Albert J. Pickett

Albert James Pickett (born Anson County, North Carolina, August 13, 1810 - died Montgomery, Alabama, October 28, 1858) was a planter and lawyer in Autauga County, Alabama, and is known as Alabama's first historian.

At the age of 8, Pickett moved with his father, William R. Pickett to the frontier of Autauga County, ceded to the United States by the Creek Indians in the Treaty of Fort Jackson only four years earlier. William Pickett built a home near Autaugaville and a mill building and trader's post on Swift Creek. Growing up, Albert befriended many of the Creek and frontier traders that frequented his father's store. From them he began to piece together the early history of the state which he later determined to put into writing.

Pickett studied law, but never practiced professionally, instead devoting his time to literature, agriculture and historical research. He traveled widely and corresponded with archivists and book dealers in the Atlantic states and Europe in order to document various parts of his history of the state. The two-volume History of Alabama was published in Charleston, South Carolina in 1851. Pickett was working on a comprehensive history of the Southwest at the time of his death.

References

• Pickett, Albert James; Owen, Thomas McAdory (Latter author added the last 100 pages of work's currently-prevalent format as "Owen's Annals of Alabama, 1819-1900", at the request of The Webb Book Company, Birmingham, for a 1900 reprint)(2003 Reprint: with a foreword by Wayne Greenhaw and an introduction by Phil Beidler) (Originally published: 1851; Reprint: 2003). "(Volume 1 of 2)". History of Alabama, and Incidentally of Georgia and Mississippi, from the Earliest Period. Original: Charleston, S.C.; Reprint: Montgomery, Ala.: Original: Walker & James; Reprint: River City Publishing. p. 686. ISBN 978-1880216705. Archived from the original on 4 July 2012. Retrieved 4 July 2012.  Check date values in: |date= (help)
• Jackson, Crawford M. (1859) "Brief Biographical Sketch of Colonel Albert J. Pickett," by Crawford M. Jackson (Montgomery)

External links

• Works by or about Albert J. Pickett at Internet Archive
• Works by Albert J. Pickett at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
• Text of Pickett's "History of Alabama"
• "History of Alabama and Incidentally of Georgia and Mississippi, from the Earliest Period"
• "Albert J. Pickett". Find a Grave. Retrieved September 3, 2010.