Wednesday, October 19, 2022

Trail of Tears Route in Huntsville

OK, here we go with another of those "history in unexpected places" items.

I was in Huntsville visiting mom recently and made a trip to the South Huntsville Library, a new facility close to her house that replaced two older, smaller branch libraries in that part of the city. This new library has a bookstore and nice coffee shop, and I often go by to donate books. On this visit, for the first time, I noticed the small sign seen below. 

For decades in the early 19th century the relationship between an ever-expanding white population in the southeastern U.S. and the native tribes grew more problematic. Natives tried various means of accommodation, and whites became increasingly hostile. In 1830 Congress passed the Indian Removal Act, and  President Andrew Jackson signed it. Both the federal and state governments were involved. A good overview is Sarah H. Hill's "Cherokee Indian Removal" article in the Encyclopedia of Alabama. 

By 1838 forced removal of the Cherokees from the Southeast had begun. The U.S. military and state militias rounded up 15,000 in Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee. Five military posts were established in north Alabama as part of a network in that state and Georgia and Tennessee. These forts held troops which moved the natives into detention camps where they remained until heading west to Indian Territory, what is now Oklahoma. Between the camp conditions and the march, some one fourth died of diseases or malnourishment. The removal, which began on May 26, 1838 ended in November when the final groups left Tennessee.

Hill's article describes the forts and routes in north Alabama. "At least 33 military posts and camps were established for Cherokee removal: six in North Carolina, fourteen in Georgia, eight in Tennessee, and five in Alabama. The Alabama posts were Ft. Payne in Rawlingsville (now Fort Payne in DeKalb County), Ft. Morrow at Gunter's Landing (now Guntersville), Ft. Likens in Broomtown Valley, Ft. Lovell at Cedar Bluffs near Turkey Town, and Bellefont, which was a mustering and supply depot....Several routes followed the Tennessee River through Alabama, passing Bellefont in Jackson CountyHuntsville in Madison County, Gunter's Landing in Marshall CountyTuscumbia in Colbert County, and Waterloo in Lauderdale County."

That sign below is located at the base of Blevins Gap Road where it runs into Bailey Cove. The road originated as a trail used by natives as a way to come across Green Mountain into the Tennessee River Valley from the east. As white settlers entered that area in the early 1800s, the road connected them with other old roads such as Owens Cross Roads and Big Cove. 

Blevins Gap Road came down Green Mountain at the site of the old Grissom High School on Bailey Cove, where the new library sits, and connected to an another old valley road, Four Mile Post, also still in use today. John and William Blevins began purchasing land in the area in 1809 and over the next decade became prominent residents.

A good history can be found in Nancy Rohr's article, "Blevins Gap: A Road Less Traveled" published in the Historic Huntsville Quarterly V14N4, summer 1988, pp 3-15. A PDF of the issue is available here. Several illustrations of the old road are included. She doesn't discuss the Trail of Tears, but Blevins Gap may have been a route used to move the natives west from Gunter's Landing or Bellefonte. 

You can read more about Alabama's place in the Trail of Tears story herehere and here



This Trail of Tears marker is on Blevins Gap Road, just as you turn off Bailey Cove Road in southeast Huntsville. Part of the South Huntsville Library is visible on your right after turning. 



The new South Huntsville Public Library is a pretty nice place. You can only see part of the north side here. 



Blevins Gap Road is the one to the east outlined on this map. The road now leads to the Blevins Gap Nature Preserve, a 1086-acre natural area with numerous trails in south Huntsville. 





This marker is located on Highway 72 East near the intersection with Brock Road and Madison County High School east of Huntsville.  






Thursday, October 13, 2022

Alabama and the Liberty Bell

In August of this year we made a trip to Philadelphia to attend a family wedding. While there we also managed visits to Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell along with a few other spots in that National Historical Park and elsewhere in town, not to mention some excellent restaurants. Naturally, I was on the lookout for Alabama connections and found one at the Liberty Bell Center.

You can read the fascinating history of the Bell here. As we made our way through the panels describing that history, I noted that after the Civil War the Bell was taken on several tours around the United States to various events and celebrations from 1885 until 1915.

So did the Liberty Bell ever come through Alabama? Indeed it did.

Below the photos are three brief items documenting the Bell's journey through the state in 1885. In late 1884 the Bell was moved by rail to New Orleans for the World Cotton Centennial which opened on December 16, 1884 and closed June 2, 1885. The articles note stops in Birmingham and Montgomery on the trip south in January, and another Montgomery stop in June as the Bell returned to Philadelphia. 

In June 1919 the Birmingham Age-Herald published a story in which Chappel Cory described the trip he and another Montgomery newspaper man made to the "sea of mudholes" that was Birmingham in January 1885 to accompany the Bell to New Orleans. Cory noted the "crush" of people who appeared at the depot.

As a useful symbol of both patriotism and commerce, the Liberty Bell has permeated American culture in many ways. An example is the Bell's use in the Liberty Bell Savings Bond drive in 1950. The U.S. Treasury Department paid for 55 replicas to be cast in a French foundry, one for each of the 48 states, the District of Columbia, and the territories. Alabama's replica, serial number 38, sits on the state capitol grounds facing Washington Avenue. More information about it is here.

During World War I the U.S. government developed a nitrate plant near Muscle Shoals; nitrate was a key ingredient in ammunition and explosives. Several residential neighborhoods, Nitrate Villages 1-4, were built to house workers, military personnel, etc. Nitrate Village #1 was laid out in the shape of the Liberty Bell. You can read more details with photographs and other illustrations in a lengthy 2021 blog post here.

If you've never been, the Liberty Bell and the other sites in the National Historical Park are well worth seeing when you make it to Philadelphia.




The view behind the Bell includes Independence Hall, where the Declaration and the Constitution were debated and ratified. Modern America looms in the background. 












I've written about a visit Sousa made to Birmingham in 1924.




These two items appeared in the Huntsville Gazette 31 January 1885 







This brief note appeared in the Memphis Daily Appeal 16 June 1885




Follow the link below to read this entire article. 

Source: Birmingham Age-Herald 29 June 1919







Wednesday, October 12, 2022

Alabama History & Culture News: October 12 edition

 



Here's the latest batch of links to just-published Alabama history and culture articles. Most of these items are from newspapers, with others from magazines and TV and radio station websites. Some articles may be behind a paywall. Enjoy!

October marks the 5th annual 'Huntsville History Month' | WHNT.com
WHNT
From the U.S. space program to being the beginning of Alabama's statehood, Huntsville has plenty of history. This year's format focuses on 4 ...

Vonetta Flowers headlines second Dr. Wilson Fallin Jr. Lecture Series at University of Montevallo
Alabama NewsCenter
Vonetta Flowers was the first Black woman in history to win a gold medal ... In 2011, Flowers was inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame.

West Alabama haunts: These locations have some creepy histories - WVUA 23
WVUA 23
But even if you don't, ghost stories contain a whole lot of history. So here's a look at some places around Tuscaloosa that just may be holding a ...

Montgomery sites receive historic preservation funding - WSFA
WSFA
$469,500 to the Alabama Historical Commission for stabilization and preservation of the Schooner Clotilda in Mobile, the Last-known Slave Ship to ...

Inside Sean of the South's sweet, historic Alabama home - al.com
AL.com
Inside Sean of the South's sweet, historic Alabama home. Published: Oct. 06, 2022, 8:41 a.m.. 30. At home with Sean and Jamie Dietrich. facebook.


Sewell to announce major historic preservation funding for Selma
Alabama Political Reporter
Selma University, the Historic Brown Chapel AME Church and the ... the NPS Historic Preservation Fund to preserve Civil Rights sites in Alabama ...

Union Springs Herald
... Colored Cemetery, Inc. is a non-profit organization in Perote, Alabama. The cemetery dates back to 1853, and numerous Civil War Veterans are ...

Tuskegee's Student Uprising: The Overlooked History | Time
Time
"The Tuskegee Student Uprising: A History" zeroes in on the 1968 uprising at Alabama's Tuskegee Institute, now Tuskegee University, that won ...


A Eugenics Program Masquerades as a Health Clinic in This Eye-Opening Historical Novel
BookTrib
In the small southwest Alabama town called Hyssop, during the hot, dry summer of 1968, a free women's health clinic opened.


Alabama author Ramona Reeves comes home with award-winning debut - al.com
AL.com
Knowing that Mobile native Ramona Reeves won a noteworthy literary prize for her new book, and that the prize had a sizeable monetary component, ...

State poet laureate announces creation of Alabama Poetry Delegation - al.com
during the Magic City Poetry Festival (Shauna Stuart| Al.com). [Related: In her debut book of poetry, Alabama writer Tania Russell unpacks the ...

Deadline to nominate historic Alabama "Places in Peril" extended to Oct. 31
HISTORIC PRESERVATION ALERT: Do you know of a historic place in Alabama that needs saving?

Thursday, October 6, 2022

Fine Fun in Alabama

Francis Harper was born of free parents in Maryland, then a slave state, on September 24, 1825. Before her death on February 22, 1911, she had developed careers as a teacher, abolitionist, suffragist, public speaker and author. Harper began to publish articles in anti-slavery journals in 1839 under her maiden name Francis Watkins. She did not marry Fenton Harper until 1860.


She was one of the earliest African-American women to develop an extensive writing career. In addition to her works on abolition and suffrage, she published poetry and several novels. Her first book of poems appeared in 1845. She joined the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1853 and lectured widely on their behalf. Harper was also active in various suffrage and prohibitionist organizations. In 1872 she published Sketches of Southern Life, a chronicle of  her travels in the region to meet newly freed slaves. 

In 1895 her collection Poems appeared and included the one below, "The Martyr of Alabama". Harper was inspired by a newspaper account of a real event at Bay Minnette in  Baldwin County, Alabama, on December 29, 1894. The beating and shooting of the young Tim Thompson had been covered in several newspapers around the country; you can see some examples here

Whether any Alabama newspapers wrote about the event or whether the murderer was ever caught will require further research. 



in





In the same newspaper column as the Thompson piece, a few items below, is this article--another sign of the times. 




Frances E.W. Harper [1825-1911]

Source: Wikipedia


Below is Harper's poem as it appeared in the 1895 edition of her Poems. The numbers are the page numbers from that publication. 

THE MARTYR OF ALABAMA.

"Tim Thompson, a little negro boy, was asked to dance for the amusement of some white toughs. He refused, saying he was a church member. One of the men knocked him down with a club and then danced upon his prostrate form. He then shot the boy in the hip. The boy is dead; his murderer is still at large."—News Item.

  He lifted up his pleading eyes,
     And scanned each cruel face,
  Where cold and brutal cowardice
     Had left its evil trace.

  It was when tender memories
     Round Beth'lem's manger lay,

(49)

50 THE MARTYR OF ALABAMA.

  And mothers told their little ones
     Of Jesu's natal day.

  And of the Magi from the East
     Who came their gifts to bring,
  And bow in rev'rence at the feet
     Of Salem's new-born King.

  And how the herald angels sang
     The choral song of peace,
  That war should close his wrathful lips,
     And strife and carnage cease.

  At such an hour men well may hush
     Their discord and their strife,
  And o'er that manger clasp their hands
     With gifts to brighten life.

  Alas! that in our favored land,
     That cruelty and crime
  Should cast their shadows o'er a day.
     The fairest pearl of time.

  A dark-browed boy had drawn anear
     A band of savage men,
  Just as a hapless lamb might stray
     Into a tiger's den.

THE MARTYR OF ALABAMA. 51

  Cruel and dull, they saw in him
     For sport an evil chance,
  And then demanded of the child
     To give to them a dance.

  "Come dance for us," the rough men said;
     "I can't," the child replied,
  "I cannot for the dear Lord's sake,
     Who for my sins once died."

  Tho' they were strong and he was weak,
     He wouldn't his Lord deny.
  His life lay in their cruel hands,
     But he for Christ could die.

  Heard they aright? Did that brave child
     Their mandates dare resist?
  Did he against their stern commands
     Have courage to insist?

  Then recklessly a man (?) arose,
     And dealt a fearful blow.
  He crushed the portals of that life,
     And laid the brave child low.

  And trampled on his prostrate form,
     As on a broken toy;

52 THE MARTYR OF ALABAMA.

  Then danced with careless, brutal feet,
     Upon the murdered boy.

  Christians! behold that martyred child!
     His blood cries from the ground;
  Before the sleepless eye of God,
     He shows each gaping wound.

  Oh! Church of Christ arise! arise!
     Lest crimson stain thy hand,
  When God shall inquisition make
     For blood shed in the land.

  Take sackcloth of the darkest hue,
     And shroud the pulpits round;
  Servants of him who cannot lie
     Sit mourning on the ground.

  Let holy horror blanch each brow,
     Pale every cheek with fears,
  And rocks and stones, if ye could speak,
     Ye well might melt to tears.

  Through every fane send forth a cry,
     Of sorrow and regret,
  Nor in an hour of careless ease
     Thy brother's wrongs forget.






Tuesday, October 4, 2022

Alabama History & Culture News: October 4 edition

 


Here's the latest batch of links to just-published Alabama history and culture articles. Most of these items are from newspapers, with others from magazines and TV and radio station websites. Some articles may be behind a paywall. Enjoy!


'I just cried': Montgomery teen passes state bar exam - WSFA
While they both passed the bar at just 19 years old, Darden is a few months younger. “He's the youngest, like, in recorded history in Alabama,” Darden ...

She serves on the boards of the Patrons for the Study of Civil Rights and African-American Culture at ASU, is a member of the Alabama Cemetery ...

... Prine was drawn to the Alabama city of Montgomery as a longtime fan of country legend Hank Williams, whose body rests in a cemetery there.

King is Alabama's only vice president of the United States. The mausoleum dates back to 1853. Buster said vandalizing graves is disrespectful and ...

Doug Buster, president of the Cemetery Preservation Group, a nonprofit that preserves historic cemeteries including King's resting place at ...

Here are 50 great books set in Alabama - al.com
Genres: Historical Fiction, Historical, Young Adult, African American. - Read more on Goodreads. 46. Alabama Moon. - Rating: 4.06 (4,668 ratings).

Fine Dining in Alabama Exhibit opens in RBD Library
Cather is a book collector and dealer in Birmingham, Alabama. His collection contains menus, receipts, photos and other items—many collected from ...


Wilcox Historical Society meets at Rosemary Plantation on Oct. 9 | News | selmasun.com
They will discuss the history of the builders and the Matthews family, who were the original residents. "Rosemary Plantation sits near the Alabama ...

Sturdivant Hall is located in Selma, Alabama. ... The Story Behind This Small Town Cemetery In Alabama Will Chill You To The Bone.

Local historical society to add lounge and coffee bar - WBRC
Local historical society to add lounge and coffee bar. Published: Sep. 23, 2022 at 8:22 PM PDT|Updated: 3 hours ago. Close. Subtitle Settings.

Black history trips are booming: we take a look at Alabama's Civil Rights Trail
Montgomery is also home to Alabama's most-visited black history site, the Legacy Museum, which opened in 2018 and, combined with the neighbouring ..


In her debut book of poetry, Alabama writer Tania Russell unpacks the adultification of Black girls
Page nine of Tania Russell's poetry book “be gentle with Black girls” has the definition of the word “fast”: a girl who is perceived to be engaged ...

Book shows personal side of 'Mockingbird' author Harper Lee | AP News
... despite writing one of the best-selling books ever, “To Kill a Mockingbird.” To Wayne Flynt, the Alabama-born author was his friend, Nelle.


This 80-year-old woman makes history as university's oldest graduate: 'Age is not a barrier'
Donzella Washington, 80, graduated from Alabama A&M University on Dec. 6 with a bachelor's degree in social work. Not only did she graduate magna cum ...


Heritage Landing promises economic opportunity for southern Walker County, Alabama
Now, a new project involving private and public partners is transforming land historically tied to the county's legacy of mining into a site for ...


Speaking of cemeteries, one of the most haunted cemeteries in Alabama is Adams Grove Cemetery, which is attached to Adams Grove Presbyterian ...

Gus Mitchell's store added to Alabama historical sites, plans underway to open museum and ...
He hired Jeannetta Edwards to be his Project Manager in 2020. “We made an application with the Alabama Historical Commission to be listed as an ...


Gulf Coast rich in history as Native American Day approaches
Orange Beach museum honors Indian, fishing heritage. The Indian and Sea Museum in Orange Beach, Alabama, is open Tuesday, Wednesday. Orange Beach, Ala ...