmen, while the Democrats were strongest among poor farmers and Catholic communities (descendants of French and Spanish colonists) in the Mobile area. For some time, the Whigs were almost as numerous as the Democrats, but they never secured control of the state government. The States' Rights faction were in a minority; nevertheless, under their persistent leader, [[William L. Yancey]] (1814–1863), they prevailed upon the Democrats in 1848 to adopt their most radical views.<ref>Austin L. Venable, "William L. Yancey's Transition from Unionism to State Rights." ''Journal of Southern History'' 10.3 (1944): 331–342.</ref>

During the agitation over the [[Wilmot Proviso]], which would bar slavery from territory acquired from Mexico as a result of the [[Mexican–American War|Mexican War]] (1848), Yancey induced the [[Democratic State Convention]] of 1848 to adopt what was known as the "[[Alabama Platform]]". It declared that neither Congress nor the government of a territory had the right to interfere with slavery in a territory, that those who held opposite views were not Democrats, and that the Democrats of Alabama would not support a candidate for the presidency if he did not agree with them. This platform was endorsed by conventions in Florida and Virginia and by the legislatures of Georgia and Alabama.

In antebellum Alabama, wealthy planters created large cotton [[Plantations in the American South|plantations]] based in the fertile central [[Black Belt (region of Alabama)|Black Belt]] of the upland region, which depended on the labor of enslaved [[African people|Africans]]. Tens of thousands of slaves were transported to and sold in the state by [[Atlantic slave trade|slave traders]] who purchased them in the [[Upper South]]. In the mountains and foothills, poorer whites practiced [[Subsistence agriculture|subsistence farming]]. By 1860 blacks (nearly all slaves) comprised 45 percent of the state's 964,201 people.

Tensions related to slavery divided many state delegations in Congress, as this body tried to determine the futures of territories beyond the Mississippi River. Following the Congressional passage of the [[Compromise of 1850]], which assigned certain territories as slave or free, in Alabama people began to realign politically. The States' Rights faction, joined by many Democrats, founded the [[Southern Rights Party]], which demanded the repeal of the Compromise, advocated resistance to future encroachments, and prepared for secession. The Whigs were joined by the remaining Democrats and called themselves the "Unionists". The party unwillingly accepted the Compromise and denied that the Constitution provided for secession.

Since the turn of the 19th century, development of large cotton plantations had taken place across the upland Black Belt after the invention of the [[cotton gin]] made short-staple cotton profitable. Cotton had added dramatically to the state's wealth. The owners' wealth depended on the labor of hundreds of thousands of enslaved African Americans, many initially transported in the domestic trade from the Upper South, which resulted in one million workers being relocated to the South. In other parts of the state, the soil supported only subsistence farming. Most of the [[yeoman]] farmers owned few or no slaves. By 1860 the investment and profits in cotton production resulted in planters holding 435,000 enslaved African Americans, who made up 45% of the state's population.

At the time of statehood, the early Alabama settlers adopted universal white suffrage. They were noted for a spirit of frontier democracy and egalitarianism, but this declined after the slave society developed.<ref>Stanley Elkins and Eric McKitrick, "A Meaning for Turner's Frontier: Part II: The Southwest Frontier and New England." ''Political Science Quarterly'' 69.4 (1954): 565–602 [https://www.jstor.org/stable/2145637 in JSTOR].</ref> J. Mills Thornton argues that Whigs worked for positive state action to benefit society as a whole, while the Democrats feared any increase of power in government or in state-sponsored institutions as central banks. Fierce political battles raged in Alabama on issues ranging from banking to the removal of the Creek Indians. Thornton suggested the overarching issue in the state was how to protect liberty and equality for white people. Fears that Northern agitators threatened their value system and slavery as the basis of their wealthy economy made voters ready to secede when [[Abraham Lincoln]] was elected in 1860.<ref>J. Mills Thornton, III, ''Politics and Power in a Slave Society: Alabama, 1800–1860'' (1978)</ref>