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Did your ancestors receive free bounty land in Alabama?

After the Revolutionary War, free bounty land was offered by the federal government to citizens and soldiers for their service.

Revolutionary war

Bounty land on western frontier

No bounty land was available in many of the Original Thirteen colonies because the states lacked enough vacant land to support the policy so the government looked to the frontier in the western domains for awarding bounty land. This practice served an additional purpose.

With veterans settled on frontier lands, the states could rely on a military force from the revolutionary soldier to protect the settlements from Indians.

Many of these soldiers received grants in Georgia, Tennessee and the Mississippi Territory, parts of which later became the state of Alabama.

The book ALABAMA REVOLUTIONARY WAR SOLDIERS VOLUME I 

Includes genealogical and biographical information on 26 Revolutionary Soldiers who were in early Alabama and/or collected military pensions for their service.

The soldiers in this volume are: JAMES CALDWELL, JOHN YOUNG, CAPT. ANTHONY WINSTON, WILLIAM SANDERS, CAPTAIN WILLIAM ARMISTEAD, WILLIAM WICKER, BRYANT ADAMS, WILLIAM PULLEN, GEORGE AGNEW, JOHN WEBSTER, ROBERT WESTON, GEORGE TAYLOR, GOV. JOHN SEVIER, JAMES ROBERTSON, HARRISON NICHOLSON, JAMES MCCRORY, DAVID MURRAY, CHARLES LITTLETON, DAVID LINDSAY, EPHRAIM KIRBY, JOHN WADE KEYES, COL. JOSPEH HUGHES, SAMUEL TOWNSEND, JOHN TOWNSEND, HENRY TOWNSEND, and ANDREW TOWNSEND

 

ALABAMA REVOLUTIONARY WAR SOLDIERS VOLUME I 

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27 comments

  1. Yes, in Alabama in 1824 in vicinity of Hope Hull.

  2. None of my folks got anything:(! No, y’all, I am kidding, I don’t have a clue who they were, much less what they may or may not have gotten!

  3. My 5thGrandfather fought with Washington at his first battle. He was from Bedford,Va…He had 8 children in Va. His wife died giving birth to a child. He married his best friends widow, move to Augusta, Ga.and had 8 more children. His son Marston Mead was the first Probate Judge for Blount Co Al. He had over 40,000 acres of land in VA….Quite a story….

    1. A possible ancestor in Bedford, VA. was fined by the church/government a number of lbs. of tobacco for not attending church services on Sunday. I understand that folks of a different religion were not held to the same rules.

    1. Hell yeahhhhh my family didn’t get enough…

  4. Yes they did and we still have it today.

  5. You could just say the truth: Native Americans’ land was stolen and “given” to white men.

  6. Yes! At last count around 20 ancestors. Some received grants and moved to Ft Mimms and Horseshoe Bend. Tallapoosa Co had some,Many of mine had 3 generations in the same war. Some families had some fight in every war we have ever had. My Father McCoullough WWII, Korea and Viet Nam. My 10th landed at Jamestown ,William Mease Mayes.

  7. Hi Donna! I don’t know if it was ‘Bounty Land” or not, but my ancestors received a large tract of land in southern Alabama at the end of the Civil War. A few of my distant cousins still live on the land today, In the 1940s and 50s my parents,my six young siblings and I, while on vacation, would visit relatives who owned the land: our material grandparents, aunts and uncles. The land was their birthplace including my mother’s. I was born across town in: Drewey/Tag, on Reed Road, delivered by my licensed Midwife Paternal Grandmother.

    Now I live on the West coast but have driven across country several times to research ‘Why my ancestors received the land’. But when I began to ask questions of the town folk I receive silence from them. The community I speak of is mentioned in ‘Go Set a Watchman’ and To Kill a Mocking Bird’, by Harper Lee. The community is ‘Clauseli Quarters or West Monroevilie’, Al. I know who the original owners of the land were and that they were slave owners with many Mulatto Children but no plantation, ‘Greek Columned House’ or large fields of crops. However, they hired their skilled slaves out to local land owners. My ancestors have fought in every military conflict – that, I know for a fact – ‘from WWI through Desert Storm. We are African-American. My question: Are there any suggestions or advice you can give me in my quest as I prepare to travel, next July 2017 back home, to the ‘Land of The Mocking Bird.’ I Thank you in advance for your consideration. Respectfully, John Pugh.

  8. It was not free..lots of native Americans payed for it with their murdered blood from th government

    1. Yes …Amen most these documents say on them “Recently Aquired Creek or Cherokee Territory” .Timeline on these are 1820 to 1836

  9. Yes, they received land just not in Alabama.

  10. I have 10 documents that I tried to post a picture of one from Georgia.This absolutely is true.I have the land grants to prove it

  11. I’ve got ones from Iowa. Think they were for service in Seminole, Mexican, &/or

  12. During the Revolutionary war if you owned land and were loyal to the crown they took your property or land and gave it to the soldiers after the war! Sent those loyalist back to England or wherever!

  13. I have to disagree with this. James “Horseshoe” Robertson was awarded land in South Carolina for his service in the Revolutionary War.

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