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Six Minutes or Nine: What Investigators Said About the Road Camp 12 Fire
Two days after the Berrydale fire, a coroner's jury blamed three prisoners who died in it and found no neglect by the guards. The newspaper reports, official records and later accounts preserved since then do not all agree with one another.
"Averse to Flatter Treason": Mobile's Offer to Trade Taxes for Peace
In November 1810, with an armed American expedition preparing to march on Spanish Mobile, the governor offered through a local merchant to scrap the duties that had angered settlers upriver. A federal judge's private reply shows why he would not use the offer as a bargaining chip.
Leaving Mobile, May 1845: Three Steamboats and the Promises They Made
A single newspaper column of passenger notices shows how Mobile travelled in 1845: by published schedule, by the river's water level, and through agents on Commerce Street.
Road Camp 12: The Berrydale Fire That Killed 38 Prisoners
On a Sunday night in 1967, fire swept through a wooden prison barracks in the Florida Panhandle. Fifty-one men were inside. Only thirteen survived.
The Constable, the Missing Return, and the Cost of Justice
An Alabama constable failed to return a court order. In 1833, the dispute that followed forced the state’s highest court to weigh legal formalities against the price of getting justice.
Three Arpents in Mobile: The Land Dispute Ryder Did Not Live to Finish
A claim that began with a Spanish land grant in 1810 reached Alabama’s Supreme Court in 1833. Between those dates lay a disputed lot, a business winding down, and a lawsuit inherited by Ryder’s heirs.
From Mobile by Firelight: The River’s Wood Yards
An 1859 travel account follows a steamer out of Mobile, past fireflies, fuel stations, and the labor that kept it moving.
The Alabama Town Name Worth Eight Arguments
Thomas Maxwell answered a civic booster’s list with one of his own: eight reasons to spell Tuskaloosa with a K.