Republic of Winston

The Republic of Winston was how some residents of Winston County, Alabama styled their home once Alabama seceeded from the United States in 1861 and joined the Confederate States of America. Winston County is in the hilly uplands of northwestern Alabama. It is in an area almost wholly unsuited to plantation-style agriculture, and as such had never been home to any sizeable number of slaves. Many of the residents viewed the Confederacy with suspicion, seeing it as a way of maintaining the supremacy of a wealthy planter class over small freeholding farmers and merchants. Also coming into play were many of the typical highland-flatlands cultural issues. The issue of "independence" was taken very seriously by some of the residents, many of whom refused induction into either the Confederate Army or the Confederate Home Guard, and in fact some joined militia units loyal to the Union such as the First Alabama Cavalry (US). Apparently the idea of independence grew out of a series of meetings at Looney's Tavern, a local establishment, in which a local wag, upon hearing the discussion of dissenting from the Confederacy, satirically suggested that they must now be residents of the "Free State of Winston". Many saw this as a favorable and realistic option, given the circumstances which confronted them. While the area was occassionally raided by Confederate Home Guard troops and guerrillas, many of whom were little more than criminal gangs, the Confederacy was never able to establish effective long-term control over the area during its four-year existence -- a fact shared with many other areas in the South, particularly isolated ones far removed from the seats of power, which Winston County certainly was. This history has become the basis of a small tourist industry revolving around it, including an outdoor drama based on the events of the time, and a passenger boat named the Free State Lady which plies the waters of a nearby manmade lake. A statue of a young man dressed half as a Union troop and half as Union called "Dual Destiny" is frequently photographed.