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ALABAMA schools. The percentage of illiteracy is high, but is steadily decreasing. The large percentage of negro population accounts in a large measure for the low average of literacy. The school population is about 750,000. The total enrollment in the schools is about 450,000. There are about 8,000 teachers in schools for white children and about 3,000 in schools for colored children. The principal universities and colleges are the University of Alabama (opened 1831; non-sectarian); the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute (1881); Birmingham Southern College, Woman's College of Alabama, Spring Hill College, Alabama Polytechnic Institute, Howard College, St. Bernard College, Judson College, Athens Female College.

Churches.—The strongest denominations numerically in the State are the Baptist; Methodist Episcopal, South; Roman Catholic; Methodist Episcopal; and the Protestant Episcopal.

Railroads.—The total railway mileage in the State in 1919 was 5,420. During the year there were built about 12 miles of main track. Recent developments in the coal, iron, and manufacturing industries have greatly stimulated railroad construction and extension.

State Government.—The governor is elected for a term of four years. Legislative sessions are held biennially and are limited to 50 days each. The Legislature has 35 members in the Senate and 106 in the House, each of whom receives $4 per day and mileage. There are 10 representatives in Congress. In politics, the State is strongly Democratic.

History.—Alabama was first settled by Bienville, in 1702. The region N. of 31°, which belonged to France, was ceded to Great Britain in 1763, transferred to the United States in 1783, and attached to South Carolina and Georgia till 1802, when it was organized as the Mississippi Territory. The region S. of 31°, which belonged to Spain, was seized and joined to Mississippi Territory in 1812, and with Florida was purchased from Spain in 1819. The great Creek Indian war of 1813-1814 was waged within the present limits of the State. After Alabama was admitted to the Union, it became one of the strongest slave-holding States in the Union. It was one of the first of the Southern States to favor secession, and Montgomery, its capital, became the first capital of the Southern Confederacy. During the Civil War its soil and waters were the scenes of memorable conflicts, especially the Federal naval operations against (q.v.). Since the war, the State has had an era of uniform prosperity.  ALABAMA, a river in the State of Alabama, formed by the confluence of the Coosa and Tallapoosa above Montgomery, and uniting with Tombigbee to form the Mobile river; tortuous in its course; 312 miles long, navigable its entire length for small vessels, and for 60 miles of its lower course for vessels of 6-feet draft.  ALABAMA CITY, a city of Alabama in Etowah co. It is on the Louisville and Nashville, the Alabama Great Southern, the Nashville, the Chattanooga and St. Louis, and the Southern railroads. It is the center of an important agricultural region producing the chief varieties of grain. Coal is found in the vicinity. The city has a cotton mill and a steel foundry. Pop. (1910) 4,313; (1920) 5,432.  ALABAMA CLAIMS, a series of claims made in 1871 by the United States against the English Government for damages done to shipping during the Civil War, after a formal discussion between the two governments in 1865, and fruitless conventions for their settlement in 1868 and 1869. These damages were inflicted chiefly by the “Alabama,” an armed vessel of the Confederate States, which was fitted out in a British port and permitted to sail in violation of existing international law. A tribunal, created in 1871 to pass upon these claims, held its sessions in Geneva, Switzerland, during the year 1872, and awarded the United States the sum of $15,500,000 in gold, in satisfaction of all claims at issue.  ALABAMA POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE, a coeducational (non-sectarian) institution in Auburn, Ala., organized in 1872; reported in 1899: Professors and instructors, 31; students, 347; volumes in the library, 13,000; grounds and buildings valued at $136,500; productive funds, $253,500; income, $58,182; graduates, 522; president, W. Le Roy Broun, LL. D.  ALABAMA, THE, a Confederate cruiser which devastated American shipping during the Civil War. She was a bark-rigged steamer of 1,040 tons, built under secret instruction at Birkenhead, England. Her destination was suspected by the United States minister, but when orders for her detention were finally obtained, she had departed (July 31, 1862). She made for the Azores, where she was equipped and manned by an English crew, under the command of Capt. Raphael Semmes, of Maryland. She then proceeded to capture and burn vessels bearing the American flag, and