author
Albert James Pickett
1810–1858
Best remembered as Alabama’s first historian, he turned a deep interest in the state’s early past into a landmark two-volume history published in 1851. His work helped preserve stories of Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi from their earliest periods.
1 Audiobook
Eight days in New-Orleans in February, 1847
by Albert James Pickett
About the author
Born in Anson County, North Carolina, in 1810, he moved to Alabama as a child and later became a planter, lawyer, and writer. Long before professional history was common in the region, he built a reputation through research, correspondence, and newspaper writing.
He is most closely associated with History of Alabama, and Incidentally of Georgia and Mississippi, from the Earliest Period, a two-volume work published in 1851. Because of that book, he is often described as Alabama’s first historian.
His life was rooted in nineteenth-century Alabama, and he died in Montgomery in 1858. Though written from the perspective of his own time, his historical work remained influential for later readers interested in the early history of the American South.