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I know that there are places in Alabama where secession was not favored - Fort Payne, Alabama still has a “Union Park” because the secession was generally not supported in that area.

Fort Payne recently christened the park "City Park" so it is no longer "Union Park"... Also in that park is a huge statue of a confederate soldier... This was dedicated while most folks still rode horses to the event (I don't know the exact date)... Also they presented statues of the 4 Alabama (band) boys during this dedication (this summer).

So I guess Fort Payne has subcumbed to the political pressures of PCism renaming that park. I for one did not notice that the city slipped this under the door mat... Everyone was in favor of paying homage to the group Alabama that they didn't notice the city was changing the park title in the same slick event.

Having lived most my life here and from a long blue lintage in the area, I can concur there was lots of pro-union folks in this area.. and few slaves back in it's day. Valley Head had a small plantation with a slave quarters to it, but county wise not many did.

Your comments about the Unionists of Alabama is best exemplified by the story of Federal Judge Frank M. Johnson Jr., appointed by President Eisenhower in 1954. He was one of the very courageous Southern Republican judges appointed by President Eisenhower who broke Jim Crow's back. In Johnson's case, it was the Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott decision that ended segregation on public transit. He survived an assassination attempt after that decision. There were other Republican judges in the South then that made similar courageous decisions that upheld the Constitution over the racist entrenched Democrat establishment.

"Frank Minis Johnson Jr. was a back-country boy, and it explained a great deal about his fierce independence and stoicism. He was born in the small town of Haleyville on Oct. 30, 1918, the oldest of seven children of Frank and Alabama Long Johnson, who were farmers and teachers. His father later was a probate judge and became the only Republican in the Alabama Legislature.
The Johnson roots were in Winston County, in the remote hills of northwest Alabama. Long a Republican stronghold, the county rejected slavery and tried to secede from the state after Alabama left the Union in 1861. Styling itself the ''Free State of Winston,'' it tried to remain neutral in the Civil War, and eventually sent more men to fight for the Union than for the Confederacy.

Tough people!