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232 ALABAMA exemption from sale on execution of personal property of any resident to the value of $1,000, and a homestead not exceeding $2, 000 in value. The real and personal property of a woman, whether acquired before or after marriage, is not liable for the debts of her husband, and may be devised and bequeathed by her the same as if she were a, feme sole. The crimes of treason, murder in the first degree, rape, carnal inter- course with a woman by false representations of being her husband, and arson in the first degree, are punishable with death or imprison- ment. Killing in a duel is murder in the second degree, and any one aiding in a duel is made incapable of holding any office under the state. Absolute divorce is granted for habitual drunk- enness after marriage, physical incapacity, adul- tery, abandonment for two years, two years' imprisonment, or extreme cruelty. The legal rate of interest is 8 per cent. Alabama has 7 representatives and 2 senators in the federal congress. The total taxation not national for 1 870 amounted to $2, 982, 932. The total receipts into the state treasury during the fiscal year were $1,283,587, of which $1,242,886 25 was from taxation and licenses. The total disburse- ments by the state treasury were $1,366,399, of which $23,843 was for the executive de- partment, $112,860 for legislative expenses, $66,855 for judiciary, $674,410 for educational purposes and schools, and $251,504 for interest. The bonded debt of the state Sept. 30, 1871, was $5,442,300, with interest amounting to $321,106 annually; the total state debt was $8,761,967 37. Among the public institutions in the state are the penitentiary at Wetumpka, the insane hospital at Tuscaloosa, the asylum for deaf, dumb, and blind, and the freedman's hospital, at Talladega, and an asylum for the blind at Mobile. By the census of 1870 there were 611 blind, 401 deaf and dumb, 555 insane, and 721 idiotic ; number of homicides during the year, 100. The number of convicts in the penitentiary in 1869 was 374. The whole number of children attending school during the year 1870 was 77,139, of whom 31,098 were white males, 80,226 white females, 7,502 colored males, and 8,313 colored females. The number of persons 10 years old and upward unable to read was 349,771 ; unable to write, 383,012. Of those 21 years old and over who could not write, 17,429 were white males, 31,001 white females, 91,017 colored males, and 98,344 colored fe- males. According to the state auditor's report, the number of public schools in 1869 was 3,225, and of normal schools 16. The total number of children of school age was 387,057, of whom 229,139 were white, and 157,918 colored. The state appropriates about $500,000 annually (1871, $590,605 50) for the support of common schools. By the census of 1860 there were 17 colleges, with 116 teachers and a total endow- ment of $124,894; 206 academies and private schools, with 400 teachers and 10,778 pupils; and 395 public libraries, with 155,275 volumes. The university of Alabama, founded in 1831, is situated at Tuscaloosa, and is under the con- trol of the state board of education. During the civil war this institution was converted into a military academy. The principal build- ing having been burned in 1865, the legisla- ture in the following year loaned $70, 000 to the university for the erection of a new building, which has since been completed. The univer- sity owns some valuable lands and has an en- dowment of $300,000, with an annual interest of $24,000. Since the war it has not been in a prosperous condition. In January, 1871, there were 4 professors and 21 students. In 1871 there were 71 newspapers and periodicals pub- lished in the state, of which 58 were weekly, 2 tri- weekly, 10 daily (which also issued week- ly editions), and one semi-monthly. Their ag- gregate annual circulation was 8,891,432, and their average circulation 1,070. The leading religious denominations are Methodists and Baptists. The former in 1860 had 777 church- es, with accommodations for 212,555 persons, and church property valued at $606,720 ; the latter 810 churches, worth $495,449, with ac- commodations for 245,255 persons. There were 202 Presbyterian churches, valued at $368,500, with accommodations for 65,004 ; 34 Episcopal, valued at $196,050, with seats for 13,840 ; and 9 Roman Catholic, with 8,000 seats and church property worth $230,450. There are other denominations in the state of less importance as to numbers. The ter- ritory now forming the state of Alabama was originally a part of Georgia. In 1798 the country now included in the states of Ala- bama and Mississippi was organized as a terri- tory, called Mississippi. At this time Florida, which then belonged to Spain, extended to the French possessions in Louisiana, from lat. 31 to the gulf of Mexico, cutting off Mississippi territory from the gulf coast entirely. During the war with Great Britain in 1812, as a precautionary measure, that part of Florida between the Perdido and Pearl rivers was occupied by United States troops, and finally annexed to Mississippi territory. After the removal of most of the Creek Indians from this territory as the result of a vigorous war in 1813-'14 (see CHEEKS), the country was rapidly settled by the whites, and in 1817 the western portion was admitted into the Union as the state of Mississippi, while the eastern part re- mained as the territory of Alabama till 1819, when it was also admitted as a state. The slave population increased much more rapidly than the free, the proportion of slave to the free population being, according to the state census of 1855, as 239 to 289. The popular vote cast by Alabama at the presidential election of 1860, which resulted in the choice of Abraham Lin- coln, was: for Douglas, 13,651; Breckinridge, 48,831 ; and Bell, 27,875. The state had in- structed her delegates to the national conven- tion held at Charleston in April of the same year to withdraw from that body unless the conven- tion should adopt, among others, a resolution