Editing Alabama (section)

=== 19th century ===
{{main|Organic act#List of organic acts|Alabama Territory|Admission to the Union|List of U.S. states by date of admission to the Union}}The creation of the [[Mississippi Territory]] quickly prompted debates over its division. Amid pressure from white southerners who sought the establishment of two slave states, Congress formed the Alabama Territory from the eastern half of the Mississippi Territory on March 3, 1817. The legislation appointed William Wyatt Bibb of Georgia as the first governor of the newly designated Alabama Territory.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Territorial Period and Early Statehood |url=https://encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/territorial-period-and-early-statehood/ |access-date=2025-02-26 |website=Encyclopedia of Alabama |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Harney |first=Erin |date=2018-03-01 |title=On this day in Alabama history: Authority granted to Mississippi Territory |url=https://alabamanewscenter.com/2018/03/01/day-alabama-history-march-1/ |access-date=2025-02-26 |website=Alabama News Center |language=en-US}}</ref>
Before [[Mississippi|Mississippi's]] admission to statehood on December 10, 1817, the more sparsely settled eastern half of the territory was separated and named the [[Alabama Territory]]. The [[United States Congress]] created the Alabama Territory on March 3, 1817. [[St. Stephens, Alabama|St. Stephens]], now abandoned, served as the territorial capital from 1817 to 1819.<ref name="eoaststephens">{{cite web |url=http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-1674 |title=Old St. Stephens |website=Encyclopedia of Alabama |publisher=Auburn University |access-date=June 21, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110726152101/http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-1674 |archive-date=July 26, 2011 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

Alabama was admitted as the 22nd state on December 14, 1819, with Congress selecting [[Huntsville, Alabama|Huntsville]] as the site for the first [[Constituent assembly|Constitutional Convention]]. From July{{spaces}}5 to August 2, 1819, delegates met to prepare the new state constitution. Huntsville served as temporary capital from 1819 to 1820, when the seat of government moved to [[Cahaba, Alabama|Cahaba]] in [[Dallas County, Alabama|Dallas County]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Huntsville |url=http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-2498 |website=The Encyclopedia of Alabama |publisher=Alabama Humanities Foundation |access-date=January 22, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130122065945/http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-2498 |archive-date=January 22, 2013 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

[[Cahaba, Alabama|Cahaba]], now a [[ghost town]], was the first permanent state capital from 1820 to 1825.<ref name="Cahaw">{{cite web |title=Old Cahawba, Alabama's first state capital, 1820 to 1826 |website=Old Cahawba: A Cahawba Advisory Committee Project |url=http://www.cahawba.com/ |access-date=September 22, 2012 |archive-date=August 21, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120821130209/http://www.cahawba.com/ |url-status=live}}</ref> The [[Alabama Fever]] land rush was underway when the state was admitted to the Union, with settlers and land speculators pouring into the state to take advantage of fertile land suitable for cotton cultivation.<ref name="fever">{{cite web |url=http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-3155 |title=Alabama Fever |author=LeeAnna Keith |date=October 13, 2011 |website=Encyclopedia of Alabama |publisher=Auburn University |access-date=September 22, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130117053816/http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-3155 |archive-date=January 17, 2013 |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="adahtalafvr">{{cite web |url=http://www.alabamaheritage.com/vault/kingcotton.htm |title=Alabama Fever |website=Alabama Department of Archives and History |publisher=State of Alabama |access-date=September 22, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130117053326/http://www.alabamaheritage.com/vault/kingcotton.htm |archive-date=January 17, 2013}}</ref> Part of the frontier in the 1820s and 1830s, its constitution provided for universal suffrage for white men.<ref name="SSpaces"/>

[[File:Thornhill 01.jpg|thumb|right|The main house, built in 1833, at [[Thornhill (Forkland, Alabama)|Thornhill]] in Greene County. It is a former [[Black Belt (region of Alabama)|Black Belt]] plantation.]]
Southeastern planters and traders from the [[Upper South]] brought [[History of slavery in Alabama|slaves]] with them as the cotton [[List of plantations in Alabama|plantations in Alabama]] expanded. The economy of the central [[Black Belt (region of Alabama)|Black Belt]] (named for its dark, productive soil) was built around large cotton [[Plantation complexes in the Southern United States|plantations]] whose owners' wealth grew mainly from slave labor.<ref name="SSpaces"/> The area also drew many poor, disenfranchised people who became [[Subsistence agriculture|subsistence farmers]]. Alabama had an estimated population of under 10,000 people in 1810, but it increased to more than 300,000 people by 1830.<ref name="fever"/> Most Native American tribes were [[Indian removal|completely removed]] from the state within a few years of the passage of the [[Indian Removal Act]] by Congress in 1830.<ref name="ala">{{cite web |url=http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-1598 |title=Alabama |author=Wayne Flynt |date=July 9, 2008 |website=Encyclopedia of Alabama |publisher=Auburn University |access-date=September 22, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120906010441/http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-1598 |archive-date=September 6, 2012 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

From 1826 to 1846, [[Tuscaloosa, Alabama|Tuscaloosa]] served as Alabama's capital. On January 30, 1846, the Alabama legislature announced it had voted to move the capital city from Tuscaloosa to Montgomery. The first legislative session in the new capital met in December 1847.<ref name="capitols">{{cite web |url=http://www.archives.state.al.us/capital/capitals.html |title=Capitals of Alabama |website=Alabama Department of Archives and History |access-date=July 8, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110716220255/http://www.archives.state.al.us/capital/capitals.html |archive-date=July 16, 2011 |url-status=live}}</ref> A new capitol building was erected under the direction of [[Stephen Decatur Button]] of [[Philadelphia]]. The first structure burned down in 1849, but was rebuilt on the same site in 1851. This second capitol building in Montgomery remains to the present day. It was designed by Barachias Holt of [[Exeter, Maine]].<ref name="alcatalog">{{cite book |last= Gamble |first=Robert|year =1987 |title =The Alabama Catalog: A Guide to the Early Architecture of the State|pages=144, 323–324 |publisher =University of Alabama Press|location = University, AL|isbn =978-0-8173-0148-4}}</ref><ref name="alarchitecture">{{cite book |last =Bowsher |first =Alice Meriwether|year =2001 |title =Alabama Architecture|pages=90–91 |publisher =University of Alabama Press|location = Tuscaloosa|isbn =978-0-8173-1081-3}}</ref>

==== Civil War and Reconstruction ====
{{Main|Ordinance of Secession|Confederate States of America|Alabama in the American Civil War}}

By 1860, the population had increased to 964,201 people, of which nearly half, 435,080, were enslaved African Americans, and 2,690 were [[free people of color]].<ref name="adahtmln">{{cite web |url=http://www.archives.alabama.gov/timeline/al1801.html |title=Alabama History Timeline |website=Alabama Department of Archives and History |publisher=State of Alabama |access-date=September 22, 2012 |archive-date=June 18, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160618035649/http://www.archives.alabama.gov/timeline/al1801.html |url-status=live}}</ref> On January 11, 1861, Alabama declared its [[Secession in the United States|secession]] from the [[Union (American Civil War)|Union]]. After remaining an independent republic for a few days, it joined the [[Confederate States of America]]. The Confederacy's capital was initially at Montgomery. Alabama was heavily [[Alabama in the American Civil War|involved in the American Civil War]]. Although comparatively few battles were fought in the state, Alabama contributed about 120,000 soldiers to the war effort.

[[File:Huntsville Courthouse Square 1864.jpg|thumb|left|[[Union Army]] troops occupying Courthouse Square in Huntsville, following its capture and occupation by federal forces in 1864]]
A company of cavalry soldiers from Huntsville, Alabama, joined [[Nathan Bedford Forrest]]'s battalion in [[Hopkinsville, Kentucky]]. The company wore new uniforms with yellow trim on the sleeves, collar and coattails. This led to them being greeted with "Yellowhammer", and the name later was applied to all Alabama troops in the Confederate Army.<ref>[http://www.archives.state.al.us/emblems/st_bird.html Official Symbols and Emblems of Alabama, State Bird of Alabama, Yellowhammer] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190102071436/http://www.archives.state.al.us/emblems/st_bird.html |date=January 2, 2019}}. Alabama State Archives</ref>

Alabama's slaves were freed by the 13th Amendment in 1865.<ref name="HistDocs">{{cite web |url=http://www.historicaldocuments.com/13thAmendment.htm |title=13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Abolition of Slavery (1865) |access-date=September 23, 2006 |year=2005 |website=Historical Documents |publisher=HistoricalDocuments.com |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061031131251/http://www.historicaldocuments.com/13thAmendment.htm |archive-date=October 31, 2006}}</ref> Alabama was under military rule from the end of the war in May 1865 until its official restoration to the Union in 1868. From 1867 to 1874, with most white citizens barred temporarily from voting and freedmen enfranchised, many African Americans emerged as political leaders in the state. Alabama was represented in Congress during this period by three African-American congressmen: [[Jeremiah Haralson]], [[Benjamin S. Turner]], and [[James T. Rapier]].<ref name="alrecnstrctn">{{cite web |url=http://www.alabamamoments.alabama.gov/sec24.html |title=Reconstruction in Alabama: A Quick Summary |website=Alabama Moments in American History |publisher=Alabama Department of Archives and History |access-date=September 22, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120913020916/http://www.alabamamoments.alabama.gov/sec24.html |archive-date=September 13, 2012 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

Following the war, the state remained chiefly agricultural, with an economy tied to cotton. During the Reconstruction era, state legislators ratified a [[Constitution of Alabama|new state constitution]] in 1868 which created the state's first public school system and expanded women's rights. Legislators funded numerous public road and railroad projects, although these were plagued with allegations of fraud and [[misappropriation]].<ref name="alrecnstrctn"/> Organized [[Insurgency|insurgent]], resistance groups tried to suppress the freedmen and Republicans. These groups included The [[Ku Klux Klan]], the Pale Faces, [[Knights of the White Camelia|Knights of the White Camellia]], [[Red Shirts (United States)|Red Shirts]], and the [[White League]].<ref name="alrecnstrctn"/>

Reconstruction in Alabama ended in 1874, when the Democrats regained control of the legislature and governor's office through an election dominated by fraud and violence. They wrote another constitution in 1875,<ref name="alrecnstrctn"/> and the legislature passed the [[Blaine Amendment]], prohibiting public money from being used to finance religious-affiliated schools.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.schoolreport.com/schoolreport/articles/blaine_7_00.htm |title=A Blaine Amendment Update (July 00) |publisher=Schoolreport.com |access-date=June 1, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110716014339/http://www.schoolreport.com/schoolreport/articles/blaine_7_00.htm |archive-date=July 16, 2011 |url-status=dead}}</ref> The same year, legislation was approved that called for [[racial segregation|racially segregated]] schools.<ref name="jimcrowala">{{cite web |url=http://www.classroomhelp.com/till/jimcrowlaws/jimcrowalabama.html |title=Jim Crow Laws in Alabama |website=Emmett Till, It All Began with a Whistle |publisher=Classroomhelp |access-date=September 22, 2012 |archive-date=June 26, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120626210219/http://classroomhelp.com/till/jimcrowlaws/jimcrowalabama.html |url-status=live}}</ref> Railroad passenger cars were segregated in 1891.<ref name="jimcrowala"/>