The Trail of Tears was an ethnic cleansing and forced displacement of approximately 60,000 people of the "Five Civilized Tribes" between 1830 and 1850 by the United States government. As part of the Indian removal, members of the Cherokee, Muscogee (Creek), Seminole, Chickasaw, and Choctaw nations were forcibly removed from their ancestral homelands in the Southeastern United States to newly designated Indian Territory west of the Mississippi River after the passage of the Indian Removal Act in 1830. The Cherokee removal in 1838 was brought on by the discovery of gold near Dahlonega, Georgia, in 1828, resulting in the Georgia Gold Rush.
Colbert County is a county located in the northwestern part of the U.S. state of Alabama. As of the 2020 census the county's population was 57,227. The county seat is Tuscumbia. The largest city is Muscle Shoals.
DeKalb County is a county located in the northeastern part of the U.S. state of Alabama. As of the 2020 census, the population was 71,608. Its county seat is Fort Payne, and it is named after Major General Baron Johan DeKalb. DeKalb County is part of the Huntsville-Decatur-Albertville, AL Combined Statistical Area.
Jackson County is the northeasternmost county in the U.S. state of Alabama. As of the 2020 census, the population was 52,579. The county seat is Scottsboro. The county was named for Andrew Jackson, general in the United States Army and afterward President of the United States of America. Jackson County is a prohibition or dry county, but three cities within the county are "wet", allowing alcohol sales. Jackson County comprises the Scottsboro, AL Micropolitan Statistical Area, and Jackson county is included in the Scottsboro-Fort Payne combined statistical areas. It is the site of Russell Cave National Monument, an archeological site with evidence of 8,000 years of human occupation in the Southeast.
Swain County is a county located on the far western border of the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of the 2020 census, the population was 14,117. Its county seat is Bryson City.
Pope County is a county in the U.S. state of Arkansas. As of the 2020 census, the population was 63,381. The county seat is Russellville. The county was formed on November 2, 1829, from a portion of Crawford County and named for John Pope, the third governor of the Arkansas Territory. Pope County was the nineteenth county formed. The county's borders changed eighteen times in the 19th century with the creation of new counties and adjustments between counties. The current boundaries were set on 8 March 1877.
Cherokee is a town in west Colbert County, Alabama, United States. Located near the Tennessee River, it is part of the Florence–Muscle Shoals metropolitan area, known as "The Shoals". As of the 2010 census, the population of the town was 1,048.
Tuscumbia is a city in and the county seat of Colbert County, Alabama, United States. As of the 2010 census, the population was 8,423. The city is part of The Shoals metropolitan area.
Crossville is a town in DeKalb County, Alabama, United States. At the 2010 census the population was 1,862, up from 1,431 in 2000. Crossville is located atop Sand Mountain, a southern extension of the Cumberland Plateau.
Fort Payne is a city in and county seat of DeKalb County, in northeastern Alabama, United States. At the 2020 census, the population was 14,877.
Attalla is a city in Etowah County, Alabama, United States. As of the 2010 census, the population was 6,048.
Scottsboro is a city in and the county seat of Jackson County, Alabama, United States. The city was named for its founder Robert T. Scott. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city is 15,578.
Woodville is a town in Jackson County, Alabama, United States. It was officially established by an act of the Alabama State Legislature on December 13, 1819, one day before Alabama became a state. It was later incorporated on May 12, 1890, but lost its charter in 1897. It reincorporated in 1912. As of the 2010 census, the population of the town is 746, down from 761 in 2000.
Moulton is a city in Lawrence County, Alabama, and is included in the Decatur Metropolitan Area, as well as the Huntsville-Decatur Combined Statistical Area. Although it incorporated in 1819, along with its rival of Courtland, to compete for the honor of county seat, it did not first appear on the U.S. Census rolls until 1900. As of the 2010 census, the population of the city is 3,471, its record high. The city has been the county seat of Lawrence County since 1820. It has been the largest community in the county since the 1920 U.S. Census.
Wedowee is a town in Randolph County, Alabama, United States. At the 2010 census the population was 823, up from 818 in 2000. The small town is the county seat of Randolph County. It was initially incorporated in 1836, but its charter lapsed by the late 19th century. It was reincorporated in 1901.
Bellefonte is a home rule-class city in Greenup County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 888 at the 2010 census. Bellefonte is a part of the Huntington-Ashland, WV-KY-OH Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA). In 2013, according to new boundary definitions, the MSA had a population of 361,580.
Cahaba, also spelled Cahawba, was the first permanent state capital of Alabama from 1820 to 1825, and the county seat of Dallas County, Alabama until 1866. Located at the confluence of the Alabama and Cahaba rivers, it suffered regular seasonal flooding.
Elyton (Ely's Town), Alabama, was the county seat of Jefferson County, Alabama from 1821 to 1873. It was the county's second seat, after Carrollsville (1819-1821) (now the Birmingham neighborhood of Powderly). In 1873 the courthouse was moved to Birmingham. The area that was Elyton is currently bordered by 7th Street Southwest and Cotton Avenue in the West End of Birmingham.
Claiborne is a ghost town on a bluff above the Alabama River in Monroe County, Alabama.
Fort Likens was a temporary stockade fort built in 1838 in present-day Cherokee County, Alabama. The fort was used to house soldiers who participated in the Cherokee removal.
