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Cahawba County was established ("erected") on February 7, 1818, named for the Cahawba River (now more commonly known as Cahaba River). This name came from the Choctaw language word meaning "water above." On December 4, 1820, it was renamed as Bibb County. The county is named for William Wyatt Bibb, the Governor of Alabama Territory and the first Governor of Alabama.
In the wake of the American Civil War, the state legislature passed laws to create a new constitution that raised barriers to voter registration and effectively excluded Freedmen from the political process. Many residents resisted the objectives of Union occupation both during and after Reconstruction because they wanted to restore the Antebellum social and political norms. During this time of transition, Bibb, Dallas, and Pickens counties held the third-highest number of lynchings in the state. On June 18, 1919, Jim McMillan was lynched by a White mob. On November 7, 2000, Bibb County voted against a proposed amendment to Alabama's constitution to abolish the prohibition of interracial marriages.