Alabama, The antebellum period

Alabama was established as a separate territory in 1817 and became a state in 1819. By 1820 Alabama's population was more than 125,000, including about 500 free blacks. By 1830 there were 300,000 residents, 38 percent of them slaves, and cotton was the principal money crop. Until the Civil War, domestic politics centred on the removal of the Indians, land policy, the banking system, and the question of slavery. The