Prior to European colonization, the east bank of the
Alabama River was inhabited by the
Alibamu tribe of
Native Americans. The Alibamu and the
Coushatta, who lived on the west side of the river, were descended from the
Mississippian culture. This civilization had numerous chiefdoms throughout the Midwest and South along the Mississippi and its tributaries, and had built massive
earthwork mounds as part of their society about 950–1250 AD. Its largest location was at
Cahokia, in present-day
Illinois east of
St. Louis. The historic tribes spoke mutually intelligible
Muskogean languages, which were closely related. Present-day Montgomery is built on the site of two Alibamu towns:
Ikanatchati (Ekanchattee or Ecunchatty or Econachatee), meaning "red earth;" and
Towassa, built on a
bluff called
Chunnaanaauga Chatty. The first Europeans to travel through central Alabama were
Hernando de Soto and his expedition, who in 1540 recorded going through Ikanatchati and camping for one week in Towassa. The next recorded European encounter occurred more than a century later, when an English expedition from
Carolina went down the Alabama River in 1697. The first permanent European settler in the Montgomery area was
James McQueen, a
Scots trader who settled there in 1716. He married a high-status woman in the Coushatta or Alabama tribe. Their
mixed-race children were considered Muskogean, as both tribes had a
matrilineal system of property and descent. The children were always considered born into their mother's
clan, and gained their status from her people. In 1785, Abraham Mordecai, a war veteran from a
Sephardic Jewish family of
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, established a
trading post. The Upper Creek were able to discourage most white immigration until after the conclusion of the
Creek War. Following their defeat by General
Andrew Jackson in August 1814, the Creek tribes were forced to cede 23 million acres to the United States, including remaining land in today's Georgia and most of today's central and southern Alabama. In 1816, the
Mississippi Territory (1798–1817) organized
Montgomery County. Its former Creek lands were sold off the next year at the
federal land office in
Milledgeville, Georgia. The first group of white settlers to come to the Montgomery area was headed by General
John Scott. This group founded Alabama Town about downstream on the
Alabama River from present-day downtown Montgomery. In June 1818, county courts were moved from
Fort Jackson to Alabama Town. Alabama was admitted to the Union in December 1819. Soon after,
Andrew Dexter Jr. founded New Philadelphia, the present-day eastern part of downtown. He envisioned a prominent future for his town; he set aside a hilltop known as "Goat Hill" as the future site of the state capitol building. New Philadelphia soon prospered, and Scott and his associates built a new town adjacent, calling it East Alabama Town. Originally rivals, the towns merged on December 3, 1819, and were incorporated as the town of Montgomery, named for
Richard Montgomery, an
American Revolutionary War general. Slave traders used the Alabama River to deliver enslaved laborers to planters, to work the
cotton. Buoyed by the revenues of the cotton trade at a time of high market demand, the newly united Montgomery grew quickly. In 1822, the city was designated as the county seat. A new courthouse was built at the present location of Court Square, at the foot of Market Street (now Dexter Avenue). Court Square had one of the largest slave markets in the South. The state capital was moved from
Tuscaloosa to Montgomery, on January 28, 1846. As state capital, Montgomery began to influence state politics, and it would also play a prominent role on the national stage. Beginning February 4, 1861, representatives from Alabama,
Georgia, Florida,
Louisiana,
Mississippi, and
South Carolina met in Montgomery, to attend the
Southern Convention, which would form the
Confederate States of America. Montgomery was named the first capital of the nation, and
Jefferson Davis was inaugurated as president on the steps of the
State Capitol. The capital was later moved to Richmond, Virginia in 1861 after that state joined the Confederacy since Richmond was larger and more developed than Montgomery for supporting the needs of a national capital. On April 12, 1865, following the
Battle of Selma, Major General
James H. Wilson captured Montgomery for the Union. In 1886 Montgomery became the first city in the United States to install citywide electric
streetcars along a system that was nicknamed the
Lightning Route. Residents followed the streetcar lines to settle in new housing in what were then "suburban" locations. Montgomery, As the
Reconstruction era ended, mayor W. L. Moses asked the state legislature to
gerrymander city boundaries. It complied and removed the districts where African Americans lived, restoring white supremacy to the city's demographics and electorate. This prevented African Americans from being elected in the municipality and denied them city services. On February 12, 1945,
a devastating and deadly tornado struck the western portion of the city. The tornado killed 26 people, injured 293 others, and caused a city-wide blackout which lasted for hours. The United States Weather Bureau would describe this tornado as "the most officially observed one in history". In the post-World War II era, returning African-American veterans were among those who became active in pushing to regain their civil rights in the South: to be allowed to vote and participate in politics, to freely use public places, to end segregation. According to the historian
David Beito of the
University of Alabama, African Americans in Montgomery "nurtured the
modern civil rights movement." In separate action, integrated teams of
Freedom Riders rode South on interstate buses. In violation of federal law and the constitution, bus companies had for decades acceded to state laws and required passengers to occupy segregated seating in Southern states. Opponents of the push for integration organized mob violence at stops along the Freedom Ride. In Montgomery, there was police collaboration when a white mob attacked Freedom Riders at the
Greyhound Bus Station in May 1961. Outraged national reaction resulted in the enforcement of desegregation of interstate public transportation. Martin Luther King Jr. returned to Montgomery in 1965. Local civil rights leaders in
Selma had been protesting
Jim Crow laws and practices that raised barriers to blacks registering to vote. Following the shooting of a man after a civil rights rally, the leaders decided to
march to Montgomery to petition Governor
George Wallace to allow free voter registration. The violence they encountered from county and state highway police outraged the country. The federal government ordered National Guard and troops to protect the marchers. Thousands more joined the marchers on the way to Montgomery, and an estimated 25,000 marchers entered the capital to press for voting rights. These actions contributed to Congressional passage of the
Voting Rights Act of 1965, to authorize federal supervision and enforcement of the rights of African Americans and other minorities to vote. On February 7, 1967, a devastating fire broke out at Dale's Penthouse, a restaurant and lounge on the top floor of the Walter Bragg Smith apartment building (now called Capital Towers) at 7 Clayton Street downtown. Twenty-six people died. In recent years, Montgomery has grown and diversified its economy. Active in downtown revitalization, the city adopted a master plan in 2007; it includes the revitalization of Court Square and the riverfront, renewing the city's connection to the river. Many other projects under construction include the revitalization of Historic Dexter Avenue, pedestrian and infrastructure improvements along the
Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail, and the construction of a new environmental park on West Fairview Avenue. ==Geography==