Alabama History

The Bonner name originated in England by way of the Norman Conquest. The family immigrated to the North Carolina area and then on to Carroll County, GA where they amassed a small fortune prior to the Civil War through a gold mine. They eventually made their way to Pickens County, AL where they have thrived for over 150 years.

A personal family history, that brings the American story to life, through ordinary, everyday experiences. What makes it extraordinary is the amount of writing that was saved for future generations - including stories about the Civil War, poetry and scrapbook notes, and letters.

In Volume 2: The Kingdom of Cotton, the economic and social forces that doomed the South are fully explored. As the textile factories of New England and Europe spring up, they create an insatiable demand for cotton. When Eli Whitney's invention appears, it unleashes the equivalent of a gold rush in the South. In spite of the heroic efforts of Northern and Southern statesmen over a period of 40 years, the regions have moved too far apart. And when war comes, the South is totally unprepared.

In Bloody Tuesday, John Giggie powerfully recovers one of the last great untold stories of the civil rights movement and its role in the reckoning with America's ongoing struggle for racial justice.

Hannah Sparrow leaves her corporate job in the Midwest to pursue the quiet life of a small Alabama town. There, she becomes fast friends with her neighbors, Earl and Lisa, who introduce her to life in the Land of Dixie. The three volunteer at the archeological remains of LaGrange Military Academy, formerly known as the West Point of the South. Hannah’s invited to view the school’s archives, where she stumbles upon a century-old cadet journal detailing conflict and intrigue at the academy. When the journal ends with the disappearance of the cadet and a mysterious riddle, Hannah and her ...

Beside the Troubled Waters is a memoir by an African-American physician in Alabama whose story in many ways typifies the lives and careers of Black doctors in the south during the segregationist era while also illustrating the diversity of the Black experience in the medical profession.

In this concluding volume, the South finally comes to grip with the modern world. It does so as a result of three events: World War I, The Great Depression, and World War II. At the end of each of these, change accelerates. By the end of World War II, the region is experiencing the kind of prosperity it has never known.

Caliph Washington's life was never supposed to matter. As a Black teenager from the vice-ridden city of Bessemer, Alabama, Washington was wrongfully convicted of killing an Alabama policeman in 1957. Sentenced to death, he came within minutes of the electric chair - nearly a dozen times. A Kafka-esque legal odyssey in which Washington's original conviction was overturned three times before he was finally released in 1972, his story is the kind that pervades the history of American justice.

The Tensaw River introduces one of the American South's richest and most fertile natural features. Author Mike Bunn is director of Historic Blakeley State Park, which is nestled in a prominent bend of the majestic Tensaw River.

As a child, Joseph Beck heard the stories - when other lawyers came up with excuses, his father courageously defended a Black man charged with raping a White woman. Now a lawyer himself, Beck reconstructs his father's role in State of Alabama vs. Charles White, Alias, a trial that was much publicized when Harper Lee was 12 years old.

In this personal narrative, Jourden H. Banks who had been a slave for 29 years criticizes racism and slavery in specific detail, recommending that ex-slaves stand united in leveraging economic and political resources.

In the summer of 1962, Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) began to express interest in targeting one of the South's most brutally segregated cities. Nicknamed “Bombingham”, the city had witnessed the bombing of over a dozen Black homes and churches in the previous five years. A victory in Birmingham was a goal that would embolden the Civil Rights Movement like never before. Together with Ralph Abernathy and other SCLC leaders, King recruited and organized volunteers for sit-ins, demonstrations, boycotts, and protests throughout the city.

The book, Alabama Short Stories, Volume 1, is the companion to the Alabama Short Stories podcast. This Audiobook is a compilation of the first three seasons of the podcast. There are thirty stories about artists, inventors, athletes, and exceptional people from Alabama. There are icons we know and love and alien encounters. You can hear the stories individually on the podcast feed or all together in this audiobook.

Alabama Short Stories, Volume 2 is the companion book to the Alabama Short Stories podcast. Volume 2 follows seasons 4-6 of the podcast of the same name. There are thirty stories about athletes and their fans, movie stars, and some whose lives became movies. There are beauty queens, devils, a Spider and Beatles. I tell the story of builders, memorable moments, and extraordinary folks who helped make Alabama the state it is. This audiobook is the same as the podcast.

Martin Luther King Jr. stands as one of the most compelling and transformative figures in modern history. As a minister, activist, and the leader of the American civil rights movement, King’s unwavering commitment to justice and equality reshaped the social and political landscape of the United States. His visionary leadership and philosophy of nonviolent resistance became the cornerstone of a movement that challenged entrenched systems of oppression, inspiring millions to confront injustice with courage and conviction. This biography takes readers on a journey through the life of Martin ...

This serves as the first volume of a series covering the amazing 50 states. It looks at the facts about each state, its history, and interesting little tidbits of information about each. In this volume, Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Arizona, and California are covered.