Sign-In
Cart
Clearing the Thickets: A History of Antebellum Alabama
Paperback
Series: History & Heroes
19th Century United States HistoryCivil War Period (1850-1877)Regional: South
ISBN13: 9781610271653
Publisher: Createspace
Published: Mar 6 2013
Pages: 358
Weight: 1.10
Height: 0.74 Width: 6.14 Depth: 9.21
Language: English
The name Alabama comes from the Choctaw word meaning clearers of the thickets, inspiring the title of this fascinating new book. The volume's purpose is to examine Alabama's early history beginning with the era of European colonization and culminating with the state's controversial secession from the Union-after just 41 years as a state (recognizing, of course, that the actual history began long before this emigration, with Native American civilizations). In so doing, the author traces how Alabama emerged from a raw frontier of European settlement into a fully functioning state that provided much-needed order to its new citizens.
The book begins by exploring the colonial period during which three European powers-Spain, France, and Great Britain-continually vied for control of what was to become part of Alabama. Each culture, along with the Native American communities that lived throughout most of the region, contributed to the development of the emerging territory and left its enduring stamp. Later chapters examine Alabama's territorial period, the Creek War of 1813-1814, the Constitutional Convention of 1819 and statehood, the first years of state government in Cahaba, removal of the capital to Tuscaloosa, King Cotton and the ignominy of slavery, further relocation of the capital to Montgomery as secession loomed, and social and economic advances during the antebellum period that were interrupted and stunted by the tragedy of secession and war.
Clearing the Thickets is narrative history in the grand old style-a spirited effort to make sense of the ideas, human beings, and events that came together to shape Alabama's first tumultuous decades. ... Anyone interested in antebellum Alabama will be grateful for what Lewis has accomplished.
- Paul Pruitt, Jr., B.A., M.L.S., Ph.D.
Special Collection Librarian, Bounds Law Library, University of Alabama
Author of Taming Alabama: Lawyers and Reformers, 1804-1929 (2010)
Lewis has carefully crafted a thoughtful, deliberate, and well-balanced history of antebellum Alabama. Perhaps not coincidentally, we are now in the decade of Alabama's bicentennial. In days such as these, his book should be on the shelf of anyone interested in Alabama's early history.
- James L. Noles, Jr., B.S., J.D.
Chairman, Alabama Humanities Foundation
Also in
19th Century United States History
A Manufactured Wilderness: Summer Camps and the Shaping of American Youth, 1890-1960
Van Slyck, Abigail A.
Hardcover
The Rush: California Gold, the Civil War, and the Making of the Modern World
Philbrick, Nathaniel
Hardcover
The Wreck of the Mentor: A True Story of Death, Despair, and Deliverance in the Age of Sail
Dolin, Eric Jay
Hardcover
The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America
Larson, Erik
Paperback
The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War
Larson, Erik
Paperback
They Stole a City: Wilmington's White Supremacist Coup and the Families Who Live with Its Legacy
Collins, Lauren
Hardcover
Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History
Gwynne, S. C.
Paperback
A Perfect Coincidence: The Extraordinary Friendship and Astonishing Deaths of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson
Rasenberger, Jim
Hardcover
Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West
Ambrose, Stephen E.
Paperback
The Rush: California Gold, the Civil War, and the Making of the Modern World (Large Print Edition)
Philbrick, Nathaniel
Paperback
Empire of Ink: The Printers, Rogues, and Radicals Who Invented the American Newspaper
Wright, Alex
Hardcover
Glorious Country: How the Artist Frederic Church Brought the World to America and America to the World
Johnson, Victoria
Hardcover
In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex (National Book Award Winner)
Philbrick, Nathaniel
Paperback
Centennial: The Great Fair of 1876 and the Invention of America's Future
Bordewich, Fergus M.
Hardcover
The Flag Was Still There: A History of the American Experiment in Five Anniversaries
Bennett, M. Todd
McKean, David
Hardcover
Jefferson's Wolf: A Founding Father's Troubling Answer to the Problem of Slavery
Dierksheide, Christa
Guyatt, Nicholas
Hardcover
Chasing Lewis's Monkeyflower: The Amazing Afterlife of the Lewis and Clark Expedition's Wild Plants
Adelman, Elizabeth
Hardcover
Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President
Millard, Candice
Paperback
We Pointed Them North: Recollections of a Cowpuncher
Smith, Helena Huntington
Abbott, E. C. Teddy Blue
Paperback
The Pioneers: The Heroic Story of the Settlers Who Brought the American Ideal West
McCullough, David
Paperback
How the South Won the Civil War: Oligarchy, Democracy, and the Continuing Fight for the Soul of America
Richardson, Heather Cox
Paperback
The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War
Larson, Erik
Hardcover
The Murder of the Century: The Gilded Age Crime That Scandalized a City and Sparked the Tabloid Wars
Collins, Paul
Paperback
We've Been Here Before: How Rebellion and Activism Have Always Sustained America
Dodson, Angela P.
Days, Michael I.
Hardcover
Mornings on Horseback: The Story of an Extraordinary Family, a Vanished Way of Life and the Unique Child Who Became Theodore Roosevelt
McCullough, David
Paperback
The Undiscovered Country: Triumph, Tragedy, and the Shaping of the American West
Hutton, Paul Andrew
Hardcover
Ghosts of Gold Mountain: The Epic Story of the Chinese Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad
Chang, Gordon H.
Paperback
Brothers of the Gun: Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, and a Reckoning in Tombstone
Gardner, Mark Lee
Hardcover
Midnight on the Potomac: The Last Year of the Civil War, the Lincoln Assassination, and the Rebirth of America
Ellsworth, Scott
Hardcover
Out Where the West Begins: Profiles, Visions, and Strategies of Early Western Business Leaders
Anschutz, Philip F.
Hardcover
The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America
Larson, Erik
Hardcover
Mountain Man: John Colter, the Lewis & Clark Expedition, and the Call of the American West
Marshall, David Weston
Paperback
America: The Last Best Hope (Volume I): From the Age of Discovery to a World at War
Bennett, William J.
Paperback
Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History
Gwynne, S. C.
Hardcover
Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant Volume 1/2: Large Print Edition (Large Print Edition)
Grant, Ulysses S.
Hardcover
Vengeance: The Last Stands of Custer, Crazy Horse, and Sitting Bull (Large Print Edition)
Clavin, Tom
Hardcover
John Doe Chinaman: A Forgotten History of Chinese Life Under American Racial Law
Lew-Williams, Beth
Hardcover
When America First Met China: An Exotic History of Tea, Drugs, and Money in the Age of Sail
Dolin, Eric Jay
Paperback
Forget the Alamo: The Rise and Fall of an American Myth
Burrough, Bryan
Tomlinson, Chris
Stanford, Jason
Paperback
Wilmington's Lie (Winner of the 2021 Pulitzer Prize): The Murderous Coup of 1898 and the Rise of White Supremacy
Zucchino, David
Paperback
Her Hat Was in the Ring: How Women Won the Right to Run for Office in the United States
Norgren, Jill
Chmielewski, Wendy E.
Hardcover
Scenes of Subjection: Terror, Slavery, and Self-Making in Nineteenth-Century America
Hartman, Saidiya
Paperback
Until the Last Yoke Is Broken: The Constitutional Vision of Frederick Douglass
Rebeiro, Bradley N.
Hardcover
The Heart of Everything That Is: The Untold Story of Red Cloud, an American Legend
Drury, Bob
Clavin, Tom
Paperback
Out Where the West Begins, Volume 2: Creating and Civilizing the American West Volume 2
Anschutz, Philip F.
Hardcover
An American Genocide: The United States and the California Indian Catastrophe, 1846-1873
Madley, Benjamin
Paperback
The Man Behind the Cane: Preston Brooks, Political Violence, and the Road to the Civil War
Quigley, Paul
Hardcover
The First to Go West: American Ambition, Bloody Conquest, and the Fateful Journey of Jedediah Smith
Clavin, Tom
Drury, Bob
Paperback
Nothing Like It in the World: The Men Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad 1863-1869
Ambrose, Stephen E.
Paperback
The Rise and Fall of the Second American Republic: Reconstruction, 1860-1920
Sinha, Manisha
Paperback
Saving Yellowstone: Exploration and Preservation in Reconstruction America
Nelson, Megan Kate
Hardcover
Contempt of Court: The Turn-Of-The-Century Lynching That Launched a Hundred Years of Federalism
Phillips, Leroy
Curriden, Mark
Paperback
I Am Murdered: George Wythe, Thomas Jefferson, and the Killing That Shocked a New Nation
Chadwick, Bruce
Paperback
Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant Volume 2/2: Large Print Edition (Large Print Edition)
Grant, Ulysses S.
Hardcover
For the Hope of this Land: A Visual Learner's Workbook for Early American History
Newhouse, Amy
Paperback
The Last Stand: Custer, Sitting Bull, and the Battle of the Little Bighorn
Philbrick, Nathaniel
Paperback
Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine, and the Murder of a President (Large Print Edition)
Millard, Candice
Paperback
The Undiscovered Country: Triumph, Tragedy, and the Shaping of the American West
Hutton, Paul Andrew
Paperback
Slavery by Another Name (Pulitzer Prize Winner): The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II
Blackmon, Douglas A.
Paperback
Native American History: Accurate & Comprehensive History, Origins, Culture, Tribes, Legends, Mythology, Wars, Stories & More of The Native Indigenous
Alive, History Brought
Paperback
Ghosts of the Wild West: Stories from Deadwood, Tombstone, and the Old Frontier
Fowler, Natalie
Freeburg, Jessica
Paperback
Lost Kingdom: Hawaiia's Last Queen, the Sugar Kings, and Americaa's First Imperial Venture
Siler, Julia Flynn
Paperback
Appetite for America: Fred Harvey and the Business of Civilizing the Wild West--One Meal at a Time
Fried, Stephen
Paperback
Bandit Heaven: The Hole-In-The-Wall Gangs and the Final Chapter of the Wild West
Clavin, Tom
Paperback
African American History: A Captivating Guide to the People and Events that Shaped the History of the United States
History, Captivating
Paperback
Thunder in the Mountains: Chief Joseph, Oliver Otis Howard, and the Nez Perce War
Sharfstein, Daniel J.
Paperback
The Apache Wars: The Hunt for Geronimo, the Apache Kid, and the Captive Boy Who Started the Longest War in American History
Hutton, Paul Andrew
Paperback
Death in the Haymarket: A Story of Chicago, the First Labor Movement and the Bombing That Divided Gilded Age America
Green, James
Paperback
The Man from the Train: Discovering America's Most Elusive Serial Killer
James, Rachel McCarthy
James, Bill
Paperback
Wakara's America: The Life and Legacy of a Native Founder of the American West
Mueller, Max Perry
Hardcover
Last Seen: The Enduring Search by Formerly Enslaved People to Find Their Lost Families
Giesberg, Judith
Hardcover
Last Seen: The Enduring Search by Formerly Enslaved People to Find Their Lost Families
Giesberg, Judith
Paperback
New Women in the Old West: From Settlers to Suffragists, an Untold American Story
Gallagher, Winifred
Paperback
Until Justice Be Done: America's First Civil Rights Movement, from the Revolution to Reconstruction
Masur, Kate
Paperback
Black, White, Colored: The Hidden Story of an Insurrection, a Family, a Southern Town, and Identity in America
Noble, Lauretta Malloy
Noble, Leeanet
Hardcover
Acts of Love: Black Performance and the Kiss That Changed Film History
Field, Allyson Nadia
Paperback
Vested Interests: Trusteeship and Native Dispossession in the United States
Connolly, Emilie
Hardcover
American Infidelity: The Gilded Age Battle Over Freethought, Free Love, and Feminism
Green, Steven K.
Hardcover
The 272: The Families Who Were Enslaved and Sold to Build the American Catholic Church
Swarns, Rachel L.
Paperback
Promised Land, Crusader State: The American Encounter with the World Since 1776
McDougall, Walter
Paperback
Trail of Tears: A Captivating Guide to the Forced Removals of Cherokee, Muscogee Creek, Seminole, Chickasaw, and Choctaw nations
History, Captivating
Hardcover
Where Custer Fell: Photographs of the Little Bighorn Battlefield Then and Now
Pohanka, Brian C.
Barnard, Sandy
Brust, James S.
Paperback
Beyond the Hundredth Meridian: John Wesley Powell and the Second Opening of the West
Stegner, Wallace
Paperback
The Republic for Which It Stands: The United States During Reconstruction and the Gilded Age, 1865-1896
White, Richard
Paperback
Nineteen Reservoirs: On Their Creation and the Promise of Water for New York City
Sante, Lucy
Paperback
Buffalo Calf Road Woman: The Story of a Warrior of the Little Bighorn
Agonito, Joseph
Agonito, Rosemary
Paperback