| I | INTRODUCTION |
Kentucky, state in the east central United States,
bordering the Ohio River. Kentucky is one of four states that bear the name
commonwealth, and its full title is the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Frankfort is
the capital of Kentucky. Lexington-Fayette is the largest city, and Louisville
is the center of the state’s largest metropolitan area.
Kentucky has had a rich and varied history
since frontier times, when it was the haunt of Daniel Boone and other famous
pioneers. Kentucky entered the Union on June 1, 1792, as the 15th state. Located
on the border between the historical U.S. regions of the North and the South,
the state officially remained in the Union during the American Civil War
(1861-1865). But the state was a contested area, and a considerable number of
its citizens fought with the Confederate army. Significantly, the key Civil War
political figures of the Union and the Confederacy, Abraham Lincoln and
Jefferson Davis, were both born in Kentucky. Kentucky slowly recovered from the
war, and in the remaining decades of the 19th century, its people began to
develop the manufacturing sector of the state’s economy that remains its
cornerstone today.
The name of the state is derived from a
Cherokee name for the area south of the Ohio River. The early pioneers spelled
the name in many ways, including “Kaintuckee” and “Cantuckey.” Its meaning is
disputed, but some historians believe it means “meadowland.” The state’s
official nickname is the Bluegrass State, which is derived from the famed
bluegrass grown in pastures in central Kentucky. The grass, while green itself,
has buds with a purplish-blue hue, which give pastures a bluish tint when seen
from a distance. The nickname also recognizes the role that the Bluegrass region
has played in Kentucky’s economy and history.
| II | PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY |
Kentucky is the 37th largest state in the
Union, with an area of 104,659 sq km (40,409 sq mi), including 1,764 sq km (681
sq mi) of inland water. The state has a maximum extent, from east to west, of
679 km (422 mi) and a maximum dimension north to south of 293 km (182 mi).
Because the state’s borders are in part formed by three rivers which often
adjust their course, the state’s boundaries are somewhat indeterminate. The
approximate mean elevation is 230 m (750 ft).
| A | Natural Regions |
Kentucky includes portions of three major
natural regions, or physiographic provinces, of the eastern United States: the
Appalachian Plateaus, the Interior Low Plateau, and the Gulf Coastal Plain. Each
of these three regions is part of a larger physiographic division. The
Appalachian Plateaus are part of the Appalachian Region, or Appalachian
Highland. The Interior Low Plateau is part of the Interior Plains, and the Gulf
Coastal Plain is part of the Coastal Plain.
The Appalachian Plateaus, which cover
eastern Kentucky, include parts of the Allegheny and the Cumberland plateaus.
These plateaus, worn down by erosion, contain heavily forested ridges and narrow
valleys. This region is sometimes called the Cumberlands. The term Cumberland
Mountains is usually used to denote the high narrow mountain belt that forms
part of the Kentucky state line and that is separated from the Cumberland
Plateau by the Cumberland River Valley. This mountain belt, also called the
Cumberland Front, includes several ranges and ridges, most of them less than
about 900 m (about 3,000 ft) above sea level. Among them are the long ridge
known as Cumberland Mountain and the Black Mountains, which rise to 1,263 m
(4,145 ft) above sea level at Black Mountain, the highest point in the
state.
The Cumberland Mountains are crossed by
several gaps but only one major pass, Cumberland Gap, a narrow pass that reaches
500 m (1,650 ft) above sea level. North and west of the Cumberlands the
mountains give way to the hilly rugged terrain of the Allegheny and Cumberland
plateaus.
The Interior Low Plateau region can be
subdivided into three main sections, the Lexington Plain section, the Shawnee
section, and the Highland Rim section.
The Lexington Plain section covers the
northeastern portion of this region. In Kentucky it is usually called the
Bluegrass region, Bluegrass section, or simply the Bluegrass. This section,
comprising about one-fifth of the state, is primarily a gently rolling plain
from 240 to 300 m (800 to 1,000 ft) above sea level. The Inner Bluegrass, the
very fertile central area lying in Bourbon, Fayette, Jessamine, and Woodford
counties, is the most prosperous farming district in the state. It is encircled
by relatively infertile hilly land, which in turn is encircled by the Outer
Bluegrass, which closely resembles the Inner Bluegrass.
The Shawnee section, which in Kentucky is
usually called the Western Coal Field, lies in the northwest. Much of it is made
up of level or rolling plains from 180 to 240 m (600 to 800 ft) above sea level,
with wooded ridges and rocky cliffs rising above the general level of the land,
especially in the east. In the southeastern part of this section, which is
underlain by limestone rock formations, is a district noted for its sinkholes
and its numerous caves. The coal deposits of the Shawnee section are a
continuation of those in adjoining Illinois and Indiana.
The Highland Rim section occupies the
remainder of the Kentucky portion of the Interior Low Plateau. In the north it
includes a narrow band of isolated coneshaped hills and knobby ridges, which rim
the western, southern, and eastern edges of the Bluegrass region. The Knobs, as
they are called, form a scenic but infertile area of shallow soils and bare rock
outcrops. The remaining parts of the Highland Rim section are generally termed
the Mississippian Plateau but are known locally as the Pennyroyal, or Pennyrile.
The Pennyroyal has numerous underground caves, including Mammoth Cave, and
sinkholes.
The Gulf Coastal Plain covers all of
western Kentucky west of the Tennessee River. This region is an area of low
rolling hills separated by broad, flat, often poorly drained lowlands. Along the
Mississippi River is Kentucky’s lowest point, 78 m (257 ft) above sea
level.
| B | Rivers and Lakes |
Kentucky lies entirely within the drainage
basin of the Mississippi River, which borders western Kentucky. All the major
rivers in Kentucky eventually flow either northward or northwestward to the Ohio
River, one of the major tributaries of the Mississippi River. The Ohio joins the
Mississippi at the point where the state lines of Kentucky, Illinois, and
Missouri meet. Along the northern rim of Kentucky the state line follows the
north bank of the Ohio River.
Within Kentucky are sections of the
Cumberland and Tennessee rivers, two of the chief tributaries of the Ohio River.
The Cumberland River flows through southeastern Kentucky before passing into
Tennessee, re-entering Kentucky in the southwest prior to joining the Ohio. The
other principal rivers in Kentucky are the Big Sandy, Licking, Kentucky, and
Green rivers.
There are no large natural lakes in
Kentucky. The largest lakes are reservoirs behind dams. Chief among these are
Kentucky Lake, on the Tennessee River behind Kentucky Dam; Lake Barkley, behind
Barkley Dam on the lower Cumberland River; Lake Cumberland, behind Wolf Creek
Dam on the upper Cumberland River; and Buckhorn Lake, behind Buckhorn Dam on the
middle fork of the Kentucky River. Other lakes include those behind the Rough
River, Nolin, Barren River, and Green River dams, all of which are on the Green
River or its tributaries. The oldest reservoir is Herrington on the Dix River, a
branch of the Kentucky River.
| C | Climate |
The climate of Kentucky is characterized by
warm or hot summers and cool winters. Throughout the year, temperatures do not
vary greatly from place to place, although they are generally slightly lower in
the Appalachian Plateaus region than elsewhere in the state. Average July
temperatures are usually from 24° to 27°C (76° to 80°F) in the central and
western areas and from 23° to 24°C (74° to 76°F) in the east. January averages
range from below 1°C (34°F) in the northern Bluegrass region to more than 3°C
(38°F) in parts of the south. Temperatures below freezing are common throughout
the state during winter, although extended periods of very cold weather do not
occur every year.
Precipitation is, for the most part,
dependable and well distributed throughout the year. Precipitation ranges from
less than 1,070 mm (42 in) in the northern Bluegrass region to more than 1,270
mm (50 in) in the extreme south.
The growing season, or period from the last
killing frost in spring to the first killing frost in fall, varies from less
than 180 days in the north and in the farming areas of the Appalachian Plateaus
region to more than 210 days in the Mississippi River valley.
| D | Soils |
The most productive soils in the state are
found in the Kentucky sections of the Mississippi and lower Ohio river valleys
and in the famous Inner Bluegrass region. The soils of the river valleys are
flood-deposited alluvial soils that are very fertile when drained. The Inner
Bluegrass region, the most prosperous farming area in Kentucky, has red and
yellow podzolic soils that were formed from phosphatic limestone. These deep
fertile soils have a high content of minerals, especially phosphorus, and of
organic matter.
The gray-brown soils, called inceptisols,
of the Outer Bluegrass and of parts of the western Pennyroyal and the Western
Coal Field have been made quite productive by the use of fertilizers and by the
adoption of good soil management techniques. Generally poor soils are found in
the eastern Pennyroyal, the Knobs, the land between the Inner Bluegrass and the
Outer Bluegrass, and in nearly all of the Appalachian Plateaus region.
| E | Plant Life |
Before Kentucky was extensively settled,
forests covered nearly all of the region. Forests now cover 50 percent of the
state’s land area. However, much of the forest land is made up of second growth
timber. Most of the forest lands in Kentucky include numerous species of trees.
In the Appalachian Plateaus region the dominant species are the tulip poplar, or
tulip tree (the official state tree), the American beech, white basswood, sweet
buckeye, red oak, white oak, and sugar maple. The scarce Kentucky coffee tree
(the official state tree until 1994) is also found here. The eastern hemlock is
plentiful on the Cumberland and Allegheny plateaus and on the lower mountain
slopes. Birches are common on the highest slopes. Pitch pines and other species
of pine grow on sandy mountain slopes and ridges in the Cumberlands. White pines
are now common, but are not native to the state.
In most of the areas to the west of the
Appalachian Plateaus region the forests tend to be dominated primarily by
species of oak, pine, gum, and hickory. In the limestone areas of the Highland
Rim section and the Western Coal Field section there are extensive stands of
redcedars and numerous pine oak barrens.
The patterns of plant life of the Bluegrass
region and the Gulf Coastal Plain are distinctive. In the sparsely forested
Bluegrass region the trees tend to be widely spaced and many stand amid rich
pastures or croplands. These trees include the bur oak, sycamore, white oak,
blue ash, white ash, hackberry, sugar maple, black walnut, Kentucky coffee tree,
honey locust, and shagbark hickory. In the Gulf Coastal Plain the bald cypress
occurs in the swamplands and the black willow, silver maple, river birch, and
eastern cottonwood are common in stream valleys. Other trees that are found in
the lowlands include the red maple, sweet gum, hackberry, swamp cottonwood,
pecan, and sycamore.
Growing in the shade of large forest trees
and in small forest clearings throughout much of the state are such colorful
flowering shrubs and small trees as the redbud, dogwood, mountain laurel,
azalea, rhododendron, holly, sassafras, and species of magnolia. In the spring
the forests and woodlands are brightened by wildflowers, such as the bloodroot,
bluebell, bird’s-foot, violet, dogtooth violet, rue anemone, and species of
trillium, bellwort, and lady’s slipper. In the fall numerous areas, especially
the open fields, are carpeted with species of goldenrod, which is the state
flower, and of coreopsis, or tickseed, aster, ironweed, ageratum, lobelia, and
ruellia. The pennyroyal is a small aromatic herb that grows abundantly in the
Pennyroyal area, which is named for this plant.
| F | Animal Life |
Until the early part of the 19th century,
large mammals were common in the Kentucky region. White-tailed deer and black
bear are still found, although bears are very rarely seen. The red wolf was
recently reintroduced to the western part of the state. Among the many small
mammals found in the state are the red fox, gray fox, beaver, Virginia opossum,
woodchuck, fox squirrel, red and gray squirrel, cottontail, mink, muskrat,
skunk, and raccoon.
Among the great variety of resident birds
found in Kentucky are the cardinal, which is the state bird, and the bluejay,
Carolina chickadee, tufted titmouse, crow, white-breasted nuthatch, several
species of hawks, owls, woodpeckers, and sparrows. Common migratory birds
include the catbird, brown thrasher, great crested flycatcher, slate-colored
junco, golden-crowned kinglet, yellow-bellied sapsucker, cedar waxwing, and many
species of warbler. Popular game birds include the bobwhite, woodcock,
ring-necked pheasant, rock dove, wild turkey, and waterfowl.
Fish common to the lakes and rivers of
Kentucky include the crappie, bluegill, largemouth black bass, smallmouth black
bass, and catfish. In addition, muskellunge and rainbow trout have been
introduced.
Reptiles found in Kentucky include a few
poisonous snakes, such as the timber rattlesnake, cottonmouth, and copperhead,
and many nonpoisonous species, such as the pilot black, bull, chicken, and king
snakes. Other common reptiles include turtles and lizards.
| G | Conservation |
Conservation programs in Kentucky are
largely focused on flood control and soil conservation. Other programs, such as
Kentucky Water Watch, seek to prevent water pollution and to preserve plantlife
and wildlife resources. Federal agencies that administer conservation programs
in Kentucky include the United States Forest Service, the Natural Resources
Conservation Service, the National Park Service, the United States Army Corps of
Engineers, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Tennessee Valley
Authority (TVA). The major state agency active in conservation is the Natural
Resources and Environmental Protection Cabinet.
In 2006 the state had 14 hazardous waste
sites on a national priority list due to their severity or proximity to people.
Progress was being made in efforts to reduce pollution; in the period 1995–2000
the amount of toxic chemicals discharged into the environment was reduced by 21
percent.
In the early 1970s nearly three-quarters
of Kentucky’s rivers and streams were polluted enough to prohibit drinking and
many other uses. Attempts to control pollution sources have met with some
success in cleaning Kentucky’s waterways. However, in the mid-1990s more than
one-quarter of monitored waters were still impaired by pollution. Runoff
pollution from farms, urban areas, and abandoned mines poses some of the most
widespread water quality problems. Air quality also has been improving. Only the
Louisville metropolitan region had days in which federal air quality standards
for ozone were exceeded in the mid-1990s. Regulatory reforms passed in the early
1990s have led to the closure of a number of substandard solid waste landfills,
and all counties have garbage collection ordinances. However, some of these are
voluntary programs, so a problem of illegal trash dumping continues.
| III | ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES |
Until the 20th century, farming was the
main source of income in Kentucky, and manufacturing was limited largely to
processing agricultural commodities and timber resources. A shift toward
manufacturing began in the 1930s and increased markedly after 1945. The state’s
success in attracting new industries was in part due to the abundance of coal
and the availability of low-cost hydroelectricity. In the late 1990s
manufacturing was Kentucky’s dominant economic activity, followed by the
service, government, and financial sectors.
Kentucky had a workforce of 2,039,000 in
2006. The biggest share of them, 33 percent, were employed in the diverse
services sector doing such jobs as working in restaurants or computer
programming. Another 20 percent worked in wholesale or retail trade; 18 percent
in federal, state, or local government, including those in the military; 13
percent in manufacturing; 3 percent in farming (including agricultural
services), forestry, or fishing; 5 percent in construction; 21 percent in
transportation or public utilities; 15 percent in finance, insurance, or real
estate; and 1 percent in mining. In 2005, 10 percent of Kentucky’s workers were
unionized.
| A | Agriculture |
There were 84,000 farms in Kentucky in
2005, the fourth largest number among the states, after Texas, Missouri, and
Iowa. Some 37 percent of farms had annual income of more than $10,000. Many of
the rest were sidelines for operators who held other jobs. In 2005 farmland
covered 5.6 million hectares (13.8 million acres). Some 61 percent of the
farmland was devoted to crops, while much of the remainder was used as pasture
for grazing cattle or horses. Many farms kept a portion of their land in
woodlots.
Tobacco is the leading source of crop
income. Kentucky ranks second among the states, after North Carolina, in the
production of tobacco and usually accounts for one-quarter of the annual U.S.
tobacco crop. Tobacco is grown throughout Kentucky, but the greater part of the
harvest comes from the Bluegrass region and the Pennyroyal. The principal types
of tobacco grown in Kentucky are burley and dark leaf.
Kentucky’s other important cash crops are
corn and soybeans, which are grown mainly in the western part of the state, and
hay, particularly in the central part of the state. Wheat and forest products
are also significant sources of farm income.
Cattle and calves, the most valuable type
of livestock in the farm economy, are raised throughout the state. Production of
beef cattle is concentrated mainly in the Bluegrass and Pennyroyal areas, which
have the best pasturelands in the state. The Bluegrass area is best known,
however, for its Thoroughbred horses. Horse breeding, a valuable component in
Kentucky’s farming sector, is concentrated in the Inner Bluegrass region in the
vicinity of Lexington. Hogs are raised in many areas of central and western
Kentucky but are most numerous in the Western Coal Field and adjoining sections
of the Pennyroyal. Sheep are grazed on the rich pasturelands of the Bluegrass
region.
| B | Forestry |
Lumbering, although no longer the major
economic activity it was in the 19th century, is still important in eastern
Kentucky. Most of the timber cut is hardwood, much of it oak. Beech, yellow
poplar, and pine are also commercially important. Most of the forest lands are
privately owned and are divided into small farm woodlots.
| C | Mining |
Bituminous coal, by far the most valuable
mineral produced in Kentucky, accounted for four-fifths of the state’s total
mineral production, by value, in the late 1990s. Other valuable minerals
produced are natural gas, oil, crushed stone, lime, cement, clays, and
gemstones.
In 1997 Kentucky ranked third among the
states in quantity of bituminous coal produced, behind Wyoming and West
Virginia. Coal is mined in Kentucky’s Eastern Coal Field and Western Coal Field.
The eastern field is larger and contains a better quality coal, and consequently
is the source of the largest share of production. While some surface, or strip,
mining is done, most coal comes from a few, very large underground mines.
Oil deposits underlie much of both
coalfield areas and also the southern part of the Pennyroyal. The leading
oil-producing areas are Union, Henderson, Daviess, Hopkins, and Webster counties
in the western part of the Western Coal Field and Lee County on the Cumberland
Plateau. Most of the state’s output of natural gas comes from gas fields in the
easternmost part of the Appalachian Plateaus region.
Crushed stone, lime, and portland cement
were the top nonfuel minerals by value of production in 1997. Stone, sand, and
gravel are produced throughout the state. The production of lime, used as the
binding agent in cement and concrete, is centered in the north of the state.
Clays are produced in the Gulf Coastal Plain, where there are high-grade clays
suitable for pottery making, and in the northern part of the Appalachian
Plateaus region, where fireclays for use in blast furnaces are mined. Kentucky
consistently ranks among the top states in the production of gemstones.
| D | Manufacturing |
The metals and metal-related industries
dominated Kentucky’s manufacturing in the late 1990s. The largest employers are
the automotive and home appliance industries. The manufacture of automobiles and
parts for the automotive industry accounted for nearly one-fourth of all the
value added by Kentucky’s industries in 1996. Other leading manufactures include
the making of chemicals, including chemicals for use by other industries,
paints, plastics and resins, and adhesives; and the manufactures of industrial
machinery, including heating and cooling equipment, computer peripheral
equipment, conveyors, trucks and tractors used by industry, and air compressors.
Other industries contributing significantly to the state’s economy are food
processing; printing and publishing; and the manufacture of electronic devices.
The Louisville metropolitan area constitutes by far the state’s most important
industrial center.
Beverages account for nearly one-fourth
of the income generated by food-processing industries located in the state. The
single most important beverage produced is bourbon, a whiskey that has been
called Kentucky’s most distinctive product. Kentucky produces more whiskey than
any other state. Whiskey distilling is carried on in many places, but the
principal center is the Louisville area. Other centers are Owensboro, Frankfort,
Lawrenceburg, and Bardstown.
Machinery and electrical equipment,
including farm and textile machinery, transportation equipment, especially
automobiles, and radio, electronic, and X-ray equipment, are manufactured in the
Louisville area and in Covington, Lexington, Paducah, Owensboro, Georgetown, and
Bowling Green. Ashland is an important center for heavy industry, particularly
the manufacture of steel, coke, chemicals, oil products, and bricks. The
manufacture of cigarettes and other tobacco products is concentrated in the
Louisville area. This area makes much of the state’s metal products and
chemicals. It is also the chief publishing and printing center.
| E | Electricity |
Kentucky’s extensive coal reserves and
abundant water supply provide the state with excellent resources for the
generation of electricity. Thermal plants, fueled almost exclusively by coal,
generated 97 percent of the electricity in 2005.
Most of the electricity generated in the
state is produced at publicly owned power plants, which include those operated
by the Tennessee Valley Authority and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Some 3
percent of electricity was produced at a number of hydroelectric generating
stations in the state. Among the largest such stations are those at dams on the
Ohio, Cumberland, Tennessee and Dix rivers.
| F | Transportation |
Kentucky’s first major transportation
routes were formed by part of the famous Wilderness Road and by the Ohio River
valley. These routes were used by migrants traveling westward to Kentucky and
beyond the Mississippi River. They also served as trade routes for commerce
between Kentucky and the states on the Atlantic seaboard.
After the Civil War, the construction of
numerous railroad lines gave the state an excellent transportation system. This
system provided the state with its most widespread network of routes until the
great increase in the use of the automobile and truck began in the 1920s.
Western and central Kentucky have excellent transportation facilities, and the
eastern part of the state has acquired adequate facilities. Louisville is the
principal transportation center in Kentucky.
Kentucky is served by an extensive
highway network that includes the state turnpike system, other state highways,
federal interstate highways, and U.S. highways. In 2005 Kentucky had 125,561 km
(78,020 mi) of roads, including 1,226 km (762 mi) of federal interstate
highway.
Railroads provide freight service to most
of the state’s major urban and industrial centers. Western and central Kentucky
are well served by a relatively dense network of railroad lines. Several
railroad lines cross Kentucky from north to south, but no one line crosses the
state from east to west. In 2004 Kentucky had 4,249 km (2,640 mi) of railroad
track. Coal accounted for 76 percent of the tonnage of goods shipped by rail and
originating in the state in 2004.
Waterways still play a major role in the
movement of bulk goods between Kentucky and other states. The Ohio River is the
most important waterway. The state’s principal ports, all of them on the Ohio,
are Louisville, Covington, Paducah, Owensboro, and Ashland.
The major cities of Kentucky are all
served by airports and feeder lines link most of the urban centers within the
state. Kentucky had 6 airports in 2007, many of which were private airfields.
Blue Grass Airport in Lexington, Louisville International Airport in Louisville,
Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport near Covington were the
state’s busiest.
| G | Trade |
Louisville is by far the leading
wholesale and retail trade center located in the state. However, much of
Kentucky’s wholesale trade is centered in Cincinnati, Ohio. Together, Louisville
and Cincinnati supply most of the retail businesses in Kentucky. Other important
retail trade centers in the state, in addition to Louisville, are Lexington,
Owensboro, Paducah, Ashland, and Covington.
| IV | THE PEOPLE OF KENTUCKY |
| A | Population Patterns |
According to the 2000 census, Kentucky
ranked 25th among the states, with a population of 4,041,769. This figure
represents an increase of 9.7 percent over the 1990 census figure of 3,685,296.
Kentucky’s average population density in 2006 was 41 persons per sq km (106 per
sq mi); considerably higher densities occurred in the north central and western
parts of the state.
Whites comprised the largest share of the
population in 2000, with 90.1 percent of the people. Blacks were 7.3 percent of
the population; Asians were 0.7 percent, Native Americans were 0.2 percent, and
those of mixed heritage or not reporting race were 1.6 percent. Native Hawaiians
and other Pacific Islanders numbered 1,460. Hispanics, who may be of any race,
were 1.5 percent of the people.
In the 1960s Kentucky’s population became
predominantly urban for the first time. By 2000 some 56 percent of the
population lived in urban areas, compared with 45 percent in 1960. The decline
in rural population and growth of urban areas have been constant since the
1940s. These shifts in population have been largely a result of people moving
from rural to urban areas in search of better employment. In addition, there has
been an outflow of people, especially from eastern Kentucky, to urban and
industrial centers in other states.
| B | Principal Cities |
Louisville, home to the Kentucky Derby
horse race and many of Kentucky’s industries, is the center of a metropolitan
region that extends into Indiana. The city itself had a population of 248,762 in
2003. The Louisville metropolitan area, which comprised Jefferson, Bullitt, and
Oldham counties in Kentucky and Clark, Floyd, Harrison, and Scott counties in
Indiana, had 1,222,216 inhabitants in 2006. In the heart of the Bluegrass
region, Lexington-Fayette had 268,080 inhabitants in 2005. The metropolitan area
had a population of 436,684. It extends over Fayette, Bourbon, Clark, Jessamine,
Madison, Scott, and Woodford counties. Owensboro had 55,459 residents.
Covington, with a population of 42,811, and the adjoining city of Newport, which
had a population of 15,911, formed part of the metropolitan area of Cincinnati,
Ohio. Other major cities in Kentucky are Bowling Green, Hopkinsville, Paducah,
Henderson, and Ashland. Frankfort, the state capital, had a population of 27,210
in 2005.
| C | Religion |
During the 1780s, churches were organized
in the Kentucky region by Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, and Roman
Catholics. By 1792, when Kentucky was admitted to the Union, there were more
than 40 churches there. However, membership in these churches totaled only about
3,100, out of a total population for the state of more than 73,000.
In 1797 a great religious revival began in
Logan County under the leadership of James McGready, a Presbyterian minister
from South Carolina. This revivalist movement spread rapidly throughout Kentucky
and the surrounding area. Out of the revivalist gatherings of this period
developed the camp meeting, a great outdoor evangelical meeting (see
Revivals, Religious). For decades the camp meeting was a popular social, as
well as religious, function in Kentucky and other nearby areas. In the early
19th century a group of Shakers, a Protestant sect, was attracted to Kentucky by
the revivalist movement, although it was not a part of it. The Shakers settled
at Shakertown, or Pleasant Hill, and South Union. The Shakertown settlement
lasted until the early decades of the 20th century.
Kentucky has remained a predominantly
Protestant state. The Baptists are by far the most numerous of the Protestant
denominations, representing about two-fifths of church members, followed by the
Methodists and the Disciples of Christ. Members of the Roman Catholic church are
numerous in Kentucky, with about one-sixth of all church members. There are also
small Jewish congregations in the state, most of them in Louisville and
Lexington.
| V | EDUCATION AND CULTURAL INSTITUTIONS |
| A | Education |
The first Kentucky school was opened at
Harrodsburg in 1775 by Mrs. William Coomes, a pioneer schoolteacher. Many
private schools were founded in the Kentucky region during the 1780s and 1790s.
More than 50 county academies, all of them short-lived, were established between
1794 and 1820 with endowments of land granted by the state. The first attempts
to organize a statewide educational system failed, although a state law
providing for public schools was passed in 1838. In 1847, Robert J. Breckinridge
was appointed state superintendent of public instruction. As a result of his
efforts, provision was made in the state constitution of 1850 for the
establishment of a public school system. The development of the system was
interrupted by the American Civil War (1861-1865) and later was hampered by lack
of funds. With an increase in state aid in 1908 and codification of the school
laws in 1934 an efficient statewide school system became a reality. To equalize
educational opportunities, an amendment to the state constitution in 1953
permitted distribution of school funds to counties on the basis of need, as well
as population.
School attendance in Kentucky is compulsory
for all children from the ages of 6 to 16, and children must have parent or
guardian approval to leave school between ages 16 and 18. For many years
separate schools were maintained for white and black students, but after 1954,
integration of the schools proceeded with little opposition. Some 12 percent of
Kentucky’s children attend private schools.
In the 2002–2003 school year Kentucky spent
$7,012 on each student’s education, compared to the national average of $ 9,299.
There were 16.1 students per teacher (the national average was 15.9). Of those
people older than 25 years of age in the state in 2006, 80 percent had a high
school diploma, compared to a national norm of 84 percent.
| A1 | Higher Education |
In 2004–2005 Kentucky had 31 public and
45 private institutions of higher education. Transylvania University, in
Lexington, is the oldest institution of higher education west of the Allegheny
Mountains. Chartered in 1780, it was opened near Danville in 1783 as
Transylvania Seminary and later was moved to Lexington. Other long-established
schools in the state are Georgetown College; the University of Louisville; the
University of Kentucky, in Lexington; and Kentucky State University, in
Frankfort. Other institutions in the state include Eastern Kentucky University,
in Richmond; Western Kentucky University, in Bowling Green; Morehead State
University, in Morehead; Murray State University, in Murray; Northern Kentucky
University, in Highland Heights; Berea College, in Berea; and Centre College, in
Danville.
| B | Libraries |
There are 116 tax-supported public library
systems in Kentucky. Each year the libraries circulate an average of 5.4 books
for every resident. The largest public library is the Louisville Free Public
Library, which is noted for its extensive computer resources and other service
programs. The Lexington Public Library, which was founded in 1795, houses an
outstanding collection of early Kentucky newspapers. Notable college libraries
include those of the University of Kentucky, Berea College, the University of
Louisville, Eastern Kentucky University, and Western Kentucky University.
Transylvania University has a noted collection of books on medicine and natural
history. Among the special libraries in Kentucky are those of the Filson Club
Historical Society in Louisville and of the Kentucky Historical Society in
Frankfort, both of which include fine collections of Kentuckiana. The Abbey of
Our Lady of Gethsemani, near New Haven, houses a noted collection of Roman
Catholic literature, available to scholars by appointment.
| C | Museums |
The Speed Art Museum, in Louisville, is
noted for exhibits of European art, Native American artifacts, and Kentucky art.
Other noted art museums include the University of Kentucky Art Museum and the
Allen R. Hite Art Institute at the University of Louisville. Bardstown is the
site of the Oscar Getz Museum of Whiskey History. The Schmidt Museum of
Coca-Cola Memorabilia is in Elizabethtown, and the National Corvette Museum is
in Bowling Green. In Louisville is the Kentucky Derby Museum. There is also the
International Museum of the Horse in Lexington. The United States Army maintains
Patton Museum of Cavalry and Armor at Fort Knox.
| D | Communications |
There were 21 daily newspapers published in
Kentucky in 2002. The state’s first newspaper was the Kentucky Gazette,
founded in Lexington in 1787. The Louisville Courier-Journal was formed
in 1868 by the merger of the Journal, the Courier, and the
Democrat. Under the editorship of Henry Watterson it became one of the
leading Southern newspapers. It now has a larger circulation than any other
daily newspaper in the state. Among other major Kentucky dailies are the
Lexington Herald-Leader, the Covington Kentucky Post, the
Frankfort State Journal, the Owensboro Messenger-Inquirer, and the
Paducah Sun.
The first commercial radio station in
Kentucky, WHAS, began broadcasting in Louisville in 1922. WAVE-TV, the first
television station in the state, commenced operations in the same city in 1948.
In 2002 there were 96 AM and 120 FM radio stations and 31 television stations
serving Kentucky.
| E | Music and Theater |
Much of the nation’s treasury of folk music
has come from the mountains of eastern Kentucky, where traditional English,
Scots, and Irish ballads have been handed down for generations and where many
indigenous American folk songs have evolved.
Louisville supports a symphony orchestra
that is noted for having its own recording label. In addition, community concert
programs are held regularly in Lexington and Louisville. The Actors Theatre of
Louisville was designated the state theater in 1974. There are many active
little-theater groups in the state, including those at the University of
Louisville and the University of Kentucky.
| VI | RECREATION AND PLACES OF INTEREST |
Facilities for picnicking, camping, hiking,
horseback riding, and other forms of outdoor recreation are found throughout the
state, especially in the various units of the state park system. Many of these
units lie on rivers, lakes, or reservoirs and are popular areas for swimming,
boating, fishing, and water-skiing. Hunting and fishing are two very popular
pastimes. The Kentucky countryside, noted for its scenic diversity, is
considered one of the state’s principal tourist attractions. In addition,
Kentucky is noted for its numerous places of historical interest.
| A | National Parks |
The four units administered by the
National Park Service are among the state’s most popular attractions. The
underground passages of Mammoth Cave National Park are still being mapped by
explorers. Mammoth Cave itself is a series of limestone chambers and narrow
passages on five separate levels. It connects with two other cave systems that
together extend 560 km (348 mi), making it the longest explored cave system in
the world. In this vast subterranean world are giant vertical shafts, including
the towering Mammoth Dome. Some passages and rooms are decorated with sparkling
white gypsum crystals, while others are fitted with the sculpted shapes of
stalactites, stalagmites, and other cave formations. Underground rivers, with
names like Echo River and the River Styx, flow through Mammoth’s deepest
chambers.
Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National
Historic Site, located near Hodgenville, includes a 19th-century log cabin
representing the home in which Lincoln might have been born. Cumberland Gap
National Historical Park was established in 1940 to preserve the historical
Cumberland Gap area, a route through the Appalachian Mountains used by pioneers
to enter the Kentucky territory. A portion of the Big South Fork National River
and Recreation Area on the Cumberland River is located in southeastern Kentucky.
The free-flowing river passes through scenic gorges and valleys containing a
variety of natural features.
| B | National Forests |
Daniel Boone National Forest covers
271,000 hectares (670,000 acres) of the Appalachian Plateaus region of Kentucky.
The forest, a relatively narrow ribbon of land, extends across the region from
the Tennessee state line to within about 30 km (about 20 mi) of the Ohio state
line. Within the forest is the Red River Gorge, a protected geological area.
Kentucky also contains a small section of Jefferson National Forest, most of
which is in Virginia.
| C | State Parks |
Kentucky maintains a widespread system of
50 state parks, 17 of which are resort parks. The Pennyrile Forest State Park is
located south of Dawson Springs. Grouped around the vast Kentucky Lake, which
lies on the Tennessee River behind Kentucky Dam, are Kenlake and Kentucky Dam
Village state resort parks. Situated in the western part of the state, both of
these state parks provide excellent facilities for fishing and water sports.
Cumberland Falls State Resort Park, surrounded by Daniel Boone National Forest,
is on the Cumberland River. The Cumberland Falls, the park’s principal
attraction, are 38 m (125 ft) wide and have a drop of 21 m (68 ft). They are
known for their moonbow, a rainbow that forms at full moon in the mist over the
falls. In Natural Bridge State Resort Park, which is also surrounded by the
national forest, is a spectacular, natural stone arch. The Kentucky Horse Park
at Lexington features a great variety of horses and international
competition.
In addition, there are units of the park
system that are noted for their historic associations. Jefferson Davis Monument
State Historic Site, at Fairview, in southwestern Kentucky, commemorates the
birthplace of Jefferson Davis, who served as the only president of the
Confederacy. John James Audubon State Park, near Henderson, in northwestern
Kentucky, is named for the famous 19th-century naturalist and artist John James
Audubon, who lived and worked in Henderson. In the park are a bird sanctuary and
a museum that houses some of Audubon’s famous works.
At Bardstown, about 50 km (about 30 mi)
southeast of Louisville, is My Old Kentucky Home State Park, one of the state’s
most famous landmarks. The park preserves Federal Hill, the mansion where,
according to tradition, Stephen Foster was inspired to write the famous song for
which the shrine is named. This song is now the state song of Kentucky.
Old Fort Harrod State Park, at
Harrodsburg, commemorates the first permanent white settlement in Kentucky. It
includes a reconstruction of the original Fort Harrod, which was built in 1775,
the year after the first settlers arrived. The site of a settlement organized by
Daniel Boone is in Fort Boonesborough State Park. In Levi Jackson State Park,
near London, in southeastern Kentucky, are reproductions of pioneer buildings.
Two other units, Perryville Battlefield State Historic Site, in central
Kentucky, and Blue Licks Battlefield State Park, northeast of Lexington,
commemorate the bloodiest battles that occurred in Kentucky during the Civil War
and the American Revolution (1775-1783). Other state park units include
Columbus-Belmont Battlefield State Park, which marks the site of a Civil War
engagement; Dr. Thomas Walker State Historic Site, which is dedicated to the
first white person to discover the Cumberland Gap; and William Whitley House
State Historic Site, in which is preserved what is said to be the first brick
house built west of the Allegheny Mountains. The house, which has been restored,
was completed in 1794.
| D | State Forests |
There are six state forests, which cover a
total area of about 16,000 hectares (40,000 acres). The largest is Pennyrile
State Forest, which covers 6,260 hectares (15,470 acres). The others are Dewey
Lake Forest and Kentenia, Kentucky Ridge, Tygart, and Olympia state
forests.
| E | Other Places to Visit |
Among the state’s most interesting places
to visit are the houses associated with famous Kentuckians. Ashland, in
Lexington, was the home and estate of the noted statesman Henry Clay. Also in
Lexington are the childhood home of Mary Todd, who became the wife of Abraham
Lincoln, and the home of John Hunt Morgan, a famous Confederate cavalry
officer.
About 30 km (about 20 mi) southwest of
Lexington is the Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill, a restored community that was
founded in about 1805 by members of a religious society known as Shakers. Also
in the Lexington area are the famous horse farms of the Bluegrass region. Many
of the farms are open to visitors. In a cemetery at Frankfort, the state
capital, are the graves of the famous frontiersman Daniel Boone and his wife,
Rebecca. Near Louisville is the Zachary Taylor National Cemetery, where Zachary
Taylor, 12th president of the United States, and members of his family are
buried. Taylor, although born in Virginia, grew up in Kentucky on a farm his
father bought after the American Revolution. The Lincoln Heritage Trail, which
traces sites associated with Lincoln through Illinois and Indiana, begins near
Hodgenville.
| F | Annual Events |
Horse races are held at several racetracks
in Kentucky almost continuously from spring to fall. The most famous horse race,
which is also Kentucky’s best-known annual event, is the Kentucky Derby. Held
the first Saturday in May, the derby is a race for 3-year-old Thoroughbreds, and
has been held annually at Louisville’s Churchill Downs since 1875. It is part of
the two-week Kentucky Derby Festival. Horse shows are common in Kentucky during
the summer months and are often combined with county fairs. The Kentucky Guild
of Artists and Craftsmen’s Fair, in Berea, is held in May. The Festival of the
Bluegrass is held in Lexington in June. In July a Shaker festival is held at
Auburn. The Kentucky State Fair is held at Louisville in August. In October the
Daniel Boone Festival is held at Barbourville and the Allen County Singing
Convention meets at Scottsville.
| VII | GOVERNMENT |
The present constitution of Kentucky was
adopted in 1891. It is the state’s fourth constitution, succeeding documents
adopted in 1792, 1800, and 1850. To become law, proposed amendments to the
constitution must be approved by at least three-fifths of the elected membership
of each house of the state legislature and then must be approved by a popular
majority in a statewide election. The constitution may also be revised by
constitutional convention.
| A | Executive |
The governor, the chief executive officer
of Kentucky, is elected to a four-year term. The governor may veto proposed
legislation, but the state legislature can override a veto by a majority vote of
the elected membership of each of its two houses. The governor appoints the
adjutant general, the chief administrator, and leaders of the state’s 13
cabinets.
In addition to the governor, state
officials elected to office include the lieutenant governor, secretary of state,
attorney general, treasurer, auditor of public accounts, commissioner of
agriculture, and the three members of the Kentucky railroad commission. All are
elected for four years and cannot succeed themselves.
| B | Legislative |
The Kentucky state legislature, called
the General Assembly, is made up of a 38-member Senate and a 100-member House of
Representatives. State senators are elected to four-year terms and state
representatives to two-year terms. The General Assembly convenes at Frankfort on
the Tuesday after the first Monday in January in even-numbered years. Regular
sessions are limited to 60 legislative days. In addition, the governor is
empowered to call special sessions.
| C | Judicial |
Kentucky’s supreme court is the highest
court in the state. It consists of seven justices, each of whom is elected to an
eight-year term from one of the state’s supreme court districts. The chief
justice is elected by the other justices for a term of four years. The clerk of
the supreme court is elected by the voters of Kentucky and serves a four-year
term. The next highest court is the court of appeals, with a chief justice and
13 associate justices, all elected to eight-year terms. Below the court of
appeals are the circuit courts. The circuit court judges are also elected for
terms of eight years. Below the circuit courts are the district courts. Judges
of the district courts are elected for terms of four years.
| D | Local Government |
As in a number of other Southern and
border states, county government in Kentucky is largely the responsibility of
the local judiciary. The chief governing body in each of the 120 counties is
called the fiscal court. It is made up of either the county judge and justices
of the peace elected in magisterial districts within the county or of the county
judge and a board of three commissioners who are elected for four-year terms.
The county judge serves as the chief executive officer in each county. Other
county officials elected on a countywide basis are the county attorney, sheriff,
coroner, clerk of the county court, county clerk, and tax commissioner.
Most of the municipalities in Kentucky
have the mayor and city council form of government. However, some of the
municipalities in the state are governed by a commission or by a council and
city manager.
| E | National Representation |
Kentucky voters elect six members to the
U. S. House of Representatives and two members to the U.S. Senate. The state has
eight electoral votes in presidential elections.
| VIII | HISTORY |
| A | Early Inhabitants |
In ancient times, several different
Native American cultures flourished in Kentucky. Nomadic hunters, whose culture
is called Paleo-Indian by archaeologists, were present as early as 10,000 to
12,000 years ago. Divided into small bands, they ranged widely over the land,
hunting many now-extinct animals. In the later Archaic culture, from about
10,000 to 3,000 years ago, woven baskets and highly specialized stone tools
abounded. The Adena era, beginning about 3,000 years ago, was marked by the
practice of horticulture, mound building, and the making of clay pottery.
Remains of later Mound Builders cultures, the Hopewell and Mississippian, are
found in the west along the Ohio and Mississippi rivers.
The number of mounds and dwelling sites
found in Kentucky suggests that it once had a sizable Native American
population. However, most permanent residents were gone by the time the first
European explorers arrived in the 17th century. Warfare was one reason for the
depopulation; another may have been the spread of new diseases, introduced to
the continent from Europe, to which the Native Americans had no immunity. The
only peoples living within the present state borders at that time were a few
Shawnee, Iroquois, and Delaware. Around 1700 the Shawnee were pushed north of
the Ohio River by the Chickasaw people, who then claimed western Kentucky as a
hunting ground but did not settle it. Other peoples claimed hunting rights in
Kentucky and defended them vigorously against white encroachment. The early
white explorers and settlers were subject to Native American raids, mainly from
across the Ohio River, until after the American Revolution.
| B | European Exploration |
In the early 1670s the English sent
explorers westward from their colony of Virginia across the Appalachian
Mountains. At least one of these explorers, Gabriel Arthur, entered Kentucky in
1674. Although the French had no particular interest in Kentucky at the time, it
was part of the vast Mississippi River drainage basin, which the French explorer
René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, claimed for France in 1682. However,
neither the French nor the English made any efforts to explore Kentucky
extensively for more than 50 years.
| C | The 18th Century |
| C1 | Land Grants |
In the early decades of the 18th
century, France and Great Britain (a union of three countries headed by England)
vied for control of the strategic valley of the Ohio River. To strengthen the
British position, officials in Virginia granted large tracts of land west of the
Appalachians to newly organized land settlement companies. Virginia did not
actually own the land it was granting, which few whites had ever seen. Virginia
could only grant the rights to explore, trade, use economic resources, and
occupy land not already occupied. The grants were not good against the Native
Americans’ rights to the lands they lived on; if whites wanted to own the land,
they had to buy it. Furthermore, France, on the basis of La Salle’s claim,
denied that Virginia had any rights at all west of the Appalachians.
The Virginia companies dispatched
explorers to survey their acquisitions. One of these explorers, Thomas Walker of
the Loyal Land Company, in 1750 found a pass through the Cumberland Mountains (a
part of the Appalachians), which was given the name Cumberland Gap and which
later became the main land route for settlers coming from the Atlantic Seaboard.
The next year, Christopher Gist of the Ohio Company made his way down the Ohio
Valley and explored much of northern Kentucky. However, the land companies
failed to attract settlers, largely because of the French and Indian War, which
broke out in 1754 between Britain and France. The immediate cause of that war
was a clash between the powers over the same disputed border, the Appalachian
Mountains.
| C2 | Daniel Boone |
In 1763 the French and Indian War was
concluded by a treaty that gave Great Britain all the territory east of the
Mississippi, including what is now Kentucky. About the same time, the Native
American raids temporarily subsided. These developments prompted a number of
“long hunters,” so called because of their extended hunting trips, to venture
into the vast western region that included Kentucky. One long hunter was Daniel
Boone of North Carolina, probably the most famous early American frontier
adventurer. Boone made his first trip into Kentucky in the winter of 1767 and
1768 to hunt and trap and also to find a route to the fertile Bluegrass region
of central and northern Kentucky, which he had heard about from a man who had
been there. However, he failed to penetrate beyond the Cumberlands. Later, in
the spring of 1769, Boone passed through Cumberland Gap. He then followed a
Native American path, known as the Warriors’ Path, northward to the Bluegrass
region. Later, Boone ranged over much of central and eastern Kentucky, hunting
and exploring until 1771.
| C3 | Organized Settlements |
Surveyors, land speculators, and
settlers followed the long hunters into Kentucky. In the spring of 1774 James
Harrod, accompanied by a small group of settlers, established Harrodstown (now
Harrodsburg), the first permanent white settlement in Kentucky. Fort Harrod was
built near Harrodstown in 1775. In the same year, Judge Richard Henderson of
North Carolina, head of the Transylvania Company, engaged Daniel Boone to
supervise the cutting of a trail to the Bluegrass region and establish a
settlement there. Following in part the old Warriors’ Path, Boone blazed a trail
through the Cumberland Gap and on into central Kentucky. The trail, known as
Boone’s Trace, was later widened to form a leg of the famous Wilderness Road
from western Virginia to central Kentucky.
At the end of his trail, Boone
established a settlement, later known as Boonesborough, on the Kentucky River
about 72 km (45 mi) east of Harrodstown. Soon other settlements were established
in the Bluegrass region and, together with Harrodstown and Boonesborough, began
to attract settlers from other colonies.
At this time white settlement west of
the mountains without the agreement of the Native Americans was forbidden by
proclamation of Britain’s king. Harrod’s party ignored the proclamation.
Henderson’s company, however, made a treaty with the Cherokee people, securing
control of 6.88 million hectares (17 million acres). The Virginia legislature
later reduced this to 80,900 hectares (200,000 acres).
| C4 | Transylvania Colony |
In May 1775 Henderson called together
at Boonesborough representatives from the various Kentucky settlements. They
passed laws, drafted articles vesting governmental power in the Transylvania
Company, and petitioned the Continental Congress for recognition of a colony,
called Transylvania, that would encompass all the Kentucky settlements and would
have status equal to that of the other 13 colonies. Congress, however, ignored
the petition.
Many Kentucky settlers opposed the
establishment of an independent colony. Meeting in Harrodstown in June 1776,
they dispatched George Rogers Clark and John Gabriel Jones to the Virginia
legislature at Williamsburg. Mainly as a result of the influence of Clark and
Jones, the legislature declared the Transylvania Company illegal and designated
Kentucky a county of Virginia.
| C5 | The American Revolution |
During the American Revolution
(1775-1783), the British incited their Native American allies to attack the
settlements of the Kentuckians. The most massive attack was by the Shawnee
against Boonesborough in September 1778. Although heavily outnumbered, the
Boonesborough defenders, under Boone’s leadership, managed to repulse the
attackers. Meanwhile, Clark, who had become a lieutenant colonel in the Virginia
militia, had embarked on a campaign to wrest control of the territory north of
the Ohio River from the British.
British forces made two major forays
into Kentucky in the latter part of the revolution. In 1780 British troops and
Native Americans captured several outposts on the Licking River but failed to
press their advantage. In 1782 the entry of another force of British and Native
Americans into that region produced Kentucky’s last and bloodiest battle of the
war, which took place at Blue Licks. The Kentuckians lost that battle, but the
Native Americans retreated and never again mounted a serious assault on Kentucky
settlements.
| C6 | Statehood |
After the revolution, thousands of
settlers from the East migrated to Kentucky, venturing down the Ohio River or
across the Cumberlands by way of the Wilderness Road. By 1790 the region had a
population of more than 73,000. As the number of settlers grew, there were
increased demands for separation from Virginia. From 1784 to 1790, nine
conventions were held at Danville to resolve issues related to separation.
Finally, at the ninth convention, the delegates voted to accept the terms of
separation offered by Virginia and petitioned the Congress of the United States
for statehood. At a final convention in 1792, a state constitution was drafted.
On June 1, 1792, Kentucky entered the federal Union as the 15th state and the
first west of the Appalachians. Isaac Shelby was elected as the state’s first
governor. Lexington was briefly the seat of state government until, later that
year, Frankfort was designated the permanent state capital.
In the period following the
achievement of statehood, Kentuckians were among the most vigorous advocates of
the so-called frontier point of view, which was characteristically democratic,
antiprivilege, and anti-British. Kentucky’s second state constitution, which
became effective in 1800, provided for the election of the state governor and
members of the state senate by direct popular vote, rather than by a state
electoral college as the first constitution had stipulated. This provision and
other features of Kentucky’s constitution were later used as models by a number
of other new states.
| D | The 19th Century |
In the early years of the 19th century,
Kentuckians shared the particularly strong anti-British feeling that was
prevalent along the Western frontier. As United States-British relations became
increasingly strained, Kentuckians, most notably U.S. Congressman Henry Clay,
became ardent advocates of war against Britain. During the subsequent War of
1812 (1812-1815), Kentucky contributed more than its quota of soldiers to the
U.S. military forces.
Politically the state played an
important role in national affairs, with Clay three times a presidential
candidate, Richard M. Johnson a vice president, and numerous others serving as
Cabinet officers or congressional leaders.
The last Native American claims to
Kentucky lands were eliminated in 1818 with what is called the Jackson Purchase.
In this transaction, former Governor Shelby and General Andrew Jackson bought
the Chickasaw claim to lands in western Kentucky and western Tennessee. The
Kentucky portion of the purchase now forms eight counties.
| D1 | Economic Development, 1800-1860 |
Kentucky’s economic growth during the
first half of the 19th century was marked by the development of large-scale
commercial agriculture, especially the growing of hemp and tobacco, and of trade
and manufacturing. This economic growth was accompanied, and in part spurred, by
the state’s rapid increase in population. The state’s population rose from
220,955 in 1800 to 687,917 in 1830 and to 1,155,684 in 1860.
The spread of commercial farming
across central and western Kentucky during the pre-Civil War era was largely
responsible for the excessive cutting down of forests in these areas. Tobacco
farmers in particular tended to clear new areas for cultivation each year, with
little regard to the value of the timber, which they often burned, or to the
subsequent increase in soil erosion. In the meantime, eastern Kentucky remained
primarily an area of subsistence farming. During the decades preceding the Civil
War, many commercial farmers in Kentucky used black slaves for labor,
particularly on hemp and tobacco farms.
Initially, flatboats and keelboats
carried Kentucky products downstream to New Orleans. After 1810 steamboats
gradually came to be the principal carriers of commercial goods on the
Mississippi River system. The advent of the steamboat gave impetus to trade and
consequently to commercial agriculture in Kentucky. Louisville, on the Ohio
River, developed as Kentucky’s principal trade center.
Although a system of private toll
roads was built in Kentucky before 1860, there was comparatively little railroad
construction until after the Civil War. The only major railroad completed before
1860 was the line built by the Louisville & Nashville Railroad between
Louisville and Nashville, Tennessee.
| D2 | The Slavery Issue |
Slavery was one of the most divisive
issues in national politics in the 19th century. Politicians of the Northern
states pressed to end it, both because they considered it immoral and because
white labor could not compete with unpaid black labor. Politicians of the
cotton-growing Southern states felt that slavery was necessary to their
agricultural system and that the North was trying to dominate the country
economically. Many in the influential slaveholding class in the South favored
secession from the Union and formation of a separate Southern nation. Kentucky’s
statesman Henry Clay became known in Congress as the Great Pacificator for his
ability to keep the slavery issue under control. He engineered the Missouri
Compromise of 1820 and the Compromise Measures of 1850, both of which solved
apparent impasses over extension of slavery to the new territories of the United
States.
By the mid-1850s, however, Clay had
died, the South had become a minority section, and its leaders viewed the
actions of Congress, which they no longer controlled, with growing concern. The
North demanded for its industrial growth a protective tariff, federal subsidies
for shipping and internal improvements, and a sound banking and currency system.
The West looked to Congress for free homesteads and aid for its roads and
waterways. The South regarded such measures as discriminatory, favoring Northern
commercial interests, and it found intolerable the rise of antislavery agitation
in the North.
In 1860, Abraham Lincoln was elected
president as the candidate of the Republican Party, which opposed the spread of
slavery. The cotton state of South Carolina had threatened to secede if the
Republicans won, and in December 1860 it did so. Other slavery states followed
in quick succession, and in February 1861 they formed a confederacy, the
Confederate States of America.
Kentucky, although a slavery state,
grew little cotton. Like the other so-called border states, it maintained close
economic ties with both the North and South. Still, the 225,000 slaves in
Kentucky in 1860 were a major portion of the state’s labor force and nearly 20
percent of the total population. Most of the Kentucky slaveholders were, of
course, ardent supporters of slavery. However, a considerable number of
Kentuckians were actively opposed to slavery and had little interest in or
sympathy for the South.
| D3 | The Crittenden Compromise |
U.S. Senator John Jordan Crittenden
of Kentucky, a prominent supporter of the Union, proposed a compromise in
December 1860 to avert secession. Crittenden and others hoped that a further
concession might appease the South. His proposals were designed to provide that
slavery would be prohibited in territories north of latitude 36°30’ N, the line
established by the Missouri Compromise, but protected south of that line. Under
his plan, slavery could not be abolished in any state where it existed unless
that state consented, and the federal government would compensate owners of
fugitive slaves if it was established that the slaves had escaped with outside
assistance. Lincoln disapproved of the Crittenden Compromise, which contributed
to its rejection in Congress by the House of Representatives in January 1861 and
by the United States Senate in March.
| D4 | The Civil War |
The failure of Crittenden’s
compromise presaged the outbreak of the American Civil War (1861-1865) in April.
Kentucky’s governor, Beriah Magoffin, refused both the Union’s and the
Confederacy’s call for volunteers. In May the state legislature resolved that
Kentucky would take no part in the fighting, and Magoffin issued a proclamation
declaring the state to be neutral in the conflict. Because of the state’s
strategic location, neither side fully respected Kentucky’s neutrality.
Recruiters from both the Union and the Confederacy enlisted Kentuckians. First
the Confederacy, then the Union, began moving troops into the state. Throughout
the war Kentucky remained at the mercy of the occupying armies.
The first major battle of the war in
Kentucky, the Battle of Mill Springs or Logan’s Crossroads, fought at Nancy in
January 1862, resulted in a Confederate defeat. Then, late in the summer of
1862, Confederate forces embarked on a bold campaign to take Kentucky. They
pushed northward and westward into the state from central Tennessee and defeated
Union Army troops at Richmond and Munfordville. However, the main Confederate
advance was halted at Perryville on October 8, 1862. The Battle of Perryville,
also known as the Battle of Chaplin Hills, was the bloodiest engagement in the
state’s history. More than 7,600 casualties were counted. No other large-scale
battles took place in the state, although raids by Confederate General John Hunt
Morgan gained much notice. During the later years of the war, guerrilla bands,
including the notorious group led by Captain William Quantrill, made sporadic
raids in Kentucky.
In November 1861, without legal
sanction, supporters of the Confederacy met at Russellville and passed an act of
secession, declaring Kentucky to be a Confederate state. This action was
recognized by the Confederacy but not by the Union. The state was a star in both
flags. Throughout the war, Kentuckians remained divided in their loyalties to
North and South. A total of about 100,000 Kentuckians, including more than
20,000 blacks, joined the Union Army, while about 40,000 residents joined the
Confederate forces. A number of native Kentuckians played a prominent role in
the Civil War. Besides the opposing presidents Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson
Davis, Confederate Generals John Bell Hood and Albert Sidney Johnston had both
been born in Kentucky. Kentucky was the only state represented in the cabinets
of both the Union and Confederate governments: James Speed was the Union
attorney general, and John Cabell Breckinridge was the Confederate secretary of
war.
| D5 | Power Readjustment |
After the Confederate invasion of
1862, the legislature aligned Kentucky with the Union. Thus it did not undergo
all the postwar measures enacted against other Southern states in the period of
restoration, or Reconstruction, of the Union. It was not initially occupied by
Union troops. However, Kentucky resisted granting civil rights to blacks, and
this resulted in a military presence by the Union Army for some time. The
state’s anger regarding black rights pushed it toward greater sympathy with the
South, and many of its postwar leaders were Confederate soldiers or
sympathizers. Blacks did not become legally free in Kentucky until the 13th
Amendment to the Constitution of the United States became law in December
1865—eight months after the end of the Civil War.
The Democratic Party dominated
postwar politics; not until 1895 would the party of Lincoln win a race for the
governor’s seat. Meanwhile the state’s black citizens, many of whom had fought
for the Union, were forced by new laws into a second-class, segregated status.
That status was enforced by widespread terrorism, which the Democratic
administration would not or could not stop. Some Kentuckians, notably U.S.
Supreme Court Justice John Marshall Harlan in his dissent in Plessy v.
Ferguson, in 1896, spoke out against that system. Even so loyal a
Democrat as the fiery Louisville newspaper editor Henry Watterson, a national
spokesperson for Southern home rule, championed some expansion of black rights;
but the system remained.
| D6 | Political Unrest and Social Violence |
Eventually, factionalism within the
Democratic Party and agrarian unrest challenged the party’s rule. Third-party
movements abounded. Farmers, unhappy at discriminatory freight rates and their
declining influence on the Democratic leadership, supported reform movements
such as the Greenback Party, the Farmers’ Alliances, and the People’s Party.
This political movement was called populism. Populists sought, among other
measures, to institute farmers’ cooperatives on a national scale; to lower
transportation costs by nationalizing the railroads; and to achieve a more
equitable distribution of the costs of government by means of a graduated income
tax. The movement had some success; the state’s fourth (and present)
constitution, drafted in 1891, contained many detailed sections restricting
government. One provision, for instance, barred the governor from serving two
terms in a row; in 1992 this was amended to three terms. Outdated almost
immediately, the constitution has been amended many times over the past
century.
The 1880s saw an eruption of
violence, smoldering since the Civil War, in the famous feud between the
Hatfield and McCoy clans in the mountainous Kentucky-West Virginia border area.
Armed bands shot at each other, and when arrests were made, the arrestees were
often released because of their local influence. The feud did not end until
after 1890, when an interstate incident was created by Kentucky authorities
invading West Virginia to seize and convict several Hatfields. This affair and
other feuds hurt the state’s postwar image.
Violence erupted also in the
gubernatorial election of 1899. The leading candidates were Republican William
S. Taylor and Democrat William Goebel. When the votes were counted, Taylor
appeared to have won by some 2,000 votes, and he was inaugurated on December 12.
However, the Democratic majority in the legislature undertook an investigation
of the votes, and it was expected that they would soon declare Goebel governor.
While that debate was under way in January 1900, Goebel was shot by an unknown
assassin. During the four days that he lived, the Democratic majority threw out
enough votes to declare him the state’s chief executive, and swore him in as
governor. Republicans refused to recognize the legality of that action, and two
governments, each with their own supportive militia force, faced off. Civil war
on party lines seemed possible, but finally the decision was left to the courts
and in May, the U.S. Supreme Court let stand the Democratic Party’s actions.
With Goebel dead, his lieutenant governor, J. C. W. Beckham, was declared
governor and Taylor fled the state.
| E | The 20th Century |
| E1 | The Black Patch War |
Popular political movements directed
against monopolies gained much support in the 1890s and the first decade of the
20th century. Roads that charged tolls for those using them were the first
targets. Destruction of the tollgates eventually impelled many owners to sell
the roads for free public use. From about 1903 to 1908, the Black Patch War, in
western Kentucky in particular, focused attention on a monopoly of companies
that manufactured tobacco products. The monopoly was able to keep prices for
tobacco crops low, causing farmers to go into debt or poverty. A farmers’
cooperative had some success by holding tobacco off the market, but those who
did not join the cooperative’s effort became the target of violent actions by
the so-called Night Riders. Federal responses and higher prices ended the “war,”
but the basic pricing problem would continue until federal New Deal programs to
assist agriculture were enacted in the 1930s.
| E2 | Economic and Labor Developments |
Kentucky recovered from the Civil War
better than many Southern states, and some metropolitan areas, such as
Louisville, benefited from a growing Southern trade. Hemp production declined,
and tobacco became even more important than it had been, but as a result
agricultural prosperity tended to depend on the price for that one crop. In the
late 19th and early 20th centuries, industry began to grow slowly, particularly
liquor production. In the same period, the timber industry grew rapidly, as did
coal production, especially in the eastern part of the state. Construction of
railroads made that expansion possible and opened up other areas of the state as
well.
With the industrial growth came
increasing calls that workers’ rights be recognized, and labor unions began to
make progress. The most serious confrontation between labor and management took
place in Harlan County and surrounding counties in the 1930s, when the coal
operators refused to accept unionization. The result was the so-called “coal
wars.” Armed company police and deputy sheriffs confronted strikers of the
United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) in repeated clashes. There were
dynamitings, murders, and pitched battles in Harlan and its neighboring county,
Perry. Labor unrest continued in the mining areas for several more decades.
| E3 | Depression and World War |
The 1920s saw the state vote down an
antievolution bill and measures to outlaw pari-mutuel betting on races, engage
in divisive political infighting, and reject an attempt to make Cumberland Falls
a hydroelectric dam. Kentuckians also struggled with economic depression in
agriculture and mining and with restrictions on the liquor industry as a result
of the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which introduced national
Prohibition (1920-1933). The state’s economy was already in trouble before the
stock market crash of 1929 that ushered in the Great Depression, the hard times
of the 1930s. Kentucky was not affected as seriously as some parts of the nation
because of its agricultural base and because liquor production was reopened in
the 1930s when the 18th Amendment was repealed. However, Kentucky still suffered
during the Depression and wholeheartedly supported the election of Franklin D.
Roosevelt in 1932 and his program for recovery, the New Deal. New Deal programs
funded conservation efforts, new construction projects, and support to the needy
and elderly. Passage of these programs was aided by Kentuckian Alben W. Barkley,
who was the majority leader in the U.S. Senate (and later the vice president of
the United States under President Harry S. Truman). At the same time a political
newcomer, A. B. “Happy” Chandler, began a long political career as state
senator, lieutenant governor, governor, U.S. senator, and commissioner of
baseball.
With the coming of World War II in
1941, Kentuckians went off to fight and sacrifices were made at home as well,
through rationing, volunteer work, and in other ways. However, the demand for
workers led to more jobs and higher wages. Some Kentuckians went outside the
state to work, and outmigration in the 1940s and into the 1950s was a serious
problem. But those who remained became more prosperous than they had been before
the war.
| E4 | Civil Rights and Women’s Rights |
An increasing demand for equal rights
for all races grew out of World War II. Kentucky’s record on that score had been
mixed, at best, up to that point. Although segregation of the black and white
races was in effect in most public spheres, Kentucky had never denied its black
citizens the right to vote as did many Southern states. The first black elected
to a Southern legislature after Reconstruction was in Kentucky in the 1930s.
Berea College had been the last integrated institution of higher learning in the
South until 1904, when the legislature passed a law requiring racial segregation
in all state schools. Yet in the 1940s federal courts, led by Kentuckian
Frederick M. Vinson, chief justice of the United States, began to break down
those racial barriers in education. When the Court in 1954 fully outlawed
segregation with its Brown v. Board of Education decision,
Kentucky accepted the ruling and moved with few exceptions toward peaceful
integration, a model for the South. Kentucky adopted the first state civil
rights act in the South in 1966, and a similarly path-breaking open housing law
followed in 1968. National leaders like Kentucky’s Whitney Young, Jr., were
instrumental in the effort. But serious problems remained, as riots in
Louisville in 1968 and 1975 indicated.
The state had a similarly mixed
record on women’s rights. Earlier, in the struggle to extend the vote to women,
Kentucky provided national and regional leaders in the persons of Laura Clay and
Madeline McDowell Breckinridge. Its election of a woman, Katherine Langley, to
Congress in 1926 was one of the earliest such successes; in 1972 Kentucky
ratified the proposed Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution; and in
1983 it elected Martha Layne Collins as governor, one of the first woman
governors in the nation. Yet at the same time, Kentucky ranked near the bottom
in the number of women legislators.
| E5 | Kentucky’s Last Half-Century |
In the last half of the 20th century,
the state’s politics overall were somewhat divided. The Democrats won all the
legislative majorities and all the elections for governor (except one) from 1946
through the 1990s, while Republicans carried more presidential contests and held
the U.S. Senate seats more often than Democrats. Outstanding in this regard was
Republican John Sherman Cooper, a champion of civil rights and the United
Nations (UN), who often bolted party lines to support progressive legislation.
He represented Kentucky in the U.S. Senate for 21 years (1946-1949, 1952-1955,
1956-1973).
In the 1960s Kentucky was one of the
targets of the “War on Poverty” program of President Lyndon Johnson: It received
federal funds aimed at improving conditions in depressed states. In 1960 the
state’s per capita income was only 71 percent of the national average. In 1970
it was the last of all the states in the number of school years its adults had
completed: an average of 9.9 years compared to a national average of 12.1. These
are indications of the problems in the state’s economy at the time it began
making the transition from an agricultural and mining base to a manufacturing
one. As a result of that transition, Kentucky’s recent economic fortunes tie it
more to electronics, machinery, textiles, and the metal and chemical industries.
Kentucky is, for instance, the nation’s fourth leading producer of motor
vehicles. Ashland Oil, Brown-Forman, and Humana became important components of
the state’s economic life.
Governors Bert T. Combs and Edward T.
Breathitt, Jr., in the 1960s began to develop the state’s educational system to
support the needs of the new economy, but funding over succeeding years never
reached needed long-term levels. That deficiency culminated in a state Supreme
Court decision in Rose v. Council for Better Education, Inc.,
1989, invalidating the entire educational system. Kentucky at that time stood
near the bottom in national levels of educational attainment. In response, the
legislature in 1990 passed the Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA), which
brought national attention to the state. Kentucky was, in effect, starting all
over again.
That accomplishment was unfortunately
overshadowed at times by a political scandal in 1992 that brought convictions to
some 15 current or former state legislators. Known as BOPTROT—for the Business,
Organizations and Professions committee of the legislature (where the
investigation began) and trotting (the horse-racing sport that was the original
focus of the investigation)—the investigation was the impetus for the passage of
ethics laws, fostered by Democratic Governor Brereton C. Jones, to prevent a
recurrence.
When Kentucky celebrated its
bicentennial of statehood in 1992, it could look back at remarkable growth. From
73,677 in 1790, the population had boomed to 2,147,174 by 1900. Growth slowed in
the 20th century, going over the 3 million mark with 3,038,156 in 1960, and in
1990 stood at 3,685,296, 23rd among the states and fourth in the percentage of
native-born.
At the beginning of the 21st century
Kentucky’s population continued to grow with an estimated 4,092,891 people in
2002, but it also declined relative to other states, ranking 25th in population
that year. A statewide shift toward the Republican Party continued with the
election in 2003 of Ernie Fletcher as Kentucky’s first Republican governor since
1967. Incumbent Democratic governor Paul Patton, who was prohibited by law from
seeking a third consecutive term, faced ethics charges resulting from an
extramarital affair, and the scandal reportedly carried over to tarnish the
campaign of the Democratic candidate.
Fletcher was himself dogged by
political scandal, however, leading to his defeat in November 2007 when he
sought a second term. Democrat Steve Beshear returned the state house to the
Democratic Party, running a campaign that focused on Fletcher’s effort to give
state jobs to political allies.
The history section of this article
was contributed by James C. Klotter. The remainder of the article was
contributed by Wilford A. Bladen.
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