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