The author, Harper Lee, grew up (and still lives part-time in) Monroeville, Alabama. Maycomb is patterned after this small county seat in rural southern Alabama. (Truman Capote also spent some of his childhood in Monroeville!)
The trial in the novel is also based on actual events. It is patterned after the famous Scottsboro trials of the 1930's, in which nine African-Americans were tried for raping two white women.
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Further Reading