William Warren Rogers

The University of Alabama was burned to the ground in the final days of the Civil War. In the war's aftermath, survivors constructed a new collection of buildings using many of the bricks left from the original campus. Nevertheless, the university's presidency changed frequently, Alabama had a new egalitarian constitution created by a racially diverse coalition of Republicans, the fate of the University of Alabama soon became a key battleground in the contested nature of state. In The Battle for the University of Alabama, historian William Warren Rogers, Jr. traces this incredible yet little-known story of the bitter contest for the fate of a cultural citadel in relation to the histories of other public universities in the former states of the Confederacy as they struggled to make their own way after the war.

The University of Alabama was burned to the ground in the final days of the Civil War. In the war's aftermath, survivors constructed a new collection of buildings using many of the bricks left from the original campus. Nevertheless, the university's presidency changed frequently, Alabama had a new egalitarian constitution created by a racially diverse coalition of Republicans, the fate of the University of Alabama soon became a key battleground in the contested nature of state. In The Battle for the University of Alabama, historian William Warren Rogers, Jr. traces this incredible yet little-known story of the bitter contest for the fate of a cultural citadel in relation to the histories of other public universities in the former states of the Confederacy as they struggled to make their own way after the war.

Recounts the volatile period following the end of the Civil War, when Southern whites were forced to concede equal rights to former slaves, ushering in a new and ruthless brand of politics. Nowhere was this more evident than in Alabama, where the Republican Party reestablished itself quickly and powerfully with the participation of a newly freed constituency, firmly aligned against the Democratic Party that had long dictated the governance of the state.

A new and up-to-date edition of Alabama’s history to celebrate the state’s bicentennial.Alabama: The History of a Deep South State, Bicentennial Edition is a comprehensive narrative account of the state from its earliest days to the present. This edition, updated to celebrate the state’s bicentennial year, offers a detailed survey of the colorful, dramatic, and often controversial turns in Alabama’s evolution. Organized chronologically and divided into three main sections—the first concluding in 1865, the second in 1920, and the third bringing the story to the present—makes clear and interprets the major events that occurred during Alabama’s history within the larger context of the South and the nation.Once the home of aboriginal inhabitants, Alabama was claimed and occupied by a number of European nations prior to becoming a permanent part of the United States in 1819. A cotton and slave state for more than half of the nineteenth century, Alabama seceded in 1861 to join the Confederate States of America, and occupied an uneasy and uncertain place in America’s post-Civil War landscape. Alabama’s role in the twentieth century has been equally tumultuous and dramatic.General readers as well as scholars will welcome this up-to-date and scrupulously researched history of Alabama, which examines such traditional subjects as politics, military history, economics, race, and class. It contains essential accounts devoted to Native Americans, women, and the environment, as well as detailed coverage of health, education, organized labor, civil rights, and the many cultural developments, from literature to sport, that have enriched Alabama’s history. The stories of individual leaders, from politicians to creative artists, are also highlighted. A key facet of this landmark historical narrative is the strong emphasis placed on the common everyday people of Alabama, those who have been rightly described as the “bone and sinew” of the state.

A new and up-to-date edition of Alabama’s history to celebrate the state’s bicentennial.Alabama: The History of a Deep South State, Bicentennial Edition is a comprehensive narrative account of the state from its earliest days to the present. This edition, updated to celebrate the state’s bicentennial year, offers a detailed survey of the colorful, dramatic, and often controversial turns in Alabama’s evolution. Organized chronologically and divided into three main sections—the first concluding in 1865, the second in 1920, and the third bringing the story to the present—makes clear and interprets the major events that occurred during Alabama’s history within the larger context of the South and the nation.Once the home of aboriginal inhabitants, Alabama was claimed and occupied by a number of European nations prior to becoming a permanent part of the United States in 1819. A cotton and slave state for more than half of the nineteenth century, Alabama seceded in 1861 to join the Confederate States of America, and occupied an uneasy and uncertain place in America’s post-Civil War landscape. Alabama’s role in the twentieth century has been equally tumultuous and dramatic.General readers as well as scholars will welcome this up-to-date and scrupulously researched history of Alabama, which examines such traditional subjects as politics, military history, economics, race, and class. It contains essential accounts devoted to Native Americans, women, and the environment, as well as detailed coverage of health, education, organized labor, civil rights, and the many cultural developments, from literature to sport, that have enriched Alabama’s history. The stories of individual leaders, from politicians to creative artists, are also highlighted. A key facet of this landmark historical narrative is the strong emphasis placed on the common everyday people of Alabama, those who have been rightly described as the “bone and sinew” of the state.

One of the most elegant mansions in Florida, Goodwood was built over a century ago and stands today as one of Tallahassee’s grandest historical monuments. It was once the center of a thriving plantation founded by the Croom family of North Carolina, who in the 1820s sought to revive their fortunes in the newly opened Florida territory. William Warren Rogers and Erica R. Clark tell the story of this family and their legacy, shedding new light on many aspects of antebellum family life, plantation management, and race relations. They describe how brothers Hardy and Bryan Croom developed Goodwood Plantation to over four thousand acres with nearly two hundred slaves before Hardy and his family were killed in a shipwreck, and how a twenty-year lawsuit, complicated by questions of survivorship and residency, denied Bryan control of the estate. This meticulously detailed account, drawing extensively on family correspondence and court records, is a story of humaneness, hard work, and family values—but also of selfishness and greed—that reveals an intriguing chapter of southern history.

"This vignette of local southern history . . . recounts Renfroe's career as sheriff of Sumter County for a little more than two years, followed by six years of bizarre activities as a fugitive from justice before being lynched in July 1886. . . . He led the local Ku Klux Klan in 1868-69, participated in the Meridian riot of 1871, and took part in the killing of two active Republicans, one white and one black, in 1874. Rumors attributed other slayings to this violence-prone man who in 1867 had fled another county after killing his brother-in-law. . . . The story clearly illustrates the violent tactics of the redemption process."--Journal of American History

During the decades of Bourbon ascendancy after 1874, Alabama institutions - like those in other southern states - were dominated by whites. Former slave and sharecropper Jack Turner refused to accept a society so structured. Highly intelligent, physically imposing, and an orator of persuasive talents, Turner was fearless before whites and emerged as a leader of his race. He helped to forge a political alliance between blacks and whites that defeated and humiliated the Bourbons in Choctaw County, the heart of the Black Belt, in the election of 1882. That summer, after a series of bogus charges and arrests, Turner was accused of planning to lead his private army of blacks in a general slaughter of the county whites. Justice was forgotten in the resultant fear and hysteria.

Written as a case study of the causes of the Alabama miner's strike in 1894, this book explains how during an economic depression period, the strong trade union of the United Mineworkers of Alabama was founded and it was this that became instrumental in the coal miners and railway worker's strike. This book recalls the particular conditions under which the strike was started and the connected issues of the racial problem and the struggle between the Bourbon Democrats and the Populists.

Drawing from a wealth of historic documents and personal papers, William Warren Rogers, Jr., provides a fascinating and detailed political, economic, social, and commercial history of Montgomery from 1860 to 1865. His account begins with an examination of daily life in the city before the war began - how slaves outnumbered whites, how an unvarnished frontier atmosphere prevailed on the streets despite citizens' claims to refinement, how lush crops of corn and cotton grew in fields right up to the city limits, and how class divisions were distinct and immovable. Rogers arranges his material topically, covering the events that led to the decision for secession and Montgomery's heady days as the Confederacy's first capital; the industrialization of the city's war effort as it became a hub of activity and served as a military post; the city's business patterns and administration as it attempted to promote the Confederacy and defend itself from federal forces; and the plight of the small group of Unionists who inhabited Montgomery through the war. Rogers concludes with chapters examining the situation in Montgomery as the Confederacy unraveled and the city fell to Union troops. The Montgomery experience offers a microcosm of life on the Confederate home front and demonstrates that citizens generally experienced the same hopes, deprivations, and tragedies that other Southerners did at this time. Rogers's well-written, comprehensive history of the wartime city makes an original contribution to Civil War homefront and community studies that should appeal to general readers and scholars alike.

Alabama's agrarian protest began in the decades after the Civil War when individual farmers found themselves in an economic regression, unable to understand or partake in the forces behind the New South prosperity enjoyed by a few professional men, merchants, industrialists, and large planters. In reaction to this situation, yeomen farmers began to venture into the economic and business realm through the formation of such organizations as the Farmers' Alliance, the Agricultural Wheel, and the Grange. Initially apolitical, these groups were the germ of the turbulent agrarian upheaval that culminated in the elections of 1896. Disenchanted by the reign of Bourbon Democrats and their refusal to acknowledge the individual farmer's situation, agrarian reformers united under the umbrella of the Populist Party. The Populists' defeat in 1896 marked the end of the agrarian reform movement, but the legacy of the revolt continued to affect the state politically and socially. Utilizing important primary material from newspapers and archives as well as unpublished monographs, Rogers provides insight into this complex and influential chapter in Alabama history. In an exceptionally well-written narrative, he explains how poor white farmers, often identified by a single gallus of their worn overalls strung diagonally across a shoulder and fastened to the bib, formed an unusual alliance with blacks, industrial workers, coal miners, and a number of editors and other citizens who believed in political and economic justice. This book was originally published in 1970 by LSU Press; this first paperback edition includes a new introduction by the author. The One-Gallused Rebellion is recognized as the definitive examination of late-19th-century agrarian struggles in Alabama and will remain so for many years to come.