The Anglo-Americans who crossed the Appalachian Mountains starting in the mid-1700s thought they were exploring a vast wilderness. In reality, they were coming to a land that had been occupied for more than 10,000 years by various indigenous peoples lured by the natural beauty and abundance of what we now know as Kentucky. The first white Kentuckians traversed lands claimed by as many as 20 tribes including Cherokee, Shawnee, and Chickasaw.
That’s why historians today prefer to call those explorers “settlers” rather than “pioneers.” Filson Historical Society President and CEO Patrick Lewis says pioneers implies that the land was uninhabited, which wasn’t the case. In addition to the Native tribes, he says French and Spanish trappers and traders had outposts along the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers long before Daniel Boone crossed the Cumberland Gap.
“Settlement implies a model of colonialism that the British government is really interested in and has used successfully to dominate the east coast,” says Lewis. “That is very different than the model that the French had tried where they’re working with Native allies and extended trade networks trying to source furs from the interior of the continent.”
The trickle of easterners crossing the mountains or coming down the Ohio River to make a fresh start in Kentucky soon turned into a flood, which encouraged early leaders to discuss creating a new state separate from Virginia. It would take ten statehood conventions between 1784 and 1792 before Kentuckians could agree on their plans for a new commonwealth and the constitution that would govern it. Vanessa Holden, director of African American and Africana Studies at the University of Kentucky, says part of the challenge was that many people coming here, including veterans of the Revolutionary War, didn’t yet own land, which at the time was key to having the right to vote.
“People living here wouldn’t have had a stake in their own government and a huge part of our early statehood debates are (about) what are we going to do with these landless folks? Are they going to be able to participate?” says Holden.
There was also the matter of developing local governments across such a vast territory. Lewis says the framers of the state constitution decided newly formed counties in Kentucky should be small enough that people would be within one day’s travel of their county seat. He says that gave residents easier access to commerce and county courts, both of which were crucial to development. That eventually resulted in 120 separate counties, more than every other American state except Texas and Georgia.
Wars, Slavery, and Reconstruction
Independence for America and statehood for Kentucky didn’t resolve the dangers of life on the western frontier.
“The Revolutionary War ends with the Treaty of Paris in 1783, except it doesn’t end out here in the back country,” says Lewis.
Kentuckians worried the British might try to regain territory in the region, according to Holden, and that the French or Spanish also might try to test the boundaries of the new nation.
“Folks are still trying to figure out is America really going to be able to stand up for itself, and who’s going to bear the consequences if it doesn’t,” says Holden. “It’s folks on this side of the Appalachian Mountains who are going to have to deal with the consequences.”
Some of those dynamics played out in a little-known battle of the War of 1812 in which American forces comprised largely of Kentuckians fought to wrest control of Detroit from the British. The Battle of River Raisin ended in a rout for the Americans and the deaths of many of Kentucky soldiers including a number of wounded men who were later slaughtered by Native warriors allied with the British.
“This is a story that literally was buried because we lost,” says Jami Keegan, chief of interpretation and education for River Raisin National Battlefield Park. “It was a great tragedy, and it was the largest American defeat in the entire War of 1812.”
A greater percentage of Kentuckians fought and died in that war than came from any other state. Then, less than 50 years later, Americans would be embroiled in a new war against one another.
Although Kentucky remained in the Union during the Civil War, Lewis says its citizens were deeply divided by the conflict. Kentuckians fought in the U.S. and Confederate militaries, and competing governments claimed the state for a time: The Union-allied General Assembly in Frankfort and a Confederate legislature in Bowling Green. Lewis says some slave-owning Kentuckians opposed secession and war because they believed the U.S. Constitution offered the best protection for slavery.
“There is a belief that this Confederacy is a bad choice, it’s a bad idea. It’s courting a war that will ultimately result in the collapse of slavery,” says Lewis. “And you know what? Those Union Kentuckians are absolutely right.”
Even before the war, a few Kentuckians worked against the institution of slavery. Lexington teacher and abolitionist Delia Webster was sentenced to prison for helping enslaved individuals escape on the Underground Railroad, says Stephanie Lang, editor of The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society.
With the help of Webster, Henry and Harriet Hayden escaped slavery in Lexington and made their way to Canada. Holden says the Haydens later settled in Boston, where they were active in abolition and integration efforts.
Born into slavery in Shelby County, Henry Bibb self-emancipated to Canada, but returned to Kentucky multiple times to try to get his wife and daughter to freedom, says Holden.
“At a time when slavery was really the most important business, there are a number of folks who were willing to stand up and face jail time and really say emphatically that (slavery) is wrong,” she says.
Holden adds that the end of slavery upended long-standing social and economic structures in the commonwealth. The chaos of that transition and Reconstruction allowed free Blacks in Kentucky to go to school, buy land, and start businesses before Jim Crow laws would crush many of those opportunities.
Building the Economy, Growing Diversity
After the Civil War and into the 20th century, Kentucky experienced the rise of two important economic drivers: tobacco and coal. In the Bluegrass region, burley tobacco becomes the dominant crop, while dark-fired tobacco gains prominence in western Kentucky. But farmers there struggled to make a living in the early 1900s since most of their leaf was purchased by the powerful American Tobacco Company, which forced low prices through its monopolistic practices.
“It got to be where the farmer when he sold his tobacco did not even make enough to recoup his cost to produce the tobacco,” says Wayne Yates, administrator of the Adsmore Museum in Princeton. “Families were hurting, and they didn’t have an answer, and they tried to handle it the best way they could.”
Some farmers formed a cooperative called the Planters’ Protective Association to try to limit production and drive up prices for their tobacco. When that failed, a small group of masked men called the Night Riders burned tobacco warehouses and raided the farms of those who wouldn’t join the cooperative. Conditions in western Kentucky grew so dangerous that Gov. Augustus Willson dispatched the state militia to quell the violence.
On the other end of the state, eastern Kentuckians battled coal companies over their mineral rights and coal miners turned to unions to secure better pay and better working conditions. As more mines opened in the region, Kentucky coal became the power for the industrial revolution in the United States.
“This… fuel that we as a state are providing into the national economy is creating a base of consumer goods that can be bought and sold in shops and become the markers of a middle-class lifestyle,” says Lewis. “Consumer culture is really enabled by what goes on here.”
From coal in the east, to factories in the urban centers, and farming across the commonwealth, Holden says Kentucky developed a dynamic economy based on the hard work of its highly diverse citizenry.
“It’s not a monolithic place. We’ve had incredibly important contributions from German immigrants, Irish immigrants, Jewish immigrants, incredibly important contributions in the present from various refugees who’ve been resettled here,” Holden says. “So, Kentucky is not neat and tidy, but another word for it is dynamic.”
The story of the commonwealth remains visible across the landscape and within the people here, according to Kentucky Historical Society Executive Director Scott Alvey. He says knowing that history is crucial to helping Kentuckians move forward.
“Kentuckians have strong sense of place and by knowing your local history, whether it’s family history and genealogy, or the history of your town or locality, it’s our sense of identity,” says Alvey.
