Roy Blount Jr. (Twayne's United States Authors Series)

Literature & Fiction

Brown, Jerry Elijah

Humor & Satire

Twayne Pub

Normal0falsefalsefalseMicrosoftInternetExplorer4The Federal Road was a major influence in settlement of the Mississippi Territory during the period between the Louisiana Purchase and removal of the Creek Indians. Histories of early Alabama covering this period are replete with references to isolated incidents along the Federal Road but heretofore no documented history drawn from original sources has been published.Authors Southerland and Brown have explored many scattered and often obscure sources in order to produce this fascinating, informative account of the impact of the Federal Road on the timing, shape, and settlement of the lower South. What started as a postal horsepath through a malaria-infested wilderness occupied by Indians was widened into a military road for use during the War of 1812 and became a primary thoroughfare for pioneers. The accessibility to Indian land provided by the road was a principal cause of the Creek Indian War of 1813-1814; moreover, it expedited the exodus of the Creek Indians and permitted English-speaking settlers to enter western Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi. This history of the Federal Road, describing its birth of necessity to fulfill an essential need, its short and useful service life, and its demise, opens a new window onto our past and reveals a historical period that, although now almost faded into oblivion, still affects our daily lives. This illumination of the life of the Federal Road will help present-day inhabitants appreciate how we came to be where we are today.

The Federal Road Through Georgia: the Creek Nation and Alabama, 1806-1836

History

Southerland Jr, Henry deLeon

Americas

The University of Alabama Press

<p>Normal0falsefalsefalseMicrosoftInternetExplorer4</p>The Federal Road was a major influence in settlement of the Mississippi Territory during the period between the Louisiana Purchase and removal of the Creek Indians. Histories of early Alabama covering this period are replete with references to isolated incidents along the Federal Road but heretofore no documented history drawn from original sources has been published.Authors Southerland and Brown have explored many scattered and often obscure sources in order to produce this fascinating, informative account of the impact of the Federal Road on the timing, shape, and settlement of the lower South. What started as a postal horsepath through a malaria-infested wilderness occupied by Indians was widened into a military road for use during the War of 1812 and became a primary thoroughfare for pioneers. The accessibility to Indian land provided by the road was a principal cause of the Creek Indian War of 1813-1814; moreover, it expedited the exodus of the Creek Indians and permitted English-speaking settlers to enter western Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi. This history of the Federal Road, describing its birth of necessity to fulfill an essential need, its short and useful service life, and its demise, opens a new window onto our past and reveals a historical period that, although now almost faded into oblivion, still affects our daily lives. This illumination of the life of the Federal Road will help present-day inhabitants appreciate how we came to be where we are today.

The Federal Road Through Georgia, the Creek Nation, and Alabama, 1806–1836

University Alabama Press

<p>An 1890s murder cold case. . .an account of a bloody episode that left 10 people dead. . .and a grandson s discovery of his grandfather s role in the final slaying all these are threads in Jerry Elijah Brown s true story of conflict and change in a backwoods district of southwest Alabama. Harper Lee calls the book the best to come out of Alabama since To Kill a Mockingbird. Brown, who was born in the remote district, said the book is the first to describe and defend a community that was terrorized from within and without. The story has never been told from the victims point of view. The book s 14 overlapping essays connect the various themes, describing the violence, the community and its pioneer background and the life of the man accused of one of the murders. A section of photographs is included. The book deals with tensions between backcountry farmers who borrowed money to put in their cotton crops and merchant-lenders who took advantage of the crop-lien system. The tensions erupted into what came to be called the Mitcham War, which pitted a gang of local ruffians against a mob of equally lawless vigilantes. The vigilantes made no distinction between the outlaws in the community and terrorized innocent neighbors. The violence resulted in the district s being described in one state paper as Clarke County s criminal colony. Forty years after his grandfather died, the author discovered that Lee Brown had been arrested, jailed, and tried for the assassination of a mysterious detective who assisted the vigilantes. The story attracted state-wide coverage. Lee Brown was labeled a murderer and was reported lynched. Yet within the county, the story was suppressed by all of the parties involved. Only after the author found court documents and newspaper stories did the complicated drama emerge. Although the detective s tombstone is marked, in a graveyard at a prominent crossroads, this story was taboo, Brown said. This was one story my grandfather, a noted story teller, never told. Lee Brown was not convicted, and he died in 1960, at age 88. He was a merry man, and a brave one, and he served his community and his family without bragging, Brown said.</p>

Alabama's Mitcham Wars: Essaying Mortal Wounds

Biographies & Memoirs

Historical

Looking Glass Books

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Books by Brown, Jerry Elijah