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Alabama became a state on December 14, 1819 and 2019 marks the Alabama Bicentennial: 200 years of being a state. It’s time to celebrate! Whether you’re “built by Bama,” a Southerner, or a proud American, 200 years statehood for any state is something to sink your teeth into and reflect on. Our American history is something we need to cherish and remember.

My earliest Alabama ancestor may have been my 4th great-grandmother Virginia Jane Kirkland (1803-1837), who was apparently born in Fayette County, AL in 1803. However, her parents Archibald and Mary were married in neighboring Morgan County which confirms them arriving from the Carolinas. Archibald’s first land conveyance was in 1834 in Fayette County. Other ancestors of mine, the Howtons, purchased land in Fayette County in 1826; the Manascos in 1834 in Fayette as well. They were some of the original land patent holders in the counties of northern Alabama.

My people were definitely in the territory of Alabama before it became a state so celebrating the Alabama Bicentennial is something to be proud of. According to the 200 Alabama Bicentennial website: “ALABAMA 200 is a three-year celebration of the people, places, and events that form our rich history” (source: alabama200.org).

That is cool that the Alabama Bicentennial will be celebrated for 3 years! It was 2017 through 2019, so we are on the actual 200th year this year.

There are a bunch of exhibitions and activities going on throughout the Alabama Bicentennial year. I just read one where the original six constitutions of the state of Alabama will be on display in Huntsville – I wish I had known about that when I was there only 3 weeks ago! What a thrill it would have been to have seen first-hand one of Alabama’s foundational documents. The Alabama Bicentennial folks have even set up a Constitutional Village, commemorating where the first constitutional convention was convened in Huntsville.

http://alabama200.org/engage/exhibitions/we-the-people/

http://alabama200.org/engage/legacies/constitution-village/

The Alabama Bicentennial will also feature a series of “Alabama Ancestry” workshops which will focus on the stories and collaborated memories of the state’s unique history. The website doesn’t give much information, sad to say; however, they do encourage you to sign up for their newsletters to stay in the loop. It seems like the best and most prudent thing would be to follow along with their community calendar.

http://alabama200.org/events/community-calendar/

When you think of Alabama you might just think of football. Not just the Crimson Tide of the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa, Nick Saban, Paul Bear Bryant and the legions of professional athletes that the school has generated. Not just Auburn University and Toomer’s Corner and the fantastic scores of athletes that have come out of the eastern side of the state. Not just Mobile, Alabama and the movie Forrest Gump either.

There is a deep and wonderful history of the state of Alabama that you can read about in books and publications across time. Here are a few reading recommendations that you can get acquainted with for the Alabama Bicentennial to understand America’s 22nd state to be admitted into the Union. Alabama was the 8th southern state to be admitted behind Georgia (4), South Carolina (8), Virginia (10), North Carolina (12), Tennessee (16), Louisiana (18), and Mississippi (20).

Of the many books about Alabama, in 2016 the University of Alabama press, in conjunction with the Alabama Bicentennial Commission, published a collectable history of the state. I picked up this book in Huntsville, it is pictured below and the bibliographic reference is at the bottom of this article in the list of readings.

Alabama: the making of an American state - Edwin Bridges — Alabama: The Making of an American State – Front Cover

The following are books I own, please post up reading suggestions of your own using the “Leave A Review” comment box below! I’d love to hear from you about more books on Alabama’s history.

Rogers, William Warren, Robert David Ward, Leah Rawls Atkins, Wayne Flynt. 1994. Alabama: The History of a Deep South State. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press.
Bryant, William O. 1990. Cahaba Prison and the Sultana Disaster. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press.
Storey, Margaret M. 2004. Loyalty and Loss: Alabama’s Unionist In The Civil War and Reconstruction. Baton Rouge: LSU Press.
Bridges, Edwin C. 2016. Alabama: The Making of an American State. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press.
Barske, Carolyn M. and Brian Murphy. 2018. Images of America: Tennessee River and Northwest Alabama. Charleston: Arcadia Publishing.
McAvoy, Iris Singleton. 2016. Images of America: Walker County Coal Mines. Charleston: Arcadia Publishing.