Review of Clearing the Thickets: A History of Antebellum Alabama, by Herbert James Lewis

For a state with as rich an antebellum past as Alabama, there are surprisingly few books that chronicle its founding era. There are books about individual regions or cities, books on individual topics, and many that provide some overview of major themes in the era. So, when I saw Clearing the Thickets had been published, I was intrigued and anxious to obtain a copy. I found it to be in some ways to be exactly the detailed history of the period it purports to be, while in others felt it missed the mark on its subject.

The good things about this book, and there are many, are that it provides a general outline of the major issues surrounding the early development of the state of Alabama and in large measure the region of which it is a part. After chronicling in overview fashion Native American settlement and European colonization of the region, author Herbert James Lewis traces off the history of the state in nine chapters covering the period 1798 (formation of the Mississippi Territory) to 1861 (outbreak of the Civil War.) There are few noteworthy people, places or events in the state’s history during those years not mentioned here. It is a virtual textbook for the time period in Alabama history.

The bad things about this book, which are few but notable, are that it is driven almost entirely by the legislative record and at times pretty dry. Much of Lewis’ book examines the history of the state through the lens of records of legislative acts and debates during the administrations of successive governors. There are portions of this book that are quite literally an enumeration of bills. Attempting to understand the dynamic nature of frontier Alabama through such a standpoint leaves a lot off the table, and Lewis is at his best in the book when he strays from this approach to provide context for selected subjects that give bits of life to his narrative. Unfortunately, only the last chapter of the book is expressly devoted to providing interpretation of the rich cultural life in the early state, and even that focuses more on failed attempts at infrastructural development that real societal issues.

The book is not the engrossing narrative many would hope for, but it is a superb reference source on early Alabama. Considering the relative shortage of such volumes in recent decades, I think that despite its shortcomings it merits consideration of anyone who is interested in the pre-Civil War development of the state and the old Southwest at which it was at the heart.

JMB