Chris McIlwain - The Souths Forgotten Fire-Eater

Praise for The Souths Forgotten Fire-Eater

Chris McIlwain once again sets his critical eye on another Alabamian who led the state to make a series of disastrous decisions during the mid-nineteenth century. David Hubbard started his political career as a firm supporter of Andrew Jackson, but with each new national conflict he emerged as a more radical and uncompromising defender of a separate Southern nation. Much of his success lay in gaining the votes of the non-slaveholders by over appeals to their fears of slave rebellions and to their resentment of the wealthy. At the time, Hubbard was among those north Alabamians pushing for critical economic changes, including industrialization, which McIlwain details in a particularly significant contribution. In short, The Souths Forgotten Fire-Eater is a fresh look at one road to secessiontwists, turns, dust, rocks, and all. G. WARD HUBBS, author of Searching for Freedom after the Civil War: Klansman, Carpetbagger, Scalawag, and Freedman

Chris McIlwain has become one of the leading historians of nineteenth-century Alabama, and this fine volume will only add luster to that reputation. Deeply researched, provocatively argued, and forcefully written, McIlwains newest work rescues a significant Alabama fire-eater from obscurity. This book unravels a complex but important story of land speculation, banking, railroads, economic development, partisan intrigue, and sectional politics. McIlwain uses David Hubbards life to probe the actions of Alabama politicians hurtling toward secession and war. A must-read for anyone interested in Civil War-era Alabama. GEORGE C. RABLE, Professor Emeritus, The University of Alabama

No one would have known about north Alabamas David Hubbard without this well-researched and well-rounded exploration of the man and his times. Its a fascinating account offered by Chris McIlwain to the general reader and serious historian alike, one which describes a man of action who greatly influenced the course of events leading up to the secession of the Southern states and how events played out during and immediately after the Civil War. NANCY M. ROHR, author of Incidents of the War: The Civil War Journey of Mary Jane Chadick

McIlwains study of Congressman David Hubbard illustrates the sheer weirdness of the path to secession through one fire-eaters long and varied career. Hubbard went from being one of Andrew Jacksons Indian fighters to a proslavery militant, and his racial animus is the one consistent thing about him. McIlwain provides a troubling look at north Alabama society through the vehicle of this devoted secessionist, a political rebel who lived by the adage, it is good to be shifty in a new state. MICHAEL W. FITZGERALD, author of Reconstruction in Alabama: From Civil War to Redemption in the Cotton South

McIlwains biography of David Hubbard is much more than an engaging account of an overlooked politician from antebellum Alabama; it is a bold reappraisal of the human factors driving the states secession movement in the late 1850s. Through strong prose backed by extensive research, the author highlights the crucial role that Hubbard played in transforming the region of northern Alabama from one that generally viewed secession with great reluctance into one that became increasingly more receptive to this radical course of action. In doing so, McIlwain rightly accords Hubbard the same level of prominence and agency in bringing about Alabamas secession that historians have long attributed to the more famous William L. Yancey. This book is an important and original contribution to the history of Alabama during the Civil War era. BEN H. SEVERANCE, author of A War State All Over: Alabama Politics and the Confederate Cause and Portraits of Conflict: A Photographic History of Alabama in the Civil War

THE SOUTHS
FORGOTTEN FIRE-EATER

ALSO BY CHRIS MCILWAIN

Civil War Alabama

1865 Alabama: From Civil War to Uncivil Peace

The Million-Dollar Man Who Helped Kill a President

NewSouth Books

105 S. Court Street

Montgomery, AL 36104

Copyright 2020 by Chris McIlwain

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions.

Published in the United States by NewSouth Books, a division of NewSouth, Inc.,

Montgomery, Alabama.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: McIlwain, Christopher Lyle, author.

Title: The Souths forgotten fire-eater : David Hubbard and North Alabamas long road to disunion / Chris McIlwain.

Other titles: David Hubbard and North Alabamas long road to disunion.

Description: Montgomery : NewSouth Books, [2020] | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2020018836 (print) | LCCN 2020018837 (ebook) | ISBN 9781588384119 (hardback) | ISBN 9781588384126 (epub)

Subjects: LCSH: Hubbard, David, 1792-1874. | AlabamaPolitics and governmentTo 1865. | LegislatorsAlabamaBiography. | SecessionAlabama. | United StatesPolitics and government1849-1861. | LegislatorsUnited StateBiography. | United States. Congress. HouseBiography. | Kinlock (Miss.)Biography.

Classification: LCC F326.H77 M35 2020 (print) | LCC F326.H77 (ebook) | DDC 328.73/092 [B]--dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020018836

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020018837

Design by Randall Williams

Printed in the United States of America by Sheridan Books

Front Cover: Portrait of David Hubbard.

Alabama Department of Archives and History.

The Black Belt, defined by its dark, rich soil, stretches across central Alabama. It was the heart of the cotton belt. It was and is a place of great beauty, of extreme wealth and grinding poverty, of pain and joy. Here we take our stand, listening to the past, looking to the future.

To my wife, Anna;
my children, Christopher and Elizabeth;
and my grandchildren, Carter, Claire, Jack, and Hunter.

Contents

Table of Contents

T his is a biography of antebellum north Alabama with an emphasis on the events that led to its unique economic and political development up to 1861. It is also a biography of a man, David Hubbard, of whom you have probably never heard. He was a lawyer, land speculator, businessman, and politician whose influence is critically important to understanding why north Alabama moved slowly but surely toward secession and civil war.

This is definitely not an homage to Hubbard, but he is a ready vehicle for studying the troubled birth of Alabama, its intermittent economic development, and its lengthy radicalization process. He was born in 1792, the son of an American soldier in the Revolutionary War. Like so many residents of the Eastern Seaboard states, his family emigrated west, first to Tennessee. There he joined Andrew Jacksons army of militiamen and participated in Jacksons efforts to defeat the British and their Native American allies in the War of 1812, thereby bringing a degree of security to the frontier.

Because the financial history of north Alabama and David Hubbard are of critical importance in understanding what happened, the reader should expect a steady dose of that poor relation in the history world: economics. Increased world demand for cotton, and the availability of Native American land for its production, initially caused the white and slave populations of north Alabama to surge well beyond that of south Alabama. Hubbard was active in the postwar land boom in Alabama, as well as one of the thousands of victims of the long depression in cotton prices that followed immediately thereafter. This depression caused many of the debt-ridden landowning class in the South, as well as the manufacturing interests in the upper South and the Northeast, to elevate sectional interests and goals over national needs. Hubbard entered politics as a staunch Jacksonian Democrat and was elected to the Alabama Senate, where he demonstrated extraordinary political skills and influence and was involved in many of the important issues that confronted the young frontier state.