Where is Alabama

Alabama is a state in the "deep south" of the United States. Its nickname is "the Cotton State," because Alabama farmers used to raise so much cotton. Now they raise many other crops as well. The name Alabama came from a tribe of Indians who lived there before the white men came, and in their language alabama meant farmers. In population, Alabama ranks 17th in the United States, with more than three million people living there. In area it ranks 28th, having 51,078 square miles. It became a state in 1819, and was the 22nd state admitted to the United States.

The capital is Montgomery.  Most of the people of Alabama used to be farmers. In the southern part of the state they still are, but in the center of the state, where the big cities are, there are many more who work in factories or who dig coal and iron ore out of the rich mines in this part of the state. In northern Alabama, which used to be a cottonand corn-raising section, more and more factories are being built. If you visit Alabama, and do not come from another southern state, one of the first things you will notice is that you see almost as many colored people as white people. There are about a million Negroes in Alabama, and about two million white people. Most of the Negroes work on farms or are laborers in factories. For many years they were very poor.

They lived in one-room cabins in the country, and in small shabby houses called shanties in the cities. They did not usually have bathrooms or running water or electric lights. Since World War II the Negroes have made more money and they can afford to live much better than they did. But they are still poorer than the white people. Most of the two million white people in Alabama were born there, and their parents and grandparents were born there. They are proud that they are southerners and that Alabama was one of the states that formed the Confederate States of America in 1861 and fought against the Union in the Civil War.