Occupied for thousands of years by indigenous peoples, this area was ceded by the historic tribe to the U.S. government in the 1830s and the era of Indian Removal.

In 1832, the legislature relocated the county seat to Monroeville from Claiborne on the Alabama River.

The settlement was briefly renamed "Centerville" due to its location in the center of the county, and then was formally changed to Monroeville.

[3] Almost all of the urban area lies on Bama fine sandy loam.

It no longer the administrative center, but now has a branch campus of Coastal Alabama Community College, a state-supported, fully accredited, comprehensive two-year college serving southwest Alabama.

Truman Capote, best known for his novella Breakfast at Tiffany's and his non-fiction novel In Cold Blood, spent part of his childhood in Monroeville.

Capote's early novels, including Other Voices, Other Rooms and The Grass Harp, draw heavily on his childhood in Monroeville.

[14] Novelist Mark Childress and Cynthia Tucker, syndicated columnist and winner of the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary, were also born in Monroeville.

As of 2006, an estimated 30,000 tourists visited Monroeville annually due to its association with the novel and adaptations of To Kill a Mockingbird.

Each May, the Monroe County Heritage Museum stages an amateur play based on the book on the grounds of the courthouse.

The all-volunteer cast has been invited to perform in Washington, D.C., Kingston upon Hull and Jerusalem.

[16] In the television show Private Practice, created and produced by Shonda Rhimes, the fictional character Charlotte King was born in Monroeville.