Alabama Founders: Fourteen Political and Military Leaders Who Shaped the State

by Herbert James Lewis

Overview

A biographical history of the forefathers who shaped the identity of Alabama politically, legally, economically, militarily, and geographically
 
While much has been written about the significant events in the history of early Alabama, there has been little information available about the people who participated in those events. In Alabama Founders:Fourteen Political and Military Leaders Who Shaped the State Herbert James Lewis provides an important examination of the lives of fourteen political and military leaders. These were the men who opened Alabama for settlement, secured Alabama’s status as a territory in 1817 and as a state in 1819, and helped lay the foundation for the political and economic infrastructure of Alabama in its early years as a state.
 
While well researched and thorough, this book does not purport to be a definitive history of Alabama’s founding. Lewis has instead narrowed his focus to only those he believes to be key figures—in clearing the territory for settlement, serving in the territorial government, working to achieve statehood, playing a key role at the Constitutional Convention of 1819, or being elected to important offices in the first years of statehood.
 
The founders who readied the Alabama Territory for statehood include Judge Harry Toulmin, Henry Hitchcock, and Reuben Saffold II. William Wyatt Bibb and his brother Thomas Bibb respectively served as the first two governors of the state, and Charles Tait, known as the “Patron of Alabama,” shepherded Alabama’s admission bill through the US Senate. Military figures who played roles in surveying and clearing the territory for further settlement and development include General John Coffee, Andrew Jackson’s aide and land surveyor, and Samuel Dale, frontiersman and hero of the “Canoe Fight.” Those who were instrumental to the outcome of the Constitutional Convention of 1819 and served the state well in its early days include John W. Walker, Clement Comer Clay, Gabriel Moore, Israel Pickens, and William Rufus King.
 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780817319830
Publisher:	University of Alabama Press
Publication date:	06/26/2018
Edition description:	3rd ed.
Pages:	216
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Herbert James Lewis is retired from the US Department of Justice and currently serves on the board of directors of the Alabama Historical Association. He is author of Clearing the Thickets: A History of Antebellum Alabama and Lost Capitals of Alabama. He has also published articles in the Alabama Review and Alabama Heritage.

Table of Contents

List of Figures vii

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction 1

1 Czar of the Tombigbee District Judge Harry Toulmin 5

2 Frontiersman and Hero of the Canoe Fight Samuel Dale 21

3 Military Hero, Land Surveyor, and Founder of Florence, Alabama General John Coffee 31

4 Broad River Pioneer and "Father of Huntsville" LeRoy Pope 42

5 Alabama's First Two Governors William Wyatt Bibb Thomas Bibb 49

6 President of the Constitutional Convention of 1819 and First US Senator from Alabama John Williams Walker 63

7 "Patron of Alabama" and Alabama's First Federal Judge Judge Charles Tait 80

8 Delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1819, Key Drafter of the Alabama Constitution, First Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, US Senator, and the Seventh Alabama Governor Clement Comet Clay 92

9 Secretary of the Alabama Territory, Delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1819, Alabama's First Attorney General, and Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court Henry Hitchcock 101

10 Delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1819 and Alabama's Third Governor Israel Pickens 111

11 Soldier in the Creek Indian War, Member of the Territorial Legislature, Delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1819, and Associate Justice and Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court Reuben Saffold II 118

12 First Speaker of the House of Alabama's Territorial Legislature, Delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1819, US Senator, US Congressman, and Alabama's Fifth Governor Gabriel Moore 124

13 William Rufus King: US Senator and Thirteenth Vice President of the United States 133

Conclusion 147

Appendix: Delegates to the Alabama Constitutional Convention of 1819 151

Notes 157

Selected Bibliography 181

Index 193

Editorial Reviews

Alabama Founders: Fourteen Political and Military Leaders Who Shaped the State is a strong addition to the literature of the history of the state. Lewis's use of archival sources and extensive bibliography of secondary sources place these fourteen founders in the proper context of Alabama history. This work is an excellent starting point for anyone interested in the Yellowhammer State.”
—Journal of Southern History

“The individuals Lewis discusses here were instrumental in laying a figurative foundation for the development of the state of Alabama. They are therefore people we should know. Alabama Founders is an outstanding introduction to their lives and times and promises to be a valuable reference source for anyone seeking to understand Alabama’s beginnings.”
—Mike Bunn, director of operations at Historic Blakeley State Park in Baldwin County, Alabama, author of Civil War Eufaula, and coauthor of Battle for the Southern Frontier: The Creek War and the War of 1812


“Territorial and early statehood are topics that have long been neglected in favor of the more popular topics of Native Americans, the Civil War, and civil rights. Alabama Founders fills a need for scholarship that highlights this time period and the personalities who shaped it.”
—Clay Williams, sites administrator for the museums division of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History and coauthor of Battle for the Southern Frontier: The Creek War and the War of 1812

“Rarely does a title undersell a monograph, yet that is the case with Jim Lewis’s recent work. The content of Alabama Founders is much broader than indicated by ‘Fourteen Political and Military Leaders Who Shaped the State.’ Indeed, the narrative of these fourteen men collectively provides a concise overview of certain aspects of the history of the developmental period of Alabama. Taken together, the reader comes away with a sense of the main political and economic issues, at both territorial/state and national levels, of interest to early citizens of Alabama—public lands, banks, the militia, apportionment, protective tariffs, and slavery.”
—Alabama Review
 

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