The area of Kentucky was originally part of Virginia within the original United States. Virginia ceded the district of Kentucky to the United States in 1792, and this area was included briefly in the Southwest Territory ("territory . . . south of the Ohio River").
Etymology. In the late 18th century, prior to 1769, Botetourt and successor counties of the Colony of Virginia, whose geographical extent was south of the Ohio/Allegheny rivers beyond the Appalachian Mountains, became known to European Americans as Kentucky (or Kentucke) country.
Harrod was established in 1773, and Harrodsburg became Kentucky's first permanent settlement in 1774. Boone also established the Boonesborough fort in his name. Virginia annexed Kentucky and made it a county of its colony in 1776.
By the Late Prehistoric (A.D. 1000 to 1750) period, village life revolved around the planting, growing, and harvesting of corn and beans. These plants supplied the Mississippian people of western Kentucky and Fort Ancient peoples of eastern Kentucky with as much as 60% of their diet.
During most of the Ordovician, Kentucky was covered by shallow, tropical seas (Fig. 4). Limestones, dolomites, and shales were formed at this time. The oldest rocks exposed at the surface in Kentucky are the hard limestones of the Camp Nelson Limestone (Middle Ordovician age) (Fig.
Archaeological research shows that the ancestors of Kentucky's indigenous American Indian peoples were living in what is now Kentucky by at least 9,500 BCE, although they may have arrived much earlier. Over this long time period, population growth was gradual, but changes in climate and culture were dramatic.
When the Civil War began, Kentucky was one of the four slave states that remained in the Union. For several months she maintained a precarious neutrality, but by September 1861 the Bluegrass State was a participant in the conflict.
"The Bluegrass State" was the 15th state to join the U.S.A in 1792. It's home to Mammoth Caves National Park, the Kentucky Derby, bourbon (almost 95% of all bourbon comes from Kentucky), bluegrass music, and Fort Knox.
The most interesting thing about Kentucky is the history. Lewis & Clark's adventure, Davy Crocket, Henry Clay all the awesome State Parks, Mamouth Cave, Bourbon Trail, Churchill Downs, Kentucky Derby, all the music from Bluegrass to Rock, the City of Louisville and all it has to offer.
The division of sprawling Kentucky County into three counties in 1780 indicated its rapid growth, and that growth accelerated during the following decade. With population increase came sentiment for separation from Virginia.
Pioneer George Rogers Clark claimed the name was derived from the Indian word "Kentake," meaning "meadow land." The claim is also made that it stems from the Shawnee word meaning "at the head of a river" inasmuch as they used the Kentucky River in traveling throughout the area.
In early Kentucky history, slavery was an integral part of the state's economy, though the use of slavery varied widely in a geographically diverse state. From 1790 to 1860, the slave population of Kentucky was never more than one-quarter of the total population.
Irish Protestants from the northern counties of Ireland – dubbed “Scots-Irish” or “Scotch-Irish” – developed passages and settlements in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, the Highlands of Northwest North Carolina, and portions of Central and Eastern Kentucky.
The most prominent early indigenous tribes in Kentucky were the Cherokee, Chickasaws, and Shawnee. Most of these tribes were eliminated from Kentucky by about the early 1800s either through warfare or resettlement to other territories by the federal government.
Between 1830 and 1860, the free African American population of Louisville increased from 232 to 1,917, or by 726 percent and Louisville became home to the largest concentration of free people of color both in Kentucky and in the upper South—west of Baltimore.
Soldiers from Kentucky served in both the Union and Confederate armies. The state adopted a policy of neutrality until September 1861, when a pro-Union element gained control of the legislature. Though Kentucky never seceded from the Union, there was a sizable pro-Confederate element in the state.
Remember and commemorate the survival of the Cherokee people, forcefully removed from their homelands in Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee to live in Indian Territory, now Oklahoma. They traveled by foot, horse, wagon, or steamboat in 1838-1839.
Several native-colonist conflicts took place in Kentucky, including the siege of Boonesboro, attacks on Martin's and Ruddle's Station, and the Battle of Blue Licks in 1782. Leading to the Battle of Blue Licks, the attack at Bryan's Station occurred.
