There is no way of realizing more keenly the difference between past and present than to look upon the untroubled waters of a navigable river and recall that it once shaped the history of a section. Though the turbid stream of the Alabama now but rarely floats a vessel, it is fitting that it gave its name to the State that it traverses. It was their separate waterway which gave the settlers along the Tombigbee interests which were distinct from those of the settlers upon the lower Mississippi. It was down the stream that the early planters intended to float their cotton to market, and so they chose their homes near the rivers.

Mobile was a struggling community of three hundred inhabitants, mostly Creoles, when it was taken over by the Americans in 1813. A few years later, when population began to spread along its tributary rivers, it began to grow and in 1819 numbered eight hundred inhabitants. In 1823 this number had increased to nearly three thousand. Most of the higher class of Creoles had left when Spanish rule ended, and the new population was made up of Americans of every type. Merchants came largely from the North, adventurers gathered from every quarter, and the mixture, according to some visitors at least, was not attractive.

In place of the one wharf of Creole days, there were a dozen by 1823. Markets were built and brick structures beganto replace wooden buildings. Because of obstruction in the harbor, ships of the larger class entered with difficulty. This fact made it necessary for the town to confine its shipping largely to the coastwise traffic. Fruits from Cuba were to be found in the markets and a regular trade with New York was established at an early date, but a large part of the cotton which was destined for Europe had to be sent to New Orleans for shipment.

The cotton region along the rivers gave birth to several towns between 1815 and 1818. St. Stephens already stood at the head of schooner navigation on the Tombigbee. It had been a flourishing little community when Mobile was still in the hands of Spain. But now the trade passed it by and went down to the larger town on the Bay. It still held a local trade, however, and some of its glory lingered. With its bank, its academy, its press, its land office, and its steamboat company, it maintained its place for awhile; but its wellbuilt houses were destined to sink into ruins which have now all but disappeared from view. Far above St. Stephens, Tuscaloosa was located at the head of boat navigation on the Black Warrior, and from here such overland trade as there was between the two sections of the State passed through Jones Valley to the Valley of the Tennessee.

On the Alabama River, Claiborne grew up at the head of schooner navigation and came to be the center of a cottonplanting community. The capital of the State was established at Cahawba, where the river of that name flows into the Alabama and Selma was founded a few miles above. On a bluff not far from the head of navigation, two towns were established by land speculators' in 1817 and 1818. One of these was founded by Andrew Dexter, from Massachusetts, and was christened New Philadelphia; the other was founded by the Bibb Company and named East Alabama. In 1819 the two settlements were combined and incorporated as the town of Montgomery.

From these places, the cotton passed down the rivers to Mobile. Flat bottomed boats crudely constructed affairs with pitched seams could carry from fifty to a hundred bales and were broken up at the end of the journey. Keel boats, though not used so frequently as flat-bottomed boats on the Alabama and Tombigbee, were employed where the requirements were more severe. They were frequently about fifty feet in length and were more durable and sea-worthy than the flat-bottomed type. But the greater expense of construction discouraged their use except where a return trip was to be made. Nor were return trips very frequent. A boat which would float down from Montgomery to Mobile in about two weeks required a month or six weeks to be poled or warped back up the river and the freight rate prevailing at that time was five dollars a barrel. Merchants generally preferred to bring their wares over the Federal Road from Georgia, or down from the upper country. Whisky, pork, and flour were the most generally desired commodities in the cotton section. These articles could be obtained in east Tennessee and in west Virginia, and they could be brought thence by the following method : A keel boat was loaded near the place of production and floated down the Holston to the Tennessee River. By ascending a small tributary of the Tennessee, the Hiwassee, the boat could be navigated to within twelve miles of the headwaters of the Coosa. There was a portage across this stretch of land. Boat houses were constructed at either end of it, and arrangements were made for hauling the boats in wagons from one stream to the other.

This route was traversed at a very early period in Alabama history. Tennessee produce reached Montgomery by this course, and about twelve thousand gallons of whisky were said to have been carried across the portage in 1821. Transportation conditions in the Tennessee Valley were rendered peculiar by the presence of the obstruction in the channel of the River at Muscle Shoals. During the dry summer months the Shoals could not be passed, but the River rose in the fall, and by February, boats could go over the rapids. The water began to go down again in the spring, so that but two or three months elapsed during which shipments could be made from above. Warehouses were built at landing places on the River and here cotton was accumulated by merchants and shippers. As soon as the water rose, the bales were loaded on keel boats which were dispatched in fleets under the charge of experienced pilots who saw them safely past the Shoals. The pilots would then return, and the boats would proceed to New Orleans under the direction of forwarding agents. The freight rate for cotton shipped in this manner was from four to five dollars a bale.

But difficult as it was to get cotton to market, it was still more dificult to bring back the supplies which were needed. There were several possible routes and all of them seem to have been used at times. Until 1816 the usual method was to ship goods from New York and Philadelphia to Charleston or Savannah, transport them to Augusta, and thence carry them by the "Georgia Road" through the Cherokee country to Ross's landing, opposite the spot where Chattanooga now stands on the Tennessee. From here they were floated down to Ditto's landing near Huntsville, or to other points along the River. In 1816 a merchant named Crump was the first to bring goods from Mobile to Huntsville by poling them up the River in a boat to Tuscaloosa, and hauling them in wagons from that place.  he road was found to be fairly good, and the overland trip required but eight days. i:f Supplies might also be brought through the Valley of Virginia by way of Knoxville; but the favorite route during the 'twenties seems to have been that down the Ohio to the Cumberland, up the Cumberland to Nashville, and across country from that place. Flour, pork, and whisky could be brought from Kentucky and the Northwest in this way, as could manufactures which went overland from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh and then down the Ohio. With the advent of the steamboat, conditions were radically changed. Goods could now be carried up stream as easily as they could be brought down, and the overland trade rapidly fell off. Central and southern Alabama became dependent upon Mobile for supplies and North Alabama began to obtain most of hers from New Orleans. The planter thus came in time to buy his goods in the same market in which he sold his cotton.

The first appearance of the steamboat on the rivers of Alabama cannot be fixed with absolute precision, but it seems clear that steam navigation on the Tombigbee was established in 1819. Morse's Universal Geography of that year states that steamers were then plying between Mobile and St. Stephens  and Hamilton asserts in his Colonial Mobile that the first trip up to Demopolis was made in 1819 by either the "Tensa" or the "Mobile. There is a record of the launching of the "Tensa" on the Bay during this year,  and the citizens of Mobile were a little later congratulated in the local press on another attempt to navigate the River. During the same season the steamboat "Mobile," which had been brought from Boston, was advertised to ascend to Tuscaloosa. It was not long before the "Harriett" and the "Cotton Plant" were brought to Mobile for service in the river trade, and in 1820 the "Tombeckbee" was launched at St. Stephens. This last boat was of seventy tons burden, had an eighty-five
foot deck and drew but fifteen inches of water when unloaded. The others were of about the same size, in other words but little larger than the average keel boat then in use. But these four little craft were pioneers; they established steam communication on the waters of the Alabama. In 1821 the "Harriett" ascended the Alabama to Montgomery; in 1824 the "Cotton Plant" made her way up the Tombigbee to the head of Navigation at Cotton Gin Port, Mississippi and in 1828 the first trip was made up the Chattahoochee to the falls at Columbus, Georgia. It was during the fall and winter months only that the stage of the water was high enough to permit of navigation of these rivers. Dread of yellow fever all but cleared Mobile of population during the summer; but in November the merchants began to return and collect their wares. The cotton trade commenced in this month and continued briskly until the following May or June, then it fell off suddenly and remained at a stand until the waters rose in the fall.

The number of boats on the rivers increased from year to year. In 1823 there were eleven and by 1826 the number had risen to eighteen. All of these were vessels of light draft, the lightest being used in the Tuscaloosa trade. Cotton was piled high on the decks and passengers confined closely to the cabins, which were not commodious. Before reaching a town, a gun was fired from the deck in order to warn the inhabitants of the approach of the vessel. The banks of the rivers were generally steep and high, and cotton was loaded by sliding it down an inclined plane. The boats frequently lay to in order to take on wood, and they always stopped over night because of the many dangers which were to be encountered in the tortuous streams. Striking on a snag and sinking was no infrequent occurrence. Twice within the same season the "Cotton Plant" succumbed to that fate, buteach time she was raised and sent on her way.

In the Tennessee Valley the transportation problem was peculiar. Huntsville, the largest town in the region, was built around a great spring distant some ten miles from the River, and at a considerable distance above the Shoals. Florence and Tuscumbia grew up where the Natchez Trace crossed the Shoals. They had some forwarding business in connection with the shipping down the Tennessee, but there was little return trade in the early years. The first steamboat to reach Florence, as far as records show, came in 1821. From that time forward development was rapid. It was only the next year that a small vessel, the "Rocket," was commissioned to run regularly between Florence and the mouth of the River, depositing its cargo at Trinity to be forwarded up the Ohio or down the Mississippi in larger vessels. Regular lines were later established to connect Tuscumbia with New Orleans and the towns along the Ohio. Commercial conditions in the Tennessee Valley were changed by these improvements in communication. The shippers above the Shoals continued to send their cotton down in keel boats, but after the passage over the rapids, they were often towed to New Orleans by the steamers, or their cargoes were transferred to the larger vessels. Freight rates to New Orleans fell from more than a dollar a hundred-weight to eighty cents in 1822 and to fifty cents in 1828. Keel boats still came to Florence from the upper waters of the Ohio, and merchants in the vicinity of Huntsville still brought goods down from Nashville; but the steamboats which came up to Florence brought large quantities of produce from New Orleans, and this came to be the main source of supply for the entire Valley region.

One further advance in transportation facilities was made when, in 1828, the little steamer "Atlas" ascended the Shoals and began to ply the Tennessee and Holston Rivers between the rapids and the town of Knoxville, Tennessee. The introduction of steam navigation made more evident than ever the desirability of overcoming the obstruction at Muscle Shoals by means of a canal. The question was taken up by the legislature in 1823 and continued to be discussed during following years. Two successive companies were incorporated by the State for the construction of the desired canal, but the proposition did not prove sufficiently attractive to private investors and nothing was accomplished along these lines of endeavor. Hope was aroused in 1824 by an act of Congress which appropriated money for the survey of an extensive system of internal improvements. Calhoun, then Secretary of War, was called upon to submit a report on the subject, and the Muscle Shoals canal was among the works which he classed as of national importance. A Government survey was made and a report submitted, but Congress was not acknowledged to have the right to appropriate funds for the construction ofsuch works,
and it seemed that the matter would drop here. Yet there was no objection to the donation of land to states for the purpose of internal improvements, and in 1828 Congress granted 400,000 acres of relinquished lands in the Huntsville district, proceeds from the sale of which were to be applied to the construction of a steamboat canal around the shoals.

While the people of the northern section of the State were interesting themselves in this project, those of south Alabama were working for a canal to connect the waters of the Tennessee with the Alabama River. Such a canal would enable the inhabitants of east Tennessee and west Virginia to ship their produce to Mobile, which was a much closer market than New Orleans. But the main consideration was that the people of south Alabama would be able to purchase their flour, whisky, and pork directly from east Tennessee instead of having to bring it around by New Orleans and Mobile. This plan did not look unreasonable, for the route of the canal was to be the portage between the Hiwassee and the Coosa, and this covered a distance of only twelve miles, with but a moderate elevation to be overcome. The legislature, in order to enlist the support of both sections of the State, made a practice of dealing with both canal projects at the same time. A company was incorporated and empowered to cooperate with any company which Tennessee should establish for the construction of the Coosa-Hiwassee canal, the reason for this being that the site of the proposed work lay within the lands of the Cherokee Indians above the Tennessee line. Calhoun, in his report of 1824, considered the Coosa-Hiwassee canal, but classed it as of less national importance than that around Muscle Shoals. Though a Government survey was made and a report presented, the scheme for connecting the waters of the Alabama and Tennessee did not recover from this set-back, and the Muscle Shoals project forged ahead while the other died a lingering death.

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