Alabama History
and Incidentally Georgia and Mississippi

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About four years since, feeling impressed with the fact that it was the duty of every man to make himself, in some way, useful to his race, I looked around in search of some object, in the pursuit of which I could benefit my fellow-citizens; for, although much interested in agriculture, that did not occupy one-fourth of my time. Having no taste for politics, and never having studied a profession, I determined to write a History. I thought it would serve to amuse my leisure hours, but it has been the hardest work of my life. While exhausted by the labor of reconciling the statements of old authors, toiling over old French and Spanish manuscripts, traveling through Florida, Alabama and Mississippi for information, and corresponding with persons in Europe and elsewhere for facts, I have sometimes almost resolved to abandon the attempt to prepare a History of my State.

In reference to that portion of the work which relates to the Indians, I will state that my father removed from Anson county, North Carolina, and carried me to the wilds of the "Alabama Territory," in 1818, when I was a boy but eight years of age. He established a trading-house in connection with his plantation, in the present county of Autauga. During my youthful days, I was accustomed to be much with the Creek Indians-- hundreds of whom came almost daily to the trading-house. For twenty years I frequently visited the Creek nation. Their green corn dances, ball plays, war ceremonies, and manners and customs, are fresh in my recollections. In my intercourse with them I was thrown into the company of many old white men, called "Indian countrymen, " who had for years conducted a commerce with them. Some of these men had come to the Creek nation before the revolutionary war, and others being Tories, had fled to it during the war, and after it, to escape from Whig persecution. They were unquestionably the shrewdest and most interesting men with whom I ever conversed. Generally of Scotch descent, many of them were men of some education. All of them were married to Indian wives, and some of them had intelligent and handsome children. From these Indian countrymen I learned much concerning the manners and customs of the Creeks, with whom they had so long been associated, and more particularly with regard to the commerce which that carried on with them. In addition to this, I often conversed with the Chiefs while they were seated in the shades of the spreading mulberry and walnut, upon the banks of the beautiful Tallapoosa. As they leisurely smoked their pipes, some of them related to me the traditions of their country. I occasionally saw Choctaw and Cherokee traders, learned much from them. I had no particular object in view at that time, except the gratification of a curiosity, which led me for my own satisfaction alone, to learn something of the early history of Alabama.

In relation to the invasion of Alabama by De Soto, which is related in the first chapter of this work, I have derived much information in regard to the route of that earliest discoverer from statements of General McGillivray, a Creek of mixed blood, who ruled this country with eminent ability from 1776 to 1793. I have perused the manuscript history of the Creeks by Stiggins, a half-breed, who also received some particulars of the route of De Soto during his boyhood from the lips of the oldest Indians. My library contains many old Spanish and French maps, with the towns through which De Soto passed correctly laid down. The sites of many of these are familiar to the present population. Besides all these, I have procured from England and France three journals of De Soto's expedition.

One of these journals was written by a cavalier of the expedition, who was a native of Elvas, in Portugal. He finished his narrative on the 10th February, 1557, in the city of Evora, and it was printed in the house of Andrew de Burgos, printer and gentleman of the Lord Cardinal and the Infanta. It was translated into English by Richard Hakluyt in 1609, and is to be found in the supplementary volume of his voyages and discoveries; London, 1812. It is also published at length in the Historical Collections of Peter Force, of Washington City.

Another journal of the expedition was written by the Inca Garcellasso de la Vega, a Peruvian by birth and a native of the city of Cuzco. His father was a Spaniard of noble blood, and his mother the sister of Capac, one of the Indian sovereigns of Peru. Garcellasso was a distinguished writer of that age. He had heard of the remarkable invasion of Florida by De Soto, and he applied himself diligently to obtain the facts. He found out an intelligent cavalier of that expedition, with whom he had minute conversations of all the particulars of it. In addition to this, journals were placed in his hands written in the camp of De Soto, one by Alonzo de Carmona, a native of the town of Priego, and the other by Juan Coles, a native of Zafra. Garcellasso published his work at an early period in Spanish. It has been translated into French, but never into English. The copy in our hands is entitled "Histoire de la Conquete de la Floride ou relation, de ce qui s'est passé dans la découverte de ce pais, par Ferdinand De Soto, Composée en Espagnol, par L'Inca Garcellasso de la Vega, et traduite en François, par Sr. Pierre Richelet, en deux tomes; A. Leide: 1731."

I have still another journal, and the last one, of the expedition of De Soto. It was written by Biedma, who accompanied De Soto as his commissary. The journal is entitled, "Relation de ce qui arriva pendant le voyage du Captaine Soto, et details sur la nature du pas qu'il parcourut; par Luis Hernandez de Biedma," contained in a volume entitled "Recuil de Pieces sur la Floride," one of a series of "Voyages et memoires originaux pour servir a L'Histoire de la decouverte de L'Amerique publies pour la premier fois en Francois: par H. Ternaux-Compans. Paris: 1841"

In Biedma there is an interesting letter written by De Soto, while he was at Tampa Bay, in Florida, which was addressed to some town authorities in Cuba. The journal of Biedma is much less in detail than those of the Portuguese Gentleman and Garcellasso, but agrees with them in the relation of the most important occurrences.

Our own accomplished writer and earliest pioneer in Alabama history--Alexander B. Meek, of Mobile--has furnished a condensed, but well written and graphic account of De Soto's expedition, contained in a monthly magazine, entitled "The Southron," Tuscaloosa, 1839. He is correct as to the direction assumed by the Spaniards over our soil, as well as to the character of that extraordinary conquest.

Theodore Irving, M. A., of New York, has recently issued a revised edition of his Conquest of Florida. Its style is easy and flowing, when the author journalizes in regard to marches through the country, and is exceedingly graphic, when he gives us a description of De Soto's battles. As I have closely examined the sources from which Mr. Irving has collated his work, I am prepared to state that he has related all things as they are said to have occurred. For the complimentary terms which Mr. Irving has employed in the preface, and also in many of the notes of his late edition, in relation to my humble efforts in endeavoring to throw new light upon the expedition of De Soto, I beg him to accept my profound acknowledgements.

Albert James Pickett

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Notes About Book:

Source: History of Alabama, Incidentally of Georgia and Mississippi, From the Earliest Period, Albert James Pickett, 1851, Walker and James, Charleston.

Online Publication: The manuscript was scanned and then ocr'd. Minimal editing has been done, and readers can and should expect some errors in the textual output.