The Great State of Alabama Lesson Title: Alabama Becomes a State Primary Objective: Describe Alabama’s entry into statehood

Thousands of new settlers came from all across the United States to Alabama after the Creek Wars. They moved here because land was cheap and the soil was rich.

The territory of Alabama was created from the eastern part of the Mississippi territory by “An act to enable the people of the Alabama Territory to form a Constitution and State government, and for the admission of such state into the Union on an equal footing with the original States” on March 3, 1817.

This act allowed or enabled Alabama to complete the steps necessary to become a state. President Monroe signed this act in March 1817.

Steps to Statehood The population of Alabama grew rapidly and soon the territory had the 60,000 people that it needed to become a state.

The enabling act required Alabama to do two things before it could become a State. First, a plan of government or constitution had to be written.

Next, the people had to survey or measure Alabama’s land and mark its boundaries.

When Alabama had completed all of the steps necessary to become a state, Congress passed a resolution to admit Alabama as the twenty-second state.

RESOLUTION FOR ADMISSION OF ALABAMA INTO THE UNION [December 14, 1819] Resolution Declaring The Admission Of The State Of Alabama Into The Union. Whereas in pursuance to an act of Congress, passed on the second day of March, one thousand eight hundred and nineteen, entitled "An act to enable the people of the Alabama Territory to form a Constitution and State government, and for the admission of such state into the Union on an equal footing with the original States", the people of the said Territory did, on the second day of August, in the present year, by a Convention called for that purpose, form for themselves a Constitution and State government, which Constitution and State government so formed is republican, and in conformity to the principles of the articles of Compact, between the original States, and the people and States in the Territory North West of the river Ohio, passed on the thirteenth day of July, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-seven, so far as the same have been extended to the said Territory by the articles of agreement between the United States and the State of Georgia: Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, That the State of Alabama shall be one, and is hereby declared to be one of the United States of America, and admitted into the Union on an equal footing with the original States, in all respects whatever. H. CLAY, Speaker of the House of Representatives Ja. BARBOUR, President of the Senate, pro tempore  

Current Alabama State Symbols A crimson cross of St. Andrew on a field of white

Designed in 1817 by the first governor of the Alabama Territory (William Wyatt Bibb), the great seal of Alabama displays the major rivers of the state. This seal became the official state seal and remained unchanged for over 50 years. Current Great Seal of Alabama

The official coat of arms for the state of Alabama was adopted by both houses of Legislature without one dissenting vote in 1939. Alabama's coat of arms displays a shield with the emblems of five governments that have held sovereignty over the state. The flags of Spain, France, Great Britain, and the Confederacy sit behind the emblem for the United States. The shield is supported by bald eagles on either side (symbols of courage). The crest of the shield represents the Baldine (the ship sailed by Iberville and Bienville from France in 1699 to settle a colony near present - day Mobile). The state motto appears beneath the shield: "Audemus jura nostra defendere" (Latin for We Dare Defend our Rights). http://www.statesymbolsusa.org/Alabama/AL-coat-of-arms.html

The camellia was adopted as the state flower in 1959, replacing the original state flower, the goldenrod. The yellowhammer woodpecker was adopted as the state bird in 1927.

For a complete list of the symbols of Alabama, including the state fish, the state wildflower, the state mammal, the state fossil, and the state insect, link to the Alabama Department of Archives and History Web site: http://www.archives.alabama.gov/kids_emblems/index.html.