John Carter
Alabama Railroads
Thu Oct 26 15:22:07 2000


Bob...the problem in Alabama (and in the southern states) was that they waited too long on a state wide basis to improve their railroads- it wasn't a high priority. Even though recommendations from the Southern Economic Conventions recommended improved transportation, the focus remained on the plantation economy. As the war progressed, Alabama realized the importance of connecting the rail lines (as did the Confederacy) but the refusal to cooperate with other states and the inability of the national government to seize the railroads in time kept a lot of improvements from happening.

Most of northern Alaabama's railroads were put into place within a decade of the Civil War on the strength of local politicians who championed the lines with the state government and finally got them through.

The focus in the South on the plantation and the focus of the states on states' rights were the doom of the railroads in the 1860's. Bewteen 1870 and 1890, however, most of the railroads were hooked up and/or combined by enterprising individuals from both the north and south who wanted to make a buck. With the plantation economy replaced by the town mill economy and states selling their interest in railroads to holding companies, the way was clear to connect southern railroads with the West and the North.

You're right- the Alabama railroads would be an interesting topic to explore. A lot has been done on Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia; but I've seen little on Alabama.

John