Show alabama s lodus st ries iries T 1 5 tj paper from alabama pine at a mobile mill prepared by national geographic society was h ington D Q service LIGHTLY more than a halt half century S ago alabama was almost ja wholly an agricultural region and birmingham a small railroad junction town today the state though still numbered among among the southern cotton growing regions has more than 2800 industrial establishments and birmingham now a city of more than a quarter of a million inhabitants Is called the pittsburgh of the south while washington first president struggled with a new nations many problems and paris still rocked from revolutionary disorders white pioneers from virginia the carolinas Caroll nas and georgia began to penetrate alabama some were settling along the on land claimed by both spain and the united states some as traders founded crude posts that grew to towns others married to indian women took no part in the life of new white colonies occasionally there was the rene grade or fugitive from atlantic coast justice as savannah jack boasting he had slain so many men that he could swim in their blood were it collected in one pool but the historic rush of home seek ors ers which was to put tons tens of thousands of whites on alabama lands within a generation did not note begin till after 1800 when treaties with the choctaws in 1802 and 1805 threw open rich lands for settlement new routes of travel were opened and the human tide moved into alabama along with other great migratory tides to the west by 1808 thousands had staled out homes in the pictures picturesque iq ue tennas see valley which crosses northern alabama the old immigrant or federal rond road from georgia west was to alabama wh what atthe the ancient via appia was to the country south of rome the trek and trudge over it was so continuous says one early writer that for days journeying against the immigrant tide he was always in sight of wagon trains pack horses and long flies files of tramping slaves Whit whitneys new cotton gin helped start these men west and extended slavery england after her industrial du revolution was bidding for cotton and rich cheap cotton land was the lure from virginia the carolinas and georgia came planters merchants and artisans the well to do often in elegant carriages barouch ba rouches eg or sulkies other thousands walked all themay th the eway way how they went to alabama it was like the later gold rush to california in one of the 1819 issues of the augusta chronicle Is recorded did the fact that there passed through a man his wife a son eon and his wife with a cart eart but no horse the man had a belt over his shoulders and drew the cart the old woman was walking carrying a rifle and driving a cow others had their goods packed tn in a hogshead hogs head with put in the ends and shafts attached it Is recorded that some famille families rolled their goods in this manner all the way from carolina to alabama you can talk still to older alabama residents who remember what their grandfathers told of this historic mcgrat migration lon when they came with it as young men my grandfather brought his bees in hives says a birmingham lawyer it if they swarmed the whole w wagon agon train turned out drumming on pots and pans to make the bees settle again he brought garden seeds and young fruit trees even a strand of pussy willow worn as a hatband he planted on the new land he be chose and its still growing there when my folks farsi first sett ey bad to ride a mule by con coir 0 miles to the nearest blacken li at ct plow points sharpened it ii fire died out they used to borrow fire there being no matches a boy on a horse was sent to the nearest neigh borto come galloping home with a burning piece of pine fat unique in alabama annals was the foundling of demopolis Demo polls on the tom bagbee certain distinguished frenchmen banished from parts paris after napoleons po leons sun had set migrated here to start vineyards vineyard and olive groves they were ivere says bays history men who had known napoleon napoleon on intimate terms igho had had conspicuous part in the ao tso clety intrigue and campaigns of the french revolution and voted to execute a french king and ladles who had figured in the voluptuous draw drawing I 1 aig rooms of st cloud and glittered in the smiles and favors of josephine and marle marie antoinette fortunes made in cotton thus through ante belum decades you saw alabama grow up politics bubbled towns plantations slaves nil all multiplied paths and mere tracks on the ground turned to roadam palatial steamers with romantic names find and string bands deck liand hand and steam calliopes calli to entertain the passengers came to ply the rivers cotton weiking was king sometimes it was waa 30 cents a pound and more keal estate companies abounded and the south saw raw its first land boom slumps followed booms but men talked always of slaves and cotton and more cotton cot toti fortunes grew from new york forte to new jew orleans before 1840 the pony express was running with lioy boy riders and BOO horses relayed every 12 miles the fast mall mail averaged 14 miles an bourl mounted on blooded saddle horses attended by slave grooms and body servants kid idd gloved sons of the blue stockings sought culture at tuscaloosa where the new university was set A railroad one of the first built in america was the boast of cumbaa its tiny conches coaches ran on wooden rolls ralls drawn by horses until its toy locomotive came in 1834 but much cotton still went by keelboat keel boat over the winding tennessee river up to the ohio and down to the mississippi to new orleans after 1850 18 30 shops and mills increased more afore men began to spin weave saw lumber smelt iron ore make shoes plows and furniture everything from ax handles to steamboats but only tn in a small way alabama wn was s still a big buyer of north ern made and essentially agra rian these were old plantation days that golden age of alabama whose more mere mention still arouses emotions in the born southerner Sou terner then alil he gunk guns of sumter the confederacy years of war and ruin for alabama in which she learned one good lesson that she could support herself live within her own boundaries then that quiet palm sunday at appomattox po mattox when the great opponents grant and lee without parade band music swords or cannon salutes quietly made terms of surrender for more than a century cotton was the symbol of life the poor renter with one mule and one plow like the rich planter with domain intact from slave times depended on this one crop then varied industry but world conditions change some old customers overseas no longer must buy most of their cotton from us more and more it Is raised elsewhere as in africa asia so now it grows halilej harder for alabama to sell cotton abroad at a fair price but it has thou thought talked planted picked ginned pressed and sold cottun cotton so long and so fixed Is this cotton only habit that the state imports much butter milk potatoes even hay happily escape Is in sight what with science helenc research farm schools and good example of the more alert farmers who prove brove alabama can grow mu much ch besides cotton you see dawning in the state a new diversified agriculture but that ignot Is not all from the north men have come with money and machines m a chi lies starting mills shops smelters shelters sm elters many industries new to alabama its factories scattered over the state with workers to be fed open a widening market market for alabama fruit vegetable poultry and dairy farms swiftly as the I 1 lives of states are measured you s see ee this clamorous allers alien culture of smoke and steel being imposed on a proud leisurely society accustomed for generations to its vast plantation homes and calm well ordered rural existence with her water power coal ores lumber raw cotton surplus labor and fine climate alabama Is forced to bid her hand and industrialism Is tru trumps nips cotton she will grow indefinitely but more of other too reaching finally a happier economic balance between town and country life colleges dot the state free county busses haul children ninny many in miles ies to consolidated soli dated schools and far more teachers are graduated eath each year than the state can uie use you yon need no rubber yardstick to measure educations 1 march next tp schools electric power Is the prime factor tn in Alaba amas mas growth it has worked marales ml rales here men dammed the streams anil and blazed wide aven avenues ijes through th the woods for rows of steel towers that carry wires to all parts of the state wherever raw materials exist there power Is sent copper wire hosiery silk condensed milk steel freight trel glit cars braid and ribbons electro products all these and more are now manufactured in the state |