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ALABAMA

U.S.A.

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ALABAMA

An Introduction

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Alabama is a state located in the Southern United States. The twenty-second state admitted to the Union, Alabama seceded from the union in 1861 to become part of the Confederate States of America. Following the Civil War and Reconstruction, Alabama was readmitted to the union in 1868.

Until World War II, Alabama, like many Southern states, remained mired in poverty. In the following years, Alabama would emerge as a growing economic power as the economy of the state transitioned from agriculture to diversified interests in heavy manufacturing, mineral extraction, education, and high technology. Perhaps the proudest moment for the state came in 1969, when Man walked on the moon using rockets developed in Alabama. Today, the state is heavily invested in the aerospace, education, health care, banking, and various heavy industries including automobile manufacturing and mineral extraction.

Among Native American people once living in present Alabama were Alabama (Alibamu), Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, Koasati, and Mobile.^[5] Trade with the Northeast via the Ohio River began during the Burial Mound Period (1000 BC-A.D. 700) and continued until European contact.^[6] Meso-American influence is evident in the agrarian Mississippian culture that followed.

The French founded the first European settlement in the state with the establishment of Mobile in 1702.^[7] Southern Alabama was French from 1702 to 1763, part of British West Florida from 1763 to 1780, and part of Spanish West Florida from 1780 to 1814. Northern and central Alabama was part

of British Georgia from 1763 to 1783 and part of the American Mississippi territory thereafter. Its statehood was delayed by the lack of a coastline; rectified when Andrew Jackson captured Spanish Mobile in 1814.^[8] Alabama was the twenty-second state admitted to the Union, in 1819.

The economy of the central "Black Belt (region of Alabama)" featured large rich slave plantations that grew cotton.^[9] Elsewhere poor whites were subsistence farmers. Alabama seceded and joined the Confederate States of America, 1861–65. While not many battles were fought in the state, Alabama contributed about 120,000 soldiers to the Civil War. All the slaves were freed by 1865.^[10] After a period of Reconstruction it emerged as a poor rural state, still tied to cotton, with high racial tensions between the ruling whites and the recently emancipated negros, who had second-class legal, social and economic status.^[9] The negros lost the right to vote in 1901, and, after 1917, many migrated to northern cities. Politically, the state was one-party Democratic, and produced a number of national leaders. World War II brought prosperity.^[9] Cotton faded in importance as the state developed a manufacturing and service base. In the 1960s, under Governor George Wallace, the state opposed federal integration efforts. After the passage of the Civil Rights Laws of 1964 and 1965, African Americans regained the right to vote and de jure segregation and Jim Crow disappeared.^[11] After 1972, the state became a Republican stronghold in presidential elections, and leaned Republican in state elections.^[12]