Monday, December 14, 2009

State History

PROJECT: THE CIVIL WAR AND ALABAMA
by Alyssa

The most significant war in the history of all of Alabama is the Civil War, in which it fought for both the Confederacy, and the Union.
Tensions had been high already, but it escalated to tipping point for Alabamians when Abraham Lincoln was elected for president. Some politically powerful Alabamians thought Lincoln’s election opened a huge gap that would end slavery and begin a racial war. In Mobile, the people actually thought Lincoln’s being a president was like overthrowing the Constitution for equal rights. They also requested Alabama withdraw from the Union with absolutely no delay.
January 7, 1861, the delegates four days later voted for Alabama’s immediate independence from the Union. Guns’ bullets rang out, and women from Montgomery lifted flags with a single star, proclaiming Alabama’s star had receded from the others and that this star would join with the Confederate states. There were three other states that had joined the Confederacy at this time.
The new president of the Confederate States of America, Jefferson Davis, arrived February 16. Two days later he took an oath as the president of the Confederacy, and then set on his way to run a nation founded on upholding slavery, as his vice president demanded.