Alabama is a State in south USA. Alabama was the ninth State admitted to the Union after the original thirteen. The region occupied by the State was originally a part of the territory of Georgia, though the southern portion was the subject of a dispute with Spain, and indeed with the Federal government. In 1802 Georgia. ceded all her western lands to the latter, and what is now Alabama became a part of the territory of Mississippi, organized in 1798 (1804). The portion south of latitude 31 degrees and west of the river Perdido was acquired by seizure during the War of 1812. During 1813 and 1814 occurred the war with the Red Sticks faction of the Creeks, whose defeat by General Andrew Jackson at Horse Shoe Bend caused them to concede nearly all their territory - three quarters of Alabama. Rapid settlement followed. In 1817 Mississippi became a State and Alabama a territory, the eastern portion of the territory being erected into the territory of Alabama.
The region now known as Alabama has been inhabited for at least 9,000 years. The earliest evidence of human habitation is charcoal from an ancient campfire found at Russell Cave in north-eastern Alabama, which is about 9,000 years old. It is thought the early inhabitants probably descended from humans who crossed from Asia to North America via the Bering Strait, and started settling permanent villages about 1000. Some of their descendants, popularly called Mound Builders, erected huge earthern temple mounds and simple huts along Alabama's rivers, beginning around 1100.
The name Alabama is Indian, and is said to mean 'Here we rest'. When the first Europeans arrived, Alabama was inhabited by Indians, half of them either Creek or members of smaller groups living within the Creek confederacy. Cherokee Indians inhabited north-eastern Alabama, Chickasaw lived in the northwest, and Choctaw settled in the southwest.
During the 16th century, five Spanish expeditions entered Mobile Bay or explored the region now called Alabama. The most extensive was that of Hernando de Soto, whose army marched from the Tennessee Valley to the Mobile Delta in 1540. In 1702, two French naval officers, Pierre Le Moyne, Sieur d'Iberville, and Jean Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville established Fort Louis de la Mobile, the first permanent European settlement in present-day Alabama. Mobile remained in French hands until 1763, when it was turned over to the British under the terms of the Treaty of Paris. Mobile was captured in 1780 during the American War of Independence by Spain, an ally of the insurgent American colonists. In 1803, the United States claimed the city of Mobile as part of the Louisiana Purchase, but was refused. American troops captured the city of Mobile in 1813 during the War of 1812.
The population of the new territory, from but 33,000 in 1817, grew to be 128,000 in 1820. On December 14th, 1819, it was admitted to the Union as the State of Alabama. Of the population mentioned, 86,000 were whites and 42,000 slaves. Population, continuing to grow rapidly, reached nearly a million in 1860, and in 1890 was 1,513,000. On January 11th, 1861, Alabama seceded from the Union. The act of secession was revoked in 1865. From 1867 until 1868 the State was under military rule. In 1868, under a new constitution, Alabama was declared by Congress to be restored to the Union.
The Alabama is a river in Alabama, formed by the junction of the Coosa and the Tallapoosa and flowing 507 km south-west to the Mobile and Tensaw Rivers.
Abbreviations
Gazetteer
Research Alabama