Alabama

            | Back to Bibliography | Home |

Atkins, Leah R. "Populism in Alabama: Reuben F. Kolb and the Appeals to Minority Groups." Alabama Historical Quarterly. 32(3-4): 167‑80. Fall/Winter 1970.  Jews and Catholics were ignored.  Although the African-American vote was important, there was no indication they would have been included at all levels of party activities had Populists succeeded in 1894, even though Kolb had made an open appeal for their votes.  Kolb had 19th-century white southern racial attitudes. America: History and Life, 10:2463

 Bagwell, David Ashley. "'The Magical Process': The Sayer Election Law of 1893." Alabama Review. 25(2):83-104. 1972.  The intent of the law was to "establish an intricate procedure and partisan election officials in order to place the votes of Negroes in the conservative column."  The Australian ballot forced illiterate voters to depend on election judges.

 Barr, Alwyn. "B.J. Chambers (1817-1919): Bourbon Apologist." Alabama Review. 216‑25. July 1967.

 Bates, Joel Leontz, "Politics in Bullock County from 1890-1900." Masters thesis, University of Alabama, 1942.

 Cammack, Ruth S. "Reuben Francis Kolb: His Influence on Agriculture in Alabama."  Master's thesis, Alabama Polytechnic Institute, 1941.  Kolb was popular Alliance leader in Alabama.

 Clark, John Bunyan. Populism in Alabama. Auburn: Auburn Printing Company, 1927. 196 pp.  Derived from Ph.D. dissertation, New York U, 1926.  Reuben Kolb led Populist‑Republican fusion against machine domination.

 Cole, Houston. "Populism in Tuscaloosa County." Master's thesis, U of Alabama, 1927.

 Daniel, Michael Jackson. "Red Hills and Piney Woods: A Political History of Butler County, Alabama, in the Nineteenth Century." Ph.D. dissertation, University of Alabama, 1985.  DAI, 46, no. 07A, (1985): 2051.  Antebellum Butler County had a strong two-party system.  Both Populists and Democrats battled eagerly for the black vote, which threatened white supremacy in the 1890s.  Democrats eventually disfranchised blacks with the Alabama constitution of 1901.

 Devine, Jerry Wayne. "Free Silver and Alabama Politics, 1890-1896." Ph.D. dissertation, Auburn University, 1980.  DAI, 41, no. 01A, (1980): 0367.  Populism in Alabama represented little ideological departure from the conservative theory of government championed by most state Democratic leaders.  When a coalition of silverite and progressive Democrats repudiated the conservative leadership and the national party espoused most of the Populist platform under the banner of free silver, the insurgent movement began to wane. The ascendant silver Democrats allowed both former Populists and their conservative antagonists to rejoin the state party after 1896.

 Doster, James F. "Were Populists Against Railroad Corporations? The Case of Alabama." Journal of Southern History 1954 20(3): 395-399.  The leaders of the Alliance and Populist movements in Alabama were not hostile to railroads or other corporations.  Reuben F. Kolb, befriended railroad interests and rejected government ownership of railroads.  Even Populists in the legislature made no effort to curb railroads. America: History and Life, 0:4710

 Going, Allen J. "Alabama Bourbonism and Populism Revisited." Alabama Review 36(2): 83-109. 1983. 

 _____.  Bourbon Democracy in Alabama, 1874-1890. 256 pp. University, Alabama: U of Alabama P, 1951.

 Goode, Richard C. "The Godly Insurrection in Limestone County: Social Gospel, Populism, and Southern Culture in the Late Nineteenth Century." Religion and American Culture 1993 3(2): 155-169.  The social gospel was the main factor in the emergence of the Alliance and Populist Party.  The Alliance, however, was not linked to denominational religion, which supported the status quo. America: History and Life, 31:11792

 Hackney, Sheldon. Populism to Progressivism in Alabama. 390 pp. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1969.  Populists were neither revolutionaries nor reformers, but had a static and provincial view of society. Derived from Ph.D. dissertation, "From Populism to Progressivism in Alabama, 1890-1910." Yale U, 1966. 441 pp.

 Harris, D. Alan. "Campaigning in the Bloody Seventh: The Election of 1894 in the Seventh Congressional District." Alabama Review 1974 27(2): 127-138. Ballot stuffing and electoral fraud failed to blunt the Populist tide as Milford W. Howard beat agrarian Democrat William H. Denson. Denson's tactics and charges actually enhanced Howard's image and popularity. America: History and Life, 12A:1615

 Harris, David A. "The Political Career of Milford W. Howard, Populist Congressman from Alabama." Master's thesis, Auburn U, 1957.

 Hearn, Thomas Kermet. "The Populist Movement in Marshall County." Master's thesis, U of Alabama, 1935.  Alabama local history.

 Hill, Luther Lister. "Reuben Kolb and the Populist Revolt in Alabama." Senior thesis, Princeton U, 1957.

 Horton, Paul. "Testing the Limits of Class Politics in Postbellum Alabama: Agrarian Radicalism in Lawrence County." Journal of Southern History 1991 57(1): 63-84.  Lawrence County had a strong Unionist tradition from the Civil War.  The rise of the Agricultural Wheel raised the issue whether class politics (blacks-whites cooperation on economics) or race politics would dominate.  The disenfranchisement of Alabama blacks in 1901 ended any potential alliance between whites and blacks along economic lines. America: History and Life, 12A:1615

 Jackson, Harvey H., III. "The Mitcham War." Alabama Heritage 1992 (25): 32-43.  An armed invasion of Mitcham Beat in north-central Clarke County (rural SW Alabama) by "establishment" elements to assert political control engendered class hostilities that endured well into the 20th century. America: History and Life, 31:3331

 Jenkins, William H. "Independent Political Movements in Alabama Since 1880." Master's thesis, Emory U, 1931.

 Jones, Thomas Goode. "The 1890‑92 Campaigns for Governor of Alabama." Alabama Historical Quarterly. 20:656‑83. Winter 958. 

 Letwin, Daniel. "Interracial Unionism, Gender, and "Social Equality" in the Alabama Coalfields, 1878-1908." Journal of Southern History 1995 61(3): 519-554.  The Greenback Party, Knights of Labor, and United Mine Workers all advocated a qualified form of interracialism in the coal fields of Alabama.  The absence of white women made interracial unionism possible.  The sanctity of white womanhood was a crucial factor in promoting segregation.  America: History and Life, 33:9480

 Manning, Joseph Columbus. From Five to Twenty-Five. 89 pp. New York: T.A. Hebbons, 1929.  Early years of a noted Alabama Populist and editor of Alabama Reformer.

 Martin, Henry Pelham. "A History of Politics in Clay County During the Period of Populism from 1888‑1896." Master's thesis, U of Alabama, 1936.

 Moore, Albert Burton. History of Alabama. Nashville: U of Alabama, 1934.  Devotes some space to Populism; Negro and Populism.

 Nolan, Terence Hunt. "William Henry Skaggs and the Reform Challenge of 1894." Alabama Historical Quarterly. Summer 1971 33(2): 116-134.  Skaggs was Alabama Populist campaign chairman.  Skaggs spoke against convict labor in mines, in favor of lien laws favoring workers, honest weights and measures, and elimination of the Sayre Election Law. America: History and Life, S:7033

 Pruett, Katharine M. and Fair, John D. "Promoting a New South: Immigration, Racism, and 'Alabama on Wheels'" Agricultural History 1992 66(1): 19-41.  Alabama on Wheels was a traveling railroad exhibit in the 1880's designed to attract white immigrants to the state as an alternative labor supply to freed blacks.  Reuben F. Kolb hoped white immigrants would displace "decadent Negroes" whom Kolb believed were responsible for the poverty of the South.  Xenophobia thwarted the immigration that Kolb wanted. America: History and Life, 30:10121

 Pruitt, Paul, Jr. "A Changing of the Guard: Joseph C. Manning and Populist Strategy in the Fall of 1894." Alabama Historical Quarterly 1978 40(1-2): 20-36.  Details the attempt of Joseph C. Manning, 1892-96, to unite Populists against Kolb's Jeffersonian Democratic machine. America: History and Life, 18A:2744

Pruitt, Paul M., Jr. Taming Alabama : Lawyers and Reformers, 1804-1929. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2010.  Chapter Six is a biography of Joseph C. Manning containing new material.  Chapter Five is a biography of Manning's protagonist, Governor Thomas Goode Jones.

 Pruitt, Paul McWhorter, Jr. "Joseph C. Manning, Alabama Populist: A Rebel Against the Solid South." Ph.D. dissertation, College of -William and Mary, 1980.  DAI, 41, no. 08A, (1980): 3686.  Manning was hampered by the more conservative leadership of Reuben Kolb and by voting frauds.  He called for "A Free Ballot and a Fair Count."  In 1894, Manning invited the Alabama GOP to join Populists in requesting a congressional investigation of state politics.  He joined the GOP in 1896, when the disruption of Populism became certain.  Later in life he wrote civil rights pamphlets and worked for the NAACP.

 Rodabaugh, Karl Louis. "Agrarian Ideology and the Farmers' Revolt in Alabama." Alabama Review 1983 36(3):195-217.  Describes the ideology of the agrarians and their dissatisfaction with the corrupt courthouse-ring governments which led to the entrance of the Farmer's Alliance into Alabama politics in 1890. America: History and Life, 21A:5162

 _____. "The Alliance in Politics: The Alabama Gubernatorial Election of 1891." Alabama Historical Quarterly. 36(1): 54-80. 1974.  Reuben Kolb moved the Farmers' Alliance into politics in 1890 suggested a list of grievances for farmers.  Establishment Democrats raised the race question.  Kolb lost the gubernatorial nomination to Thomas G. Jones, which dashed Alliance hopes.  America: History and Life, 14A:5356

 _____. "Fusion, Confusion, Defeat and Disfranchisement: The 'Fadeout of Populism' in Alabama." Alabama Historical Quarterly. 1972 34(2): 131-53.  The Democratic Party destroyed the political power of the Populists and the Republicans using the race issue.  America: History and Life, S:7034

 _____. "'Kolbites' Versus Bourbons: The Alabama Gubernatorial Election of 1892." Alabama Historical Quarterly. 1975 37(4):275-321.  Democrat Thomas Goode Jones defeated Alliance-backed Reuben F. Kolb.  Portrayed as agriculture versus industry. America: History and Life, 21A:5162

 _____. "The Prelude to Populism in Alabama." Alabama Historical Quarterly 1981 43(2): 111-152.  In the 1890's the Alabama Democratic Party splintered.  Agricultural and railroad problems were the primary factors.  America: History and Life, 20A:2689

 _____. "The Turbulent Nineties: The Agrarian Revolt and the Alabama Politics." 307 p. Ph.D. dissertation, U of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 1981.  307 pages.  DAI, 42, no. 11A, (1981): 4908.  Bourbon leaders adopted the ideals of the new "corporate culture," they showed less concern for the local-oriented agrarian lifestyle of the state's white small farmers.  Local courthouse rings (merchants and middlemen) allied themselves with the farmers' adversaries in the outside world.  Even the appeal of white supremacy could not hold agrarians once the Southern Farmers' Alliance offered economic hope through cooperative endeavors and a compelling agrarian ideology which celebration of the agricultural lifestyle as the nonmaterialistic, God-created opposite of the Bourbon's spiritually corrupt "New South Creed." 

 Rogers, William Warren, "Alabama's Reform Press: Militant Spokesman for Agrarian Revolt." Agricultural History 1960 34(2):62-70.  Alliance and Populist-supported began appearing in 1887.  Many of the papers were short-lived because farmers could not afford them and advertisers avoided them.  Generally, they called for ballot-box reform, free silver, and greater opportunities for the agricultural class.  Lists a number of reform papers. America: History and Life, 0:4719

 _____. "The Agricultural Wheel in Alabama." Alabama Review 1967 20(1): 5-16.  The Agricultural Wheel came to Alabama in 1886, and lasted until 1889 when it merged with the Farmers' Alliance.  It endorsed cooperative manufacturers, attacked the Interstate Commerce Commission, the Alabama State Railroad Commission, and the State legislature for failure to take action against the Louisville and Nashville Railroad.

 _____. "Colonel James M. Whitehead, Agrarian Editor of the Deep South." Alabama Historical Quarterly 1963 25(3/4): 280-286.  Colonel James M. Whitehead edited the Greenville, Alabama, Living Truth, the "most bombastic" of the state's reform (Populist) papers.  He was election president of the Alabama Reform Press Association in 1895.  The Living Truth reached the height of its popularity after 1896, as other reform papers closed. America: History and Life, 3:871

 _____. "The Farmers' Alliance in Alabama." Alabama Review. 15:5‑18. January 1962. 

 _____. "The Negro Alliance in Alabama." Journal of Negro History 1960 45(1): 38-44.  Negro alliances generally had the strong sympathy and support of the white alliances, with which they cooperated.  Both black and white alliances declined sharply after 1891 when they began to neglect their economic programs and became involved in politics. America: History and Life, 0:4720

 _____. The One-Gallused Rebellion: Agrarianism in Alabama,1865-1896. 354 pp. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State UP, 1970.  Derived from Ph.D. dissertation, U of North Carolina.  Dissertation Abstracts, 20 (7): 2764-2765. January 1960.  Sees Alabama Populism, "a massive reaction to economic distress,"  progressive.  Populists made sincere efforts to achieve permanent benefits for Negroes.

 _____. "Reuben F. Kolb: Agricultural Leader of the New South." Agricultural History. 32(2):109-119. April 1958.  Pioneer plant and crop developer; unsuccessful Alliance-supported candidate for Governor of Alabama, 1892, 1894.  America: History and Life, 0:4697

 Schlup, Leonard. "Adlai E. Stevenson and the 1892 Campaign in Alabama." Alabama Review 1976 29(1): 3-15.  Vice-presidential nominee Adlai E. Stevenson campaigned in five southern states, including Alabama.  He portrayed the Federal Elections Bill (1890) as a threat to white southern society, and indicative of Republican actions should they recapture the White House.  His efforts successfully neutralized the Populist challenge. America: History and Life, 14A:5357

 Shafner, Jerrell H. and Rogers, William Warren. "Joseph C. Manning: Militant Agrarian, Enduring Populist." Alabama Historical Quarterly Spring-Summer 1967 29(1 and 2): 5-37.  Manning differed from many populist leaders in that he retained his views throughout his life.  Manning advocated free elections and majority rule.  He saw the Constitution of 1901 as a Democratic Party effort to prevent needed reform.  America: History and Life, 7:819

 Smith, O.P. "Farm Organizations in Alabama from 1872‑1907." Master's thesis, Alabama Polytechnic Institute, 1940.

 Sparkman, John J. "The Kolb-Oates Campaign of 1894."  Master's thesis, U of Alabama, 1936.  Gen. Wm. Oates, Democrat, v. Commissioner Kolb, Populist, in  race for Governor. Kolb lost this disputed election.

 Steely, Leathis. "Populism in Birmingham and Jefferson County." M.A. thesis, U of Alabama, 1927.

 Stone, Olive M. "Agrarian Conflict in Alabama."  Ph.D. thesis (Economics), U of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, N.C., 1939.

 Summersell, Charles G. "A Life of Reuben F. Kolb." M.A. thesis, U of Alabama, 1930.  Kolb, Alabama Commissioner of Agriculture and Alliance leader‑hero, sought Democratic nomination for Governor in 1890. 

 _____. "The Alabama Governor's Race in 1892." Alabama Review. 8:5-35. January 1955.  The campaign and election defeat of Reuben F. Kolb.

 Webb, Samuel L., Two-Party Politics in the One-Party South : Alabama's Hill Country, 1874-1920. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1997. 263 p.  Derived from, "Two-Party Politics in the One-Party South: Alabama Hill Country, 1880-1920." Ph.D. dissertation, University of Arkansas, 1991.  DAI, 52, no. 08A.  Most early twentieth century hill country Republicans did not have Unionist roots, but came from the Populist movement.  They had supported Independent movements in the 1880s.  The older Unionist base of the GOP often cooperated with Independents and Populists to defeat Democrats in local elections.  Republican parties in the hills, with Populist bases, created vibrant two-party systems.  Populists-turned-Republicans continued to support reform movements during the progressive period.  Roosevelt attracted old Populists because he attacked the corporate and financial power of the East.

 _____. "From Independents to Populists to Progressive Republicans: The Case of Chilton County, Alabama, 1880-1920." Journal of Southern History 1993 59(4): 707-736.  In the Jacksonian tradition of protest against elite control, ex-Populists turned to the reform wing of the Republican Party to fight the reactionary policies of the Democratic Party in Alabama. They were ardent supporters of Theodore Roosevelt and should be seen as reformers, not reactionaries, as Sheldon Hackney claimed. America: History and Life, 32:8239