History of Mobile, Alabama
In 1528, Pánfilo de Narváez traveled through what was likely the Mobile Bay area, encountering Native Americans who fled and burned their towns at the approach of the expedition.
The next large expedition was that of Tristán de Luna y Arellano, in his unsuccessful attempt to establish a permanent colony for Spain, nearby at Pensacola in 1559–1561.
[4] Although Spain's presence in the area had been sporadic, the French, under Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville from his base at Fort Maurepas, established a settlement on the Mobile River in 1702.
The settlement, then known as Fort Louis de la Louisiane, was first established at Twenty-seven Mile Bluff as the first capital of the French colony of Louisiana.
[6] The year 1704 saw the arrival of 23 women, known to history as "casquette girls" to the colony aboard the Pélican, along with yellow fever introduced to the ship in Havana.
[7] Though most of the "casquette girls" recovered, a large number of the existing colonists and the neighboring Native Americans died from the illness.
This site had previously been settled five years prior by Charles Rochon, Gilbert Dardenne, Pierre LeBœuf and Claude Parant.
Mobile was then part of the colonial province Florida Occidental for thirty years, controlled from Pensacola until 1813 when it was captured by American forces (during the War of 1812) under James Wilkinson.
On September 23, 1810, after meetings beginning in June, rebels overcame the Spanish garrison at Baton Rouge and unfurled the Bonnie Blue Flag.
Before the War of 1812, the Spaniards in Mobile allowed British merchants to sell arms and supplies to the Indians defend their lands against encroaching settlers who had begun to build on part of present-day Alabama.
The Spanish capitulated in April 1813 and the Stars and Stripes of the United States was raised for the first time over the Mobile area as it was added to the existing Mississippi Territory.
[12] A British attempt commanded by Captain Henry Percy in September 1814 to take Fort Bowyer on Mobile Bay was repulsed by American forces.
In another note of differentiation between the somewhat cosmopolitan port and the hinterlands of predominantly Protestant Alabama, Mobile was declared a diocese of the Roman Catholic Church in this same period.
The Confederates countered by constructing blockade-runners: fast, shallow-draft, low-slung ships that could either outrun or evade the blockaders, maintaining a trickle of trade in and out of Mobile.
It is here that Farragut is alleged to have uttered his famous "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead" quote after the USS Tecumseh hit a Confederate mine and sank.
This included appointing large numbers of African-Americans who had served in the United States Army during the war as policemen in Mobile.
This included appointing large numbers of African-Americans who had served in the United States Army during the war as policemen in Mobile.
[16] While General Pope was in charge, Pennsylvania congressman William D. Kelley, known as a so-called "radical Republican" because he supported equal rights for African-Americans came to Mobile to give a speech.
He denounced slavery as "satanic" and advocated equal rights for African-Americans, in response a lynch mob formed and a riot ensued.
[16] Brevet brigadier general Willard Warner was appointed as collector of customs in Mobile, serving in this position from July 1871 until February 1872.
Colonel George E. Spencer of New York had been the leader of the 1st Alabama Cavalry Regiment during the war, this was a regiment of roughly 2,000 white Southern Unionists during the war who fought alongside of General William Tecumseh Sherman during his campaign in Georgia, Spencer represented Alabama in the Senate as a Republican from 1868 until 1879, he made numerous visits to Mobile during this time.
Election day in Mobile saw armed gangs roaming the streets and mobs of people surrounding the polling places to scare any non-Democrats away.
[18] Overall, the early 20th century was a time of significant growth and change for Mobile, Alabama, as the city expanded economically, culturally, and socially.
The construction of new railroads and the expansion of the port allowed for greater connectivity and facilitated the growth of the city's economy as a hub for the region.
"Thomas James Place" was the proper name for Birdville which was built just outside Brookley Air Force Base to provide relief for the housing shortage.
Mobile had been more tolerant and racially accommodating than many other Southern cities, with the police force and one local college becoming integrated in the 1950s and the voluntary desegregation of buses and lunchcounters by 1963, but schools and many other institutions had remained segregated.
A subsequent wrongful death lawsuit was filed by the Southern Poverty Law Center on behalf of Michael Donald's mother against the United Klans of America.
[26] A fatal police shooting of an African-American man in 1992 sparked violence and unrest in Mobile, leading to the formation of a Human Relations Commission by the city in 1994.
[27] Numerous new facilities and projects were built around the city; the government encouraged the restoration of hundreds of historic downtown buildings and homes.
In January, 2008, the city hired EDSA, an urban design firm, to create a new comprehensive master plan for the downtown area and surrounding neighborhoods.
