History of slavery in Alabama

Following the War of 1812 and the defeat and expulsion of the Creek Nation, European-American settlement in Alabama was intensified, as was the presence of slavery on newly established plantations in the territory. Like its neighbors, the Alabama Territory was fertile ground for the surging cotton crop,

Most of the settlers came from the nearby states of North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, attracted by the prospect of fertile planting of cotton in the Tennessee Valley and Black Belt. The plantation system was solidified throughout the first half of the 19th century, and Alabama was one of the first seven states to withdraw from the Union prior to the American Civil War. However, by the eve of the Civil War, only a minute portion of the population continued to own slaves, as the state had experienced a slave-labor decline.

Slavery was officially abolished by the Thirteenth Amendment which took effect on December 18, 1865. Slavery had been theoretically abolished by President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation which proclaimed, in 1863, that only slaves located in territories that were in rebellion from the United States were free. Since the U.S. government was not in effective control of many of these territories until later in the war, many of these slaves proclaimed to be free by the Emancipation Proclamation were still held in servitude until those areas came back under Union control.

See also

• List of plantations in Alabama

External links

• Alabama Slavery and Plantations
• The Alabama Supreme Court on Slaves

Further Reading

"Memories of Childhood's Slavery Days" by Annie L. Burton (Boston: Ross Publishing Company, 1909). Available via Documenting the American South