The Supreme Court of Alabama—Its Cahaba Beginning
Publisher
Alabama Law Review
Date
2010
The movement toward statehood in the Alabama Territory, created in 1817 when Mississippi was admitted as a state, formally began in March 1819 with congressional passage of the Enabling Act. That Act authorized the people of the territory to adopt a constitution and enact laws providing for a state government. Pursuant to that Act, a convention of forty-four elected delegates from throughout the territory convened in Huntsville in July to draft a state constitution. Huntsville, located in the Tennessee Valley, was the largest town in the territory with over 3,000 inhabitants at the time.
Citation
Daniel J. Meador, The Supreme Court of Alabama—Its Cahaba Beginning, 61 Alabama Law Review, 891–906 (2010).