One presentation that I enjoyed was Matt’s about the history of Tuscaloosa pre-1831. I found it very interesting that information was so hard to find. It was also good that despite that, he was able to put together a very nice website.
I enjoy learning about history (especially American history) very much. That is another reason that this presentation was interesting to me. Unfortunately, the brutality described on his website is par-for-the-course as far as American history goes. What happened to Chief Tuscaloosa and the remaining Native Americans was just a precursor to what was going to happen through the 19th century.
A final thing that I found cool is that I learned that Tuscaloosa’s history with regards to settlers is comparable to my hometown’s: Rochester, NY. Tuscaloosa was a port city along the Black Warrior River. Rochester, though it was somewhat of a port city along the Genesee River, truly became a port city with the construction of the Erie Canal and its population boomed.
Taylor Frank 