Books by Rickey Butch Walker

Today, many of the names of local residents can be clearly traced to some of these planters and slaves. Walker has listed planters and the number of their slaves from 1820 through the 1860 census records. He has provided agricultural information, land records, census records, pictures, family members, birth and death information, and stories to make history come alive. This is a great book for those seeking individual profiles and local family information. I am honored to recommend "Cotton Was King" Volume 3. "Cotton Was King" Volume 3 begins with a review of Chief Doublehead and other important Indians who owned these lands before the Turkey Town Treaty of 1816. The author, Rickey Butch Walker, raised in Lawrence County, has always had a love for his Indian heritage and the history of his home county. The book is a historical record of early cotton planters and slave owners who were the first settlers to move into the Indian Territory after the treaty was signed and covers what is now Lawrence and Colbert Counties. There is not another book that compares to the historical account of the earliest days of the area. As we travel through this time capsule of the past, many hidden stories of planters and their slaves are brought to light. It is a compelling read for all who love history and want to get to the truth of the historical roots of Lawrence County.

In, "Cotton Was King Franklin-Colbert Counties" Rickey Butch Walker gives a wonderful account of Chickasaw Chief George Colbert as a cotton planter and the role of the Chickasaw Colbert's prior to the first white planters who moved with their slaves to claim the fertile lands of the Tennessee River Valley. After the Indian claims to the land were abolished by the 1816 treaty. The United States government transferred land titles to white settlers through federal land sales beginning in 1817. From the nutritionally deprived soil of cotton farms in the east, slave-owning planters poured into early Franklin County, Alabama, most of which is now present-day Colbert County. Rickey Butch Walker gives profiles of many of these wealthy plantation owners prior to the Civil War. This is the first detailed narrative of some of the white families of Franklin- Colbert County who helped develop the cotton industry of northwest Alabama. Some of the affluent planters, their plantations, land holding, property locations, and numbers of black slaves are discussed in detail. These early planters were dependent on black slave labor to become very wealthy and control vast tracts of land. This is a valuable read for anyone interested in the local history of cotton barons who came to North Alabama from North Carolina and Virginia.