Inside Alabama

Inside Alabama

Author: Harvey H. Jackson

Publisher: University of Alabama Press

Published: 2003

Total Pages: 346

ISBN-13: 0817350683

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An insider's perspective in a conversational, yet unapologetic style on the events and conditions that shaped modern-day Alabama.


These Rugged Days

These Rugged Days

Author: John S. Sledge

Publisher: University of Alabama Press

Published: 2017-08-15

Total Pages: 290

ISBN-13: 0817319603

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An accessibly written and dramatic account of Alabama's role in the Civil War. The Civil War has left indelible marks on Alabama's land, culture, economy, and people. Despite its lasting influence, this wrenching story has been too long neglected by historians preoccupied by events elsewhere. In These Rugged Days: Alabama in the Civil War, John S. Sledge provides a long overdue and riveting narrative of Alabama's wartime saga. Focused on the conflict's turning points within the state's borders, this book charts residents' experiences from secession's heady early days to its tumultuous end, when 75,000 blue-coated soldiers were on the move statewide. Sledge details this eventful history using an impressive array of primary and secondary materials, including official records, diaries, newspapers, memoirs, correspondence, sketches, and photographs. He also highlights such colorful personalities as Nathan Bedford Forrest, the "Wizard of the Saddle"; John Pelham, the youthful Jacksonville artillerist who was shipped home in an iron casket with a glass faceplate; Gus Askew, a nine-year-old Barbour County slave who vividly recalled the day the Yankees marched in; and Augusta Jane Evans, the young novelist who was given a gold pen by a daring blockade runner. Sledge offers a refreshing take on Alabama's contributions to the Civil War that will intrigue anyone who is interested in learning more about the state's war efforts. His narrative is a dramatic account that will be enjoyed by lay readers as well as students and scholars of Alabama and the Civil War. These Rugged Days is an enthralling tale of action, courage, pride, and tragedy, making clear the relevance of many of the Civil War's decisive moments for the way Alabamians live today.


Hidden History of North Alabama

Hidden History of North Alabama

Author: Jacquelyn Procter Reeves

Publisher: Arcadia Publishing

Published: 2010-05-06

Total Pages: 164

ISBN-13: 1614232210

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The tranquil waters of the Tennessee River hide a horrible tragedy that took place one steamy July day when co-workers took an excursion aboard the SCItanic. Lawrence County resident Jenny Brooks used the skull of one of her victims to wash her hands, but her forty-year quest for revenge cost more than she bargained for. Granville Garth jumped to his watery grave with a pocketful of secrets--did anyone collect the $10,000 reward for the return of the papers he took with him? Historian Jacquelyn Procter Reeves transports readers deep into the shadows of the past to learn about the secret of George Steele's will, the truth behind the night the "Stars Fell on Alabama" and the story of the Lawrence County boys who died in the Goliad Massacre. Learn these secrets--and many more--in Hidden History of North Alabama.


Mobile

Mobile

Author: Michael Thomason

Publisher: University Alabama Press

Published: 2001

Total Pages: 472

ISBN-13:

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The history of Mobile, Alabama's first city.


Alabama

Alabama

Author: Dottie Brown

Publisher: Lerner Publications

Published: 2001-01-10

Total Pages: 88

ISBN-13: 9780822540670

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Introduces the geography, history, economy, famous people, and environment of the Heart of Dixie.


The Old Federal Road in Alabama

The Old Federal Road in Alabama

Author: Kathryn H. Braund

Publisher: University Alabama Press

Published: 2019-08-13

Total Pages: 177

ISBN-13: 0817359303

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A concise illustrated guidebook for those wishing to explore and know more about the storied gateway that made possible Alabama's development Forged through the territory of the Creek Nation by the United States federal government, the Federal Road was developed as a communication artery linking the east coast of the United States with Louisiana. Its creation amplified already tense relationships between the government, settlers, and the Creek Nation, culminating in the devastating Creek War of 1813–1814, and thereafter it became the primary avenue of immigration for thousands of Alabama settlers. Central to understanding Alabama’s territorial and early statehood years, the Federal Road was both a physical and symbolic thoroughfare that cut a swath of shattering change through the land and cultures it traversed. The road revolutionized Alabama’s expansion, altering the course of its development by playing a significant role in sparking a cataclysmic war, facilitating unprecedented American immigration, and enabling an associated radical transformation of the land itself. The first half of The Old Federal Road in Alabama: An Illustrated Guide offers a narrative history that includes brief accounts of the construction of the road, the experiences of historic travelers, and descriptions of major changes to the road over time. The authors vividly reconstruct the course of the road in detail and make use of a wealth of well-chosen illustrations. Along the way they give attention to the very terrain it traversed, bringing to life what traveling the road must have been like and illuminating its story in a way few others have ever attempted. The second half of the volume is divided into three parts—Eastern, Central, and Southern—and serves as a modern traveler’s guide to the Federal Road. This section includes driving tours and maps, highlighting historical sites and surviving portions of the old road and how to visit them.


1865 Alabama

1865 Alabama

Author: Christopher Lyle McIlwain

Publisher: University of Alabama Press

Published: 2017-09-12

Total Pages: 377

ISBN-13: 0817319530

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A detailed history of a vitally important year in Alabama history The year 1865 is critically important to an accurate understanding of Alabama's present. In 1865 Alabama: From Civil War to Uncivil Peace Christopher Lyle McIlwain Sr. examines the end of the Civil War and the early days of Reconstruction in the state and details what he interprets as strategic failures of Alabama's political leadership. The actions, and inactions, of Alabamians during those twelve months caused many self-inflicted wounds that haunted them for the next century. McIlwain recounts a history of missed opportunities that had substantial and reverberating consequences. He focuses on four factors: the immediate and unconditional emancipation of the slaves, the destruction of Alabama's remaining industrial economy, significant broadening of northern support for suffrage rights for the freedmen, and an acute and lengthy postwar shortage of investment capital. Each element proves critically important in understanding how present-day Alabama was forged. Relevant events outside Alabama are woven into the narrative, including McIlwain's controversial argument regarding the effect of Lincoln's assassination. Most historians assume that Lincoln favored black suffrage and that he would have led the fight to impose that on the South. But he made it clear to his cabinet members that granting suffrage rights was a matter to be decided by the southern states, not the federal government. Thus, according to McIlwain, if Lincoln had lived, black suffrage would not have been the issue it became in Alabama. McIlwain provides a sifting analysis of what really happened in Alabama in 1865 and why it happened--debunking in the process the myth that Alabama's problems were unnecessarily brought on by the North. The overarching theme demonstrates that Alabama's postwar problems were of its own making. They would have been quite avoidable, he argues, if Alabama's political leadership had been savvier.


Rivers of History

Rivers of History

Author: Harvey H. Jackson

Publisher: University of Alabama Press

Published: 1995-07-30

Total Pages: 317

ISBN-13: 0817307710

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"Jackson weaves a seamless tale stretching from the Native-American river settlements ... to the paper mills and hydroelectric plants of the late twentieth century". -- Southern Historian


Alabama and the Civil War

Alabama and the Civil War

Author: Robert C. Jones

Publisher: Arcadia Publishing

Published: 2017-06-12

Total Pages: 154

ISBN-13: 1439660751

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An examination of the influence of the “Heart of Dixie” on the War Between the States—the key players, places, and politics. Alabama’s role in the Civil War cannot be understated. Union raids into northern Alabama, the huge manufacturing infrastructure in central Alabama and the Battle of Mobile Bay all played significant parts. A number of important Civil War figures also called Alabama home. Maj. General Joseph Wheeler was one of the most remarkable Confederate cavalry commanders in the west. John the Gallant Pelham earned the nickname for his bravery during the Battle of Fredericksburg. John Semmes commanded two of the most famous commerce raiders of the war—the CSS Sumter and the CSS Alabama. Author Robert C. Jones examines the people and places in Alabama that shaped the Civil War. Includes photos!


From Marion to Montgomery

From Marion to Montgomery

Author: Joe Caver

Publisher: NewSouth Books

Published: 2020-08-25

Total Pages: 288

ISBN-13: 9781588383600

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One of the earliest public historically black universities, Alabama State University is a vital source of African American excellence situated directly in the Heart of Dixie. From Marion to Montgomery tells the little-known story of the university's origin as the Reconstruction-era Lincoln Normal School in Marion, Alabama. How did a little school in Lowndes County become one of the world's most renowned HBCUs?