Abbeville, Alabama

Abbeville is a city in the state of Alabama, in the United States. It is the county seat of Henry County. It is part of the Dothan, Alabama Metropolitan Statistical Area. In 2020, 2,358 people lived in Abbeville.^[2]

Abbeville
City
Historic Downtown Abbeville, Alabama
Location of Abbeville in Henry County, Alabama.
Coordinates: 31°33′59″N 85°15′5″W
Country	United States
State	Alabama
County	Henry
Area [1]
• Total	15.58 sq mi (40.36 km2)
• Land	15.54 sq mi (40.26 km2)
• Water	0.04 sq mi (0.11 km2)  0.32%
Elevation	449 ft (137 m)
Population  (2020)[2]
• Total	2,358
• Density	151.71/sq mi (58.58/km2)
Time zone	UTC-6 (CST)
• Summer (DST)	UTC-5 (CDT)
ZIP code	36310
Area code	334
FIPS code	01-00124
GNIS feature ID	112880
Website	www.cityofabbeville.org

The government of Abbeville is a mayor and a city council. The city council is made up of five people. Each city councilperson is elected from one of five districts in the city.

Location

The coordinates for Abbeville are: 31°33′59″N 85°15′5″W (31.566367, -85.251300)^[3]. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the size of the city is 15.6 square miles (40 km²). This includes 15.6 square miles (40 km²) of land and 0.1 square miles (0.26 km²) of water.

History

Abbeville was a colonial town. It is the oldest still standing colonial settlement in eastern Alabama. It's older than Henry County and the State of Alabama. The city was named after a Muscogee Indian man named "Abbe." He was a Native American who lived nearby when the city was started. The name means "a grove of dogwood trees."

In 1819, there was a trading post in Abbeville. (A trading post is a small settlement that has been set up for trading. Trading posts are usually located in remote places.) At this time, the area was part of Alabama Territory.

In 1944, there was a famous civil rights event that happened in Abbeville. An African-American woman was gang-raped by six white men. The men told the police that they had raped her. Two grand juries decided not to take them to court. Because of this, the men were never punished. This event was written about in the book At the Dark End of the Street.^[4][5]

By 1950, there were 2,162 people living in Abbeville.^[6]

Demographics

In 2020, Abbeville had 2,358 people living there. It was 49.4% white, 44.1% black or African-American, 0.2% Native American, 0.6% Asian, 2.2% other races, and 3.5% mixed race. Of the people in Abbeville, 2.8% were Hispanic or Latino.^[2]