The history of Tuscaloosa as a town goes back beyond the history of the state of which it forms a part. From a purely technical standpoint, it became an incorporated town one day earlier than Alabama became a state. Tuscaloosa was incorporated December 13, 1819, and Alabama became a state on the following day.

The new state was carved out of the Mississippi Territory. The division had been effected by an act of Congress March 3, 1817, and the eastern half of the newly divided area had been erected into a separate district known as Alabama Territory. On March 2, 1819 Congress had passed the Enabling Act authorizing the people of the Alabama Territory to frame and adopt a constitution preparatory to becoming a state.