History of African Americans in Alabama

African Americans are Americans of African descent. People of African descent are first recorded as arriving in African Americans are Americans of African descent. People of African descent first arrived in Alabama as apart of the Spanish conquest of La Florida(which included Alabama) in the 16th century. The first documented Africans in Alabama arrived with Hernando Desoto. “We know very little about the black slaves with DeSoto. A letter from Spain's King Charles V dated April 20, 1537, gave DeSoto permission to take 50 Africans, a third of them female, to Florida. According to historian Jane Landers, DeSoto's slaves included both Moors from Northern Africa and sub-Saharan Africans. Many of them deserted him to live with the Native Americans in Florida. We know that DeSoto abandoned some black slaves during his expeditions, including two with known names. One named Robles, who apparently was Christian, was left at Coosa, Ala., because he was too ill to walk.” {{cite web|url= https://www.al.com/news/2019/08/slaves-arrived-in-america-and-alabama-years-before-1619.html?outputType=amp title=History}}. As the Spanish continued its conquest of La Florida which provinces included Alabama (Apalachacola) it’s enslaved and free African population grew. After the Spanish San Franciscans arrived in Saint Augustine, Florida in 1573, they started moving northward and eastward into the Alabama area. {{cite=Christina K. Schaefer, Genealogical encyclopedia of the colonial Americas : a complete digest of the records of all the countries of the Western Hemisphere (Baltimore, Maryland : Genealogical Publishing Company, c1998), 559. WorldCat (Other Libraries); FS Library book 929.11812 D26 1998 title=History}}. “ Between 1519 and 1600, 151.6 thousand Africans disembarked on the Spanish American mainland and another 187.7 thousand over the next 50 years. In all, 54% of all enslaved Africans brought to the New World between 1519 and 1700 disembarked in Spanish America (Eltis el at 2001).” {{cite web|url= https://www.nps.gov/ethnography/aah/aaheritage/spanishamb.htm#:~:text=Between%201519%20and%201600%2C%20151.6,(Eltis%20el%20at%202001). title=History}}. Many enslaved and free people of African descent escaped bondage and or colonial life by running away and living with the American Indian tribes of Alabama. French colonist established the first permanent European colony in Alabama near Mobile and we can find African descendants enumerated on French colonial census tablets for Mobile dating from 1699-1732. {{cite Section: Census Tables. The Census Tables for the French Colony of Louisiana from 1699 Through 1732 [database on-line]. title=History}}. As the century passed and as territories in Alabama changed flags, free and enslaved peoples of African descent sought their independence and freedom by fighting battles under Spanish, British, Native American, French and American flags. For example in 1781 there was a “black militia who fought under the Spanish led by Galvez at Mobile”. {{cite web|url=https://www.americanrevolution.org/blk.php title=History}}. African Americans in Alabama also fought in the war of 1812 and the Creek war 1813-14 including at Fort Mims. {{cite web|url=https://npshistory.com/publications/hobe/braund-2017.pdf title=History}}. In 1814 African Americans fought alongside Creek Indians at the battle of Enchanachaca in Alabama where U.S military officers described them as their “most desperate foe”. {{cite=Iverson, Justin. “Fugitives on the Front: Maroons in the Gulf Coast Borderlands War, 1812-1823.” The Florida Historical Quarterly, vol. 98, no. 2, 2019, pp. 105–29. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/27098092. title=History}}. After those battles Alabama gained American statehood in 1819 which represented a clear danger of enslavement for Alabama Africans. People of African descent continued to seek freedom and independence in Alabama by living among Native American tribes such as the Creek Indians or forming independent Maroon communities in more secluded parts of Alabama. “Further east along the gulf coast a maroon group secreted themselves in a swamp at the confluence of the Alabama and Tombeckbe rivers, just north of Mobile. Some of the members of this group had 'been runaway for several years' and were led by a 'an extraordinary negro for size and bodily strength' named Old Hal. Following a battle with local planters in 1827, which led to the death of several maroons, even the newspapers were forced to conceded 'that old Hal and his men fought like Spartans, not one gave an inch of ground, but stood and was shot dead or wounded, and fell on the spot'.” {{cite =New York Spectator, 17 July 1827; Vermont Chronicle, 20 July 1827. title=History}}. After the war most African Americans living in Creek Indian territory of Alabama were enslaved but many were free. Before removal during the Creek census of 1832 the enumerators sent a letter requesting clarification regarding the status of free African Americans living as citizens of the Creek nation in Alabama. B. S. Parsons and Thomas J. Abbott Wrote “To wit: there is a number of free black families that seem to be in every way identified with these people, and the only difference is the color. I have taken their numbers in all cases, but am I to take them as heads of families for reservations or not? For those persons I have thought proper to make a separate book”. {{cite=A letter from B. S. Parsons and Thomas J. Abbott to Lewis Cass regarding the census, multiple wives, Indian countrymen, and Negroes, Sept. 7, 1832.title=History}}. For an example of an African American population in Pre Native American removal Alabama one can look at the Creek Indian 1832 census for Tuskeega town(Tuskegee/Taskigi). Here we find free and enslaved people of African descent living in the town. {{cite=web|url=https://freepages.rootsweb.com/~texlance/genealogy/1832census/index.htm title= 1832 Creek Nation (Alabama) census}} Interesting enough the leader of Taskigi town in Oklahoma after Creek Indian removal was an African American by the name of Silas Jefferson also known as Ho-tul-ki-mi-po (Chief of the Whirlwind). {{cite web|url= https://collections.gilcrease.org/object/43263939 title=History}}. Many free and enslaved African Americans in Alabama were forced to leave on the trail of tears with the Creek Indians in 1833. Any of them who dared to stay behind would face enslavement by encroaching American planters as the territory exchanged hands. After the Creek war and Alabama gained statehood in 1819 it’s enslaved African population grew. As slave catchers captured Maroons in Alabama and American planters arrived in Alabama with enslaved African Americans the population ballooned. Between 1819-1860 Africans continued to arrive in Alabama and those Africans and people of African descent continued to resist bondage. For example we find reports of 400 people of African descent engaged in insurrection in Lowndes county in September of 1850. {{cite=Gallipolis journal. [volume], September 12, 1850, Image 1title=History}}. In 1860 the last documented slave ship arrived in Mobile bay in Alabama. It’s 110 African captives arrived in Alabama from the Kingdom on Dahomey in West Africa. {{cite web|url=https://www.mobile.org/things-to-do/history/african-american-heritage/clotilda/ title=History}}. As the American civil war commenced African Americans in Alabama took up arms in what can be considered the largest slave revolt in U.S history. “The largest slave revolt in U.S. history involved nearly 5,000 slaves from Alabama, rising up to strike a blow against their masters” {{cite=web|urlhttp://www.civilwarconnect.com/2012/03/kingdom-comin-largest-slave-rebellion.html?m=1#:~:text=The%20largest%20slave%20revolt%20in%20U.S.%20history%20involved%20nearly%205%2C000,bead%20on%20the%20master%20class. title=History}}.