Although it incorporated in 1819,[4] along with its rival of Courtland, to compete for the honor of county seat, it did not first appear on the U.S. Census rolls until 1900.

[5] By the time Alabama became a state in 1819, an inn had been erected at the site of what is now Moulton to serve migrants along the various early paths that passed through the area.

Governor Thomas Bibb awarded the seat to Moulton as the most centrally located of the two within the county.

[6] The city is named for Lieutenant Michael Moulton, a soldier killed while fighting under General Andrew Jackson at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend in 1814.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 5.9 square miles (15 km2), all land.

As of the 2020 United States census, there were 3,398 people, 1,457 households, and 815 families residing in the city.

[14] In the 1976 Arnold Schwarzenegger film, Stay Hungry, the character Newton, played by Roger Mosley, references Moulton as a place where he wishes to move and own a large chicken farm.