Alabama history

The “Polee and Rose Allen of the Slave Ship Clotilda and Africatown, Alabama” Explorers Club Flag Expedition took place in February, March and April 2022.  This Final Flag Report contains the following sections:

• Flag Photos of the Expedition
• Location of the Expedition
• Goals of this Effort
• Why This Work is Important
• Previous Relevant Work
• Summary of Genealogical Findings
• Other Activities and Accomplishments
• Targets for Possible Archaeological, Historical & Land Ownership Investigation
• Land Ownership Map
• Any Toulmin Connection? 
• Participants in the Expedition
• Covid Precautions
• Annexes:

o A: Maps of the area
o B: Images of the expedition
o C:  New photo of Cudjo Lewis and Helen Duggar Conwell, c. 1935
o D:  Interview with Orlando Pogue
o E.  A song for the expedition
o F:  Flag #212 award email
o G. History of Flag # 212
o H: Lifetime list of Toulmin expeditions
o I:  Previous Flag Expeditions

Additionally,  a separate attachment is available on “The Polee, Rose and Lucy Allen Lines: Genealogical Descents from Africa, the Slave Ship Clotilda, and Africatown, Alabama to the Present,” and two separate supplements containing information from obituaries and funeral programs of Polee's descendants will be published in May 2022.

He sends his students out into the cemeteries “armed with very specific research questions.” To whom are they asking these questions? The living? On many occasions I have heard Ian insist that cemeteries are indeed for the living, that those elaborate burial rituals and markings are our meager attempts to hold back the broad, merciless, and unending river of time. We erect headstones and we leave flowers—a universal yet odd desire to impart beauty and life to the cold and inert. Alongside the flowers we seem increasingly to be leaving such everyday objects as footballs and Bama memorabilia, Christmas boxes, and figurines (mostly angels). What are these mementoes saying? But perhaps Ian wants his students to direct their questions to the dead…by first looking closely at those who came before and then asking the right questions, we ourselves will be changed… By learning about them, we learn from them. We gain insight into the human condition.
[from the Preface by G. Ward Hubbs]

Mount Vernon Arsenal and Searcy Hospital
The State of Alabama’s National Treasure
AT RISK
A White Paper
Presented to the Department of Mental Health of the State of Alabama,
Steward of the Arsenal and Hospital since 1902
By Michael W. Panhorst, Ph.D.,
Alabama Trust for Historic Preservation Board Member
and
Places in Peril Coordinator
27 June 2016
Table of Contents
Volume One
Foreword
Acknowledgements
Executive Summary
Historical, Architectural, and Archaeological Significance
Plans for Assessment, Preservation, Restoration, and Revitalization
Proposed Action Plan
Chronology
Statements of Concern
Resources and Bibliography
Volume Two
Preliminary Descriptive Catalog of Historic Structures
Structures originally built in 1830s
Arsenal
Commanding Officer’s Quarters
Carpenter Shop
Blacksmith Shop
Barracks
Armourer’s Shop (6)
Armourer’s Shop (7)
Subaltern’s Quarters
Office
Laboratory
Guardhouse
Suttler’s Store/Dispensary
Perimeter Wall
Picket Fence
Retaining Wall
Selected Hospital structures built in the 20th Century, including cemeteries
Contemporaneous Arsenals in Kennebec, ME, and Little Rock, AR

This series of four articles traces a line of genealogical descent from some of the earliest residents of Old Mobile (now in Alabama) and new Mobile, including Etienne Burel (1656-1736), his wife Marguerite Roussel, their daughter Jean Louise Burel, and her husband Francois Trudeau.  The line continues down through several generations of Juzans and to the present-day clan of Toulmins, founders of Toulminville, Alabama (now part of west Mobile).  Mini-biographies are provided for most persons in the line.  The article describes the connections to Sieur de Bienville, the "Filles de Roi" of France, the famous French ship "Pelican" which brought the first European women to Mobile, the interaction of the Juzans with the local Indians, the contributions of family members to the founding of Mobile, Pensacola, Dauphin Island and New Orleans, and many other items of Alabama and early Louisiana history.

The decade prior to 1820, the horizon of the formation of the State of Alabama, remains one of the most important periods in its history, and yet one of the least studied. This is primarily due to the preexisting gulf between primary documents, rare books and newspapers, and the researchers that use them, particularly local authors. The topic of Fort Hampton specifically has been touched on by several authors, though few have gone in depth on its purpose, function or the soldiers that occupied it 1. The authors of this manuscript became interested Fort Hampton and the early history of the State only after a provenanced collection of artifacts from the site was made available for study.

The remnants of historical events are often well marked in cities - buildings and plaques provide tangible glimpses into the past - a record of the level of importance placed on an item or event. But often historical properties are not marked, tactile or visible using our eyes and ears, and require some nudging before they reveal their secrets. This is the case of the Cole Farm, located in a Lauderdale County hollow at the confluence of Camp Branch and Bluewater Creek, four and a half miles southwest of Lexington, Alabama.

This report is the result of a cultural resources survey conducted for the Land Trust of North Alabama of their Bloucher Ford Preserve. The Preserve was the former location of a grist and saw mill that became the industrial, commercial, and social hub of a small rural community in north Alabama. Extensive archaeological remains were documented including Archaic and Woodland Period prehistoric artifact scatters, remains of the mill and support facilities dating from the early 19th to mid-20th century, historic house sites, and New Deal era public works.

This series of four articles traces a line of genealogical descent from some of the earliest residents of Old Mobile (now in Alabama) and new Mobile, including Etienne Burel (1656-1736), his wife Marguerite Roussel, their daughter Jean Louise Burel, and her husband Francois Trudeau.  The line continues down through several generations of Juzans and to the present-day clan of Toulmins, founders of Toulminville, Alabama (now part of west Mobile).  Mini-biographies are provided for most persons in the line.  The article describes the connections to Sieur de Bienville, the "Filles de Roi" of France, the famous French ship "Pelican" which brought the first European women to Mobile, the interaction of the Juzans with the local Indians, the contributions of family members to the founding of Mobile, Pensacola, Dauphin Island and New Orleans, and many other items of Alabama and early Louisiana history.

Previous researchers have extended the range of
the American bison (Bison bison) to include the state of
Georgia, yet there have not been any verifiable osteological
remains of bison found at archaeological sites in the state.
A critical examination of the data used to establish this
range demonstrates that much of it is based on unsubstantiated historical accounts, toponyms that were believed to be evidence of the historical occurrence of bison, and unverifiable nineteenth-century accounts of osteological evidence. Credible accounts indicate that the Spanish did not find any evidence of bison in Georgia in the sixteenth century,
but by the early eighteenth century bison had migrated into
an area of South Carolina adjacent to the upper Savannah
River and into the lower Chattahoochee River basin.
Eighteenth-century British settlers also reported buffalo in
the Coastal Plain, but evidence suggests they may have mistaken feral Spanish cattle for bison. This assessment of the
evidence indicates that bison did not range into Georgia
until the late seventeenth century, possibly due to reduced
predation by hunters after the demographic collapse of Mississippian societies. They were therefore only present in the
upper Savannah River and lower Chattahoochee River basins
for a brief period of time.

Presentation for local history and archaeology groups about the formation of the Alabama Archaeological Society, their early work and may of their prominent members.  This paper/presentation may not be copied, referenced or used in any form without the explicit permission of the author.  All photographs are protected by copyright.

This Explorers Club Flag Expedition Report covers a spring 2019 effort and archaeological expedition to Old St. Stephens (OSS), Alabama, the first Territorial Capital of Alabama (1817-19).  This ghost town is now a park and pine forest, and archaeological dig site.  The report covers the history of OSS; the residence there of Judge Harry Toulmin, a founder of Alabama; and key persons in OSS who migrated to Mobile, AL and helped create that city.  Specific items presented include: genealogies of OSS residents Brig. Gen. Theophilus Lindsey Toulmin, Reuben Chamberlain, Hannah Lindsey Toulmin, Benjamin Smoot and Henry Hitchcock; a review of the never-before-reviewed Washington County Sheriff's Ledger of Returns (1805-18); a review of the never before reviewed County Estrayed Book (1822-1866); location of the properties of Judge Harry Toulmin; artifacts found at OSS; and donations to the OSS museum; and the dig efforts undertaken under the expedition.  Maps and photos of the effort are also provided.

This report continues the author’s research on the location, status and artifact inventories of Paleoindian sites in Northern Alabama (c.f. Cole 2006) by providing a summary of the site data for Madison County, Alabama, and providing a comparison of the findings to that of neighboring Limestone County. Using data from private collections, the author seeks to answer three questions in this study. First, how can researchers use this data to identify high density sites prior to their impact? Second, how did Early Paleoindian groups choose their site locations, and finally, how can researchers identify how their foraging cycle may have looked?

This work has been made possible by the generous sharing of primary data by a number of researchers including site level provenience of Paleoindian artifact finds. These records have been added to the Alabama Paleoindian Point Survey and the Alabama State Site File so that future investigators can continue to study these important sites and artifacts.

If archaeology can be defined as the study of human history through the analysis of physical remains, this is an archaeological report on the Alabama Archaeological Society.  The Society has a rich history dating back to the early 1950s, when a small group of researchers in Decatur, Alabama began to apply scientific standards to their Native American artifact collecting hobby in order to document the archaeology of the state of Alabama.  The product of this change was a Society nationally recognized for unprecedented cooperation between professional archaeologists, collectors, and the public (DeJarnette 1964, Walthall 1980).

In the sixty plus years since its formation, the Alabama Archaeological Society and its members have added considerably to the archaeological record of Alabama both individually and cooperatively, and its publications are widely circulated and referenced.  This report focuses on the origin of the Society, its early organization, pivotal early projects and brief biographies of several influential early officers.  It is pieced together from a number of ephemeral sources -  the Alabama Archaeological Society archives, curated at the Birmingham Public Library were a primary source of material, supplemented by interviews with some of the early members of the Society, period copies of the society’s newsletter, Stones and Bones, and annual reports from the Eastern States Archaeological Federation.

This report traces eight generations of an historic African American family,  the Polee Allen clan, from Africa to the present.  Over 160 persons are charted and documented, and in this report and the two Supplements hundreds more are traceable.  The analysis was requested by the President of the Clotilda Descendants Association (CDA), Mr. Darron Patterson.  The line focuses on descendants of Polee and Rose Allen, who were both kidnapped in the African interior in or near what is now Benin or Nigeria, brought to the coast at what is now Ouidah, Benin, and then transported in 1860 to Mobile Bay, Alabama on the last slave ship to arrive in the United States – the infamous Clotilda.  After gaining their freedom in 1865, they were both co-founders and leader of Africatown, Alabama,  the only town in America founded by Africans and still in existence,
Information is also provided on Lucy Turner Allen, Polee’s second wife, and  on her parents and descendants.  No biography of Polee and Rose Allen (or Lucy Turner Allen) has ever been written; this report provides a short mini-biography, mainly focused on Polee.

This report has the following sections:
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction and biographical material
• Methodology
• Genealogical charts
• Assertions and proofs
• Annexes:
o Annex 1: Interviews: Vernetta Henson, Darron Patterson and Brehon Allen, Sr.
o Annex 2: Information on possible memberships in lineage organizations
o Annex 3: Calculation of the possible number of descendants
o Annex 4: Various relevant obituaries and articles
o Annex 5: Possible previously unknown Clotilda survivors
o Annex 6: A song about Kupollee Allen
o Annex 7: Information on the author.

• Supplement #1:  The Polee and Rose Allen Lines: Supplement #1 with Funeral Programs on the Descendants of the Slave Ship Clotilda and Africatown, Alabama
• Supplement #2:  The Polee and Lucy Allen Lines: Supplement #2 with Funeral Programs on the Descendants of the Slave Ship Clotilda and Africatown, Alabama

The two Supplements (available in May 2022) are presented as separate, stand-alone documents.

The purpose of this paper is to help the reader understand the general envi-rons of Paleoindian sites in the Middle Tennessee Valley, specifically in Limestone County, Alabama, as well as some of the history surrounding them. It is common knowledge that these sites exist in large numbers and varieties in this area, but little has been written on the subject. It is hoped that by providing this information an interest in the study, excavation, reporting, and preservation of these important sites can be accomplished.

This is a presentation that I give to local history and archaeology groups.  The presentation provides background and context for the well known Quad Site Paleoindian Locality.  This paper/presentation may not be copied, referenced or used in any form without the explicit permission of the author.  All photographs are protected by copyright.

This volume interprets the history of the military confrontation between the United States and an alliance of Creek, Seminole and Black Seminole warriors that developed along the border dividing Spanish Florida from Alabama and Georgia in 1816-1821. It examines a wealth of new source material to expand upon the flight of the Red Stick Creeks to Florida at the end of the Creek War of 1813-1814, the arrival and activities of the British in the region during the closing days of the War of 1812, the destruction of the Fort at Prospect Bluff (also called the "Negro Fort") and the First Seminole War of 1817-1818.

This article considers the letters of Anne Newport Royall, first female American journalist, and her sojourn in Moulton, Alabama in the early 1820s. Royall encountered a new denomination, the Cumberland Presbyterians, and a new word, "Covaulting." She documented her opinion of both, as she experienced them in outdoor revivals.

An openly gay ball would have been unimaginable for the founders of Mobile, Alabama’s Mardi Gras mystic societies in the 1830s. Yet, around 1,600 people attend the Osiris Ball every year. Founded in 1981, the Order of Osiris (OOO) is Mobile’s oldest surviving gay carnival organisation. Using interviews to reveal the people involved in and the historical context of the creation of the OOO, this article investigates its role in the development of a shared identity and a visible community for LGBTQ Mobilians. It argues that by appropriating the signs, structure and symbols of the mainstream culture, an underground, marginalised sub-culture gained visibility and relative acceptance. Yet, that process of legitimisation eventually led to embracing the status quo.

Politikat e Shtrirjes së Osmanlinjve në Rumeli dhe tokat shqiptare gjatë shekujve XIV-XV Shtrirja e osmanlinjve në Rumeli është e lidhur ngushtë me gjendjen politike, ekonomike dhe demografike të Evropës së sotme juglindore gjatë shekujve XIV-XV. Përçarjet që lindnin nga konfliktet midis pretendentëve për fronin perandorak (midis perandorëve) të Bizantit krijuan boshllëk në organizimin administrativ në territoret që ky shtet kishte nën zotërim. Ky boshllëk i mundësoi Stefan Dushanit zgjerim të territorit të tij. Mbi këto zhvillime, Stefan Dushani pasi pushtoi Maqedoninë, Epirin dhe Korintin, më 1346 në Shkup mori titullin e Perandorit të serbëve dhe grekëve 1. Rreziku nga Stefan Dushani bëri që të arrihet aleanca (1346) në mes Perandorit Bizant Jan Kantakuzenos dhe prijësit të Shtetit Osman Orhanit. Kjo marrëveshje ishte e një rëndësie të veçantë për osmanlinjtë, ngase për herë të parë Shteti Bizant njohu shtetin Osman si një forcë e re për rajonin dhe si garanci besnikërie midis dy shteteve u bë edhe një martesë krejtësisht politike midis djalit të Orhanit (Sulejmanit) dhe vajzës së Kantakuzenosit (Teodorës) 2. Më 1348, kur Zealotët kërcënuan Kantakuzenosin me dorëzimin e Selanikut Stefan Dushanit, ky i fundit e rrethoi menjëherë qytetin e Selanikut. Si kundër përgjigjeje Kantakuzenosi kërkoi ndihmën e dhëndrit të tij Sulejmanit, i cili dërgoi një ushtri prej 200 kalorësve nën komandën e Sulejman Pashës. Ushtria e Sulejmanit gjatë rrugës do ti bashkëngjitej trupave të Matheosit (djalit të Kantakuzenosit). Në të njëjtën kohë me kërkesën e Kantakuzenosit në ndihmë do të vinte edhe një flotë detare prej 20 anijeve nga Umur beu, i cili gjendej në një ekspeditë rrethuese të kalasë në Izmir. Gjatë kësaj ekspedite Umur Beu humbë jetën dhe si përfundim mbetet i parealizuar plani i Kantakuzenosit për sulm ndaj serbëve ne Selanik. Gjatë kësaj fushate Serbët arritën të merrnin nën kontroll Kavallën (Christoupolis). Pas rënies së Kavallës aleati i Perandorit, Sulejmani pasi dërgon një njoftim për perandorin Kantakuzenos, vendosi të largohet për në Anadoll. Në këtë njoftim të Sulejmanit shpjegohet arsyeja e largimit nga fronti, ku thuhet se largimi vjen si pasoj e sulmeve të principatave Turkmene ne Anadoll, gjë që përveç një arsyetimi nuk kishte të bënte me të vërteten. Me këtë rast serbet morën nën kontroll veriun e Greqisë, Thesalinë (Tesalya) dhe Epirin 3. Edhe në luftën e dytë të brendshme të Bizantinëve për fronin mbretëror, Serbet dhe Bullgarët përsëri mbështetën Ionnis-in V, ndërsa Orhan Gazi mbështeste J. Kantakuzenosin dhe më 1371 në Maricë u zhvillua lufta mes Kantakuzenosit dhe Ionnisit V dhe aleatëve të tyre. Lufta përfundoi me fitoren e aleancës midis Kantakuzenosit dhe Orhan 1 M. Kiel, Balkans the Turkish history, f. 190. 2 H. Inalcik, Osmanli I, s. 60. 3 H. Inalcik, Osmanli Sultanı Orhan (1324-1362) Avrupa'da yerleşim, f.85.

This article provides details on the recovery of five rare and important military buttons by metal detectorists in Limestone County, Alabama. The author is currently working on a collaborative report on Civil War sites with the collecting community in his region, in hopes that other collectors and historians can follow suit and leave a record of this hobby and its rewards for the next generation.

Long-term research by the University of West Florida into the 1559-1561 expedition of Tristán de Luna y Arellano to Pensacola Bay has only accelerated following the 2015 discovery of Luna's terrestrial settlement and the 2016 discovery of a third shipwreck from Luna's fleet that wrecked just offshore. In addition to ongoing archaeological investigations in the field and lab, concurrent syntheses and analysis of both previously-known and several newly-discovered documentary sources relating to the expedition have provided important clues regarding Spanish-Native relations both in the Florida panhandle and southern Alabama. This paper presents preliminary analysis and insights from these documentary sources.

The PowerPoint briefing covers the following topics: the ancestry, relatives and descendants of Judge Harry T. Toulmin (1835-1916) of Mobile, Alabama; the life of the Judge, including his rise from private to Colonel and acting Brigadier General in the Confederate Army, and his battles at Shiloh, Murfreesboro, Chickamauga and Atlanta; the Judge's young post-war amour Mollie Henshaw; and the couple's love letters, engagement ring and later life.

This is the accepted version of my 2017 article in the Journal of Historical Sociology. Prevailing scholarly approaches to the U.S. Secession Crisis suggest that the crisis reflected either the interests of slaveowners or mounting socioeconomic pressure in the electorate. Both arguments suffer from empirical and analytical challenges, chief among these being that the southern Whig Party and its planter base actively resisted secession until the early 1850s. Why did the largest slaveowners oppose disunion only to fold by 1861? Drawing on beat-level electoral returns, newspapers, and private correspondence from antebellum Tuscaloosa County, Alabama, I argue that the answer lies in conceiving of the prelude to secession as a “crisis sequence,” so named because it precipitates crises of hegemony, when no one political actor possesses the mass consent to rule and once salient social cleavages cease to resonate. Such sequences destabilize the relationship between parties and their constituents and allow political allegiances to swing wildly from one party to the next, giving such sequences their nonlinear character.

This two-part series describes the history and archaeology of Old St. Stephens (OSS), the first Territorial Capital of Alabama (1817-1819).  The first part of the series covers the founding and decline of the town, the current archaeological efforts by the University of South Alabama at OSS, a review of the OSS "Estrayed Book," and the  Explorers Club Flag that accompanied part of the excavation.  The second part focuses on the life of Benjamin Stoddert Smoot, a native of Maryland who moved to OSS, served in the US Army, rising from Lieutenant to militia Colonel (but was court-martialed along the way), and went on to become a leading citizen of Mobile, Alabama.

The city of Birmingham, Alabama was a hotbed of the American Civil Rights movement of the 1960s.  Birmingham-Southern College, a private, four-year, liberal arts institution affiliated with the Methodist Church sat on the West End of Bombingham adjacent to the infamous Dynamite Hill.  A school noted for its commitment to service and exemplary higher education, Birmingham-Southern's involvement in the Civil Rights Movement that forever shaped its city, however, was complex.  Through Birmingham-Southern yearbook and newspaper articles, this paper analyzes the role of The College in the Civil Rights Movement.

This two-part series describes the history and archaeology of Old St. Stephens (OSS), the first Territorial Capital of Alabama (1817-1819).  The  first part of the series covers the founding and decline of the town, the current archaeological efforts by the University of South Alabama at OSS, a review of the OSS "Estrayed Book," and the  Explorers Club Flag that accompanied part of the excavation.  The second part focuses on the life of Benjamin Stoddert Smoot, a native of Maryland who moved to OSS, served in the US Army, rising from Lieutenant to militia Colonel (but was court-martialed along the way), and went on to become a leading citizen of Mobile, Alabama.