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The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. Kentucky is normally included in the group of Southern states (in particular the Upland South), but it is sometimes included, geographically and culturally, in the Midwest. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth (the other three being Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts). Originally a part of Virginia, in 1792 it became the 15th state to join the Union. Kentucky is the 37th largest state in terms of land area, and ranks 26th in population. Kentucky is known as the "Bluegrass State", a nickname based on the fact that bluegrass is present in many of the lawns and pastures throughout the state. It is a land with diverse environments and abundant resources, including the world's longest cave system, Mammoth Cave National Park, the greatest length of navigable waterways and streams in the Lower 48 states, and the two largest man-made lakes east of the Mississippi River. It is also home to the highest per capita number of deer and turkey in the United States, the largest free ranging elk herd east of Montana, and the nation's most productive coalfield. Kentucky is also known for thoroughbred horses, horse racing, bourbon distilleries, bluegrass music, automobile manufacturing, tobacco, and college basketball. The name "Kentucky" is said (Source:Skinner, 1921:95) to be derived from "Ken-ta-ke". an Iroquois word meaning "the place of old fields."
History
Although inhabited by Native Americans in prehistoric times, when explorers and settlers began entering Kentucky in the mid-1700s, there were no major Native American settlements in the region. Instead, the state was used as hunting grounds by Shawnees from the north and Cherokees from the south. Much of what is now Kentucky was purchased from Native Americans in the treaties of Fort Stanwix (1768) and Sycamore Shoals (1775). Thereafter, Kentucky grew rapidly as the first settlements west of the Appalachian Mountains were founded, with settlers (primarily from Virginia, North Carolina, Maryland, Delaware, and Pennsylvania) entering the region either over land via Braddock Road and the Cumberland Gap, or by water down the Ohio River from points upstream, or up the Ohio River from the Mississippi. The first part to be settled was the northern part, along the Ohio River, with Lexington and Washington being the first major settlements. A detailed account of this can be read in the memoirs of Spencer Records. Next, the southern part of the state was settled, via the Wilderness Trail, which went along the Great Appalachian Valley and across the Cumberland Gap, blazed by Daniel Boone, traditionally considered one of the founders of the state.[1] Shawnees north of the Ohio River, however, were unhappy about the settlement of Kentucky, and allied themselves with the British in the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783). Kentucky was a battleground during the war; the Battle of Blue Licks, one of the last major battles of the Revolution, was fought in Kentucky. According to a 1790 U.S. government report, 1,500 Kentucky settlers had been killed in Indian raids since the end of the Revolutionary War. In an attempt to end these raids, Clark led an expedition of 1,200 drafted men against Indians towns on the Wabash River in 1786, one of the first actions of the Northwest Indian War. After the American Revolution, the counties of Virginia beyond the Appalachian Mountains became known as Kentucky County. Eventually, the residents of Kentucky County petitioned for a separation from Virginia. Ten constitutional conventions were held in the Constitution Square Courthouse in Danville between 1784 and 1792. In 1790, Kentucky's delegates accepted Virginia's terms of separation, and a state constitution was drafted at the final convention in April 1792. On June 1, 1792, Kentucky became the fifteenth state to be admitted to the union and Isaac Shelby, a military veteran from Virginia, was elected the first Governor of the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Kentucky was a border state during the American Civil War. Although frequently described as never having seceded, a group of Kentucky soldiers stationed at Russellville did pass an Ordinance of Secession under the moniker "Convention of the People of Kentucky" on November 20, 1861, establishing a Confederate government of Kentucky with its capital in Bowling Green. Though Kentucky was represented by the central star on the Confederate battle flag, the legitimacy of the Russellville Convention may well be questioned. Only a year earlier, philosopher Karl Marx wrote in a letter to Friedrich Engels that the result of a vote deciding how Kentucky would be represented at a convention of the border states was "100,000 for the Union ticket, only a few thousand for secession." Kentucky officially remained "neutral" throughout the war due to Union sympathies of many of the Commonwealth's citizens. Even today, however, Confederate Memorial Day is observed by some in Kentucky on Confederate President Jefferson Davis' birthday, June 3. Kentucky provided the second largest number of African-American soldiers to the Union during the Civil War. Many enlisted at Camp Nelson in the inner Bluegrass region. Union army refused to enlist black soldiers in state regiments, ten percent of black Kentuckians still enlisted, either directly with the Union army or in regiments from other states. This percentage is greater than the seven percent of white Kentuckians who served in the Civil War. Camp Nelson provided the Union Army with over 10,000 African-American soldiers, making it the third largest recruiting and training depot for African Americans in the nation. The state of Kentucky refused to pass laws to abolish slavery and would not ratify the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. This refusal was directly linked to the slave owners in Kentucky, who equaled only 20% of the state’s population. Slavery officially ended in Kentucky after 13th Amendment was ratified by enough states to become national law. The Black Patch Tobacco Wars, a vigilante action, occurred in the area in the early 1900s. As result of the monopolization of the tobacco industry, tobacco farmers in the area were forced to sell their tobacco at greatly reduced prices. In response, many local farmers and activists united to refuse to sell tobacco to the tobacco industry. A vigilante wing, the "Night Riders" were a group of people who terrorized farmers who sold their tobacco at the low prices demanded by the tobacco corporations. They participated in the firing of several tobacco warehouses, notably in Hopkinsville and Princeton. In the later period of their operation, they also were known to physically assault farmers in the middle of the night who broke the boycott.
Timeline
Population History
Note: Kentucky was part of Virginia prior to its admission as a State on June 1, 1792. It had essentially its present boundaries, except that because of erroneous surveys portions of the Kentucky- Tennessee boundary were in dispute for many years until finally resurveyed in 1859. Kentucky was reported separately from Virginia in 1790; the county boundaries at that time corresponded to the present-day State lines between Kentucky and Virginia-West Virginia. Census coverage in 1790 included much of the State's territory, but the area west of the Tennessee River (the Jackson Purchase) was first enumerated in 1820.. Total for 1790 is for the counties of Virginia that comprised the present State of Kentucky. Research TipsVital Records
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