Early in the 18th century, the English had planted trading posts north of Mobile, and when the French posts east of the Mississippi were ceded to England, that part of Alabama north of 32° 28" was added to the Illinois country, and that part south of the line was added to west Florida. Many English and Scotch settled here, and these remained loyal during the Revolution. Spain seized the province of west Florida in 1789. On account of her treaty with England, the United States laid claim to all territory down to 31°. Spain, however, held all south of 32° 28" until 1798. The land lying between 32° 28" on the north, 31° on the south, the Chattahoochee River on the east, and the Mississippi River on the west, was organized into Mississippi Territory in 1798. In 1804, land claimed by Georgia and South Carolina, extending to 35°, was added to Mississippi Territory. The Mobile district was taken from Spain in 1812. In 1817, Mississippi Territory was divided. The western half be came the State of Mississippi, and the eastern half the Territory of Alabama. On 14 Dec. 1819 Alabama became a State.
At the outbreak of the War of 1812, the chief Tecumseh and his brother, the Prophet, came south to inflame the tribes of Alabama against the whites; and Colonel Nichols came from London to Pensacola with ample freight of arms and ammunition to distribute among the tribes of Alabama as allies of the British army. On 30 Aug. 1813, Chief William Weatherford, one-fourth Indian, three-fourths Scotch, led the Creek warriors to the massacre of Fort Mims. In a few hours, most of the 540 white occupants of this place, men, women and children, were butchered indiscriminately. Only a few made good their escape. General An drew Jackson, a fierce avenger, hastened to the field, and on 27 March 1814, he attacked the Creeks in their fortified position on the Talla poosa, 20 miles north of Montgomery, and al most annihilated the tribe. Near the battle field on the site of old Fort Toulouse, he built Fort Jackson, assembled the warriors, prophets and deputies of the Creeks and made a treaty with them by which they surrendered most of the tribal lands in Alabama and Missis sippi. The British War Office now conceived a plan for operation in the extreme South. Major Lawrence, of the regulars, was placed at Fort Bowyer at the entrance of Mobile Bay with 160 men. The English assailed the fort with perseverance, but were defeated and re treated with loss.
The total white population of Alabama at the beginning of the decade of 1860 was 526, 431. The slave population was 435,080. There were 52 counties. In each of the 15 great cotton plantation counties which formed the Black Belt there were from 10,000 to 25,760 slaves, an average of 16,808 slaves and an average of 9,363 white population. The most influential men of the State came from the Black Belt, Mobile and the Tennessee Valley.
Alabama was one of the earliest Southern States to engage in the secession movement, and Montgomery was the first capital of the Confederacy. The Ordinance of Secession was passed 11 Jan. 1861, by a vote of 61 to
39. The division of the vote on the adoption of the Ordinance of Secession was not be tween a disunion and a union party. The two parties in this convention were the Im mediate Secessionists, led by William L. Yancy, and Co-operationists, who believed in the right of secession but hoped in some way through the co-operation of the Southern States to pro tect their rights without secession. These Co-operationists were led by William R. Smith. When the State seceded, Governor Moore or dered the seizure of Forts Morgan and Gaines which guarded Mobile harbor. The senators and representatives from Alabama resigned their seats in Congress on 21 Jan. 1861. On the 4 February the government of the Con federacy was organized at Montgomery by delegates from the seceding States. Selma was made a leading Confederate arsenal and ship ping yard. The Tennessee Valley was occupied by Union forces early in 1862; the fleet in Mobile was destroyed and the forts were re taken by Farragut in 1864; and the whole State was reoccupied April 1865.
A provisional government was established by President Andrew Johnson by the appoint ment of Lewis E. Parsons, a native of New York, who had long resided in Alabama, to be governor. Governor Parsons ordered an elec tion by the full body of electors, except the several classes not yet pardoned by the Presi dent, of delegates to assemble at the Capitol at Montgomery, September 1865. This conven tion made a new State Constitution revoking the Ordinance of Secession, abolishing slavery and providing for the equality of the freed men in the rights of person and property; but restricted the electorate to the white males eligible. The State government set up by the new Constitution was recognized by the Presi dent as soon as the legislature had ratified the 13th Amendment, and went into effect Decem ber following. The general assembly of Ala bama, however, refused to ratify the 14th Amendment. Thereupon, the senators and rep resentatives from Alabama to Congress were denied seats by that body, and by the Acts of March, 1867, the State government was abol ished and military rule restored. Under mili tary supervision, the Constitution of 1868 was made by carpet-baggers, scallawags and negroes and a civil government was set up. The Con stitution of 1868 remained in force until 1875. The State was bankrupted by the carpet-bagger regime, and there was great disorder in the attempt to bring the government once more into the hands of the better classes. But these conditions have long since passed away, and the reorganizing of the public debt in 1876 made industrial progress possible. The re markable industrial changes in the mineral region of Alabama since 1870 have greatly affected the life of the State. To the agricul tural life of early days has been added the city life of a mining, manufacturing and com mercial people. Great attention has been girea to road building. The steel and cotton intes tries, lumbering and mining have developed enormously and agriculture is now improving rapidly.