| Cahaba Cahawba |
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|---|---|
| U.S. National Register of Historic Places | |
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| Location: | |
| Nearest city: | Selma, Alabama |
| Added to NRHP: | 1973[1] |
| NRHP Reference#: | 73000341[1] |
| Governing body: | Alabama Historical Commission |
Cahaba, also spelled Cahawba, was the first permanent state capital of Alabama from 1820 to 1825. Selma is a city in and the County seat of Dallas County, Alabama, United States, located on the banks of the Alabama River. Alabama (formally the State of Alabama;) is a State located in the southern region of the United States of America. The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP is the United States government's official list of districts sites buildings structures and objects deemed worthy of A US state is any one of the fifty subnational entities of the United States of America that share Sovereignty with the federal government Alabama (formally the State of Alabama;) is a State located in the southern region of the United States of America. [2] It is now a ghost town and state historic site and is located in Dallas County, near the city of Selma. A ghost town is a Town or City that has been abandoned usually because the economic activity that supported it has failed or due to natural or human-caused Dallas County is a County of the US state of Alabama. Its name is in honor of United States Secretary of the Treasury Alexander J Selma is a city in and the County seat of Dallas County, Alabama, United States, located on the banks of the Alabama River. [3]
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History
Capital
Cahaba had its beginnings as an undeveloped town site at the confluence of the Alabama and Cahaba Rivers. The Alabama River, in the US state of Alabama, is formed by the Tallapoosa and Coosa rivers which unite about six miles above Montgomery The Cahaba River is the longest free-flowing river in Alabama and is among the most scenic and biologically diverse rivers in the United States. At the old territorial capital of St. Stephens, a commission was formed on 13 February 1818 to select the site for Alabama's state capital. St Stephens is an unincorporated community in Washington County, Alabama, United States. Cahaba was the site chosen and was approved on 21 November 1818. [3] Due to the future capital being nothing more than wilderness, Alabama's constitutional convention was forced to find temporary accommodations in Huntsville until a statehouse could be built. Huntsville is a city in Madison and Limestone Counties in the U Governor William Wyatt Bibb reported in October of 1819 that the town had been laid out and that lots would be auctioned to the highest bidders. William Wyatt Bibb ( October 2 1781 July 10 1820) was the first governor of the U [3] The town was planned on a grid system with streets running north and south named for trees and those running east and west named for famous men. The new statehouse was a two-story brick structure, measuring 40 feet (12 m) wide by 58 feet (18 m) long. By 1820 Cahaba had become a functioning state capital. [2] Cahaba's low elevation at the confluence of two large rivers gave it a reputation for flooding and having an unhealthy atmosphere. A major flood struck the town in 1825, causing a portion of the statehouse to collapse. People who were opposed to the capital's location at Cahaba used this as an argument for moving the capital to Tuscaloosa, which was approved by the legislature in January of 1826. Tuscaloosa is a city in west central Alabama in the southern United States. [3][4]
Antebellum
The town would remain the county seat of Dallas County for several more decades. [5]The town eventually recovered from losing the capital and reestablished itself as a social and commercial center. Cahaba, centered in the fertile "Black Belt", became a major distribution point for cotton shipped down the Alabama River to the port of Mobile. Alabama 's Black Belt is a region of the state and part of the larger Black Belt Region of the Southern United States, which stretches from Cotton is a soft staple Fibre that grows around the seeds of the cotton plant ( Gossypium sp The addition of a railroad line in 1859 triggered a building boom in the town of Cahaba. On the eve of the American Civil War, more than 3,000 people called Cahaba home. Causes of the war See also Origins of the American Civil War, Timeline of events leading to the American Civil War The coexistence of a slave-owning South [2]
During the Civil War, the Confederate government seized Cahaba's railroad, reappropriated the iron rails to extend another nearby railroad of military importance. The Confederate States of America (also called the Confederacy, the Confederate States, and CSA) formed as the government set up from 1861 A large cotton warehouse on the riverbank along Arch Street was stockaded for use as a prison, known as Castle Morgan from 1863 to 1865. Cahaba Prison, also known as Castle Morgan, was a Prisoner of war camp in Alabama where the Confederacy held captive Union soldiers [5] In February 1865 another flood inundated the town, causing much additional hardship for the roughly 3000 Union soldiers held in the prison, and for the town's citizens. The Union Army was the army that fought for the Union during the American Civil War. Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forest and Union General James H. Wilson discussed an exchange of prisoners, captured during the Battle of Selma, in Cahaba at the Crocheron mansion. Nathan Bedford Forrest ( July 13, 1821 &ndash October 29, 1877) was a lieutenant general in the Confederate Army during James Harrison Wilson ( September 2, 1837 &ndash February 23, 1925) was a United States Army topographic engineer The Battle of Selma, a Battle during the American Civil War, was fought in Selma, Alabama, on April 2 1865.
Postbellum
In 1866 the county seat was moved to nearby Selma, Alabama. Selma is a city in and the County seat of Dallas County, Alabama, United States, located on the banks of the Alabama River. Businesses and families followed. Within 10 years, even many of the houses and churches were being dismantled and moved away. [2] During Reconstruction, the vacant courthouse became a meeting place for freedmen seeking new political power. A freedman is a former slave who has been manumitted or emancipated. A new rural community of former slave families replaced the old urban center. These families turned the vacant town blocks into fields and garden plots. Soon, even this community largely disappeared. Prior to the turn of the century a former slave purchased most of the old town site for $500. He had the abandoned buildings demolished for their building materials and shipped by steamboat to Mobile and Selma. A steamboat or steamship, sometimes called a steamer, is a ship in which the primary method of propulsion is steam power, typically driving a Propeller [3] By 1903 most of Cahaba's buildings were gone, only a handful of structures survived past 1930. [3][6]
Modern
Although the area is no longer inhabited, the Alabama Historical Commission maintains Cahaba as a state historic site and as an important archaeological site. The Alabama Historical Commission is the Historic preservation agency for the U It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP is the United States government's official list of districts sites buildings structures and objects deemed worthy of [1] Visitors to this park can still see many of the abandoned streets, cemeteries, and ruins of this former state capital. [6]
Gallery
 Vine Street, probably taken in the last half of the 19th century. |
 St. Luke's Episcopal Church at Martin's Station in 1934. |
 Old Methodist Church in the 1930s, later burned down. |
 Kirkpatrick mansion on Oak Street, burned in 1935, the two-story brick slave quarters remain intact, however. |
 The Female Academy as it stood in 1903. |
 The twenty-six room Perine mansion, built in the 1850s, later demolished. |
 Another view of the Perine Mansion. |
 Crocheron mansion, built 1843, later burned. |
References
- ^ a b c "Alabama: Dallas County". "National Register of Historic Places". Retrieved on 2008-01-07. 2008 ( MMVIII) is the current year in accordance with the Gregorian calendar, a Leap year that started on Tuesday of the Common Events 1325 - Alfonso IV becomes King of Portugal. 1558 - France takes Calais, the last continental
- ^ a b c d "Old Cahawba, Alabama's first state capital, 1820 to 1826". "Old Cahawba: A Cahawba Advisory Committee Project". Retrieved on 2008-01-07. 2008 ( MMVIII) is the current year in accordance with the Gregorian calendar, a Leap year that started on Tuesday of the Common Events 1325 - Alfonso IV becomes King of Portugal. 1558 - France takes Calais, the last continental
- ^ a b c d e f Harris, W. Stuart. Dead towns of Alabama, pages 66-67. Tuscaloosa : University of Alabama Press, 1977. ISBN 0585265631
- ^ "Capitals of Alabama". "Alabama Department of Archives and History". Retrieved on 2008-01-07. 2008 ( MMVIII) is the current year in accordance with the Gregorian calendar, a Leap year that started on Tuesday of the Common Events 1325 - Alfonso IV becomes King of Portugal. 1558 - France takes Calais, the last continental
- ^ a b "Dallas County Historical Markers". "Alabama Department of Archives and History". Retrieved on 2008-01-07. 2008 ( MMVIII) is the current year in accordance with the Gregorian calendar, a Leap year that started on Tuesday of the Common Events 1325 - Alfonso IV becomes King of Portugal. 1558 - France takes Calais, the last continental
- ^ a b "Old Cahawba". "Alabama Historical Commission". Retrieved on 2008-01-07. 2008 ( MMVIII) is the current year in accordance with the Gregorian calendar, a Leap year that started on Tuesday of the Common Events 1325 - Alfonso IV becomes King of Portugal. 1558 - France takes Calais, the last continental
Bibliography
Fry, Anna M. Gayle. Memories of Old Cahaba. Nashville, Tenn: Publishing House of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, 1908.
External links
- Old Cahawba
- Alabama Historical Commission
- Cahawba Advisory Committee
- Meador, Daniel, "Riding Over the Past?", Virginia Quarterly Review, Winter 2002.
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