Kentucky entered the Union on June 1, 1792, as the fifteenth state. It is
located in the eastern southcentral region of the United States and ranks
thirty-seventh in size of the fifty states. Kentucky, known as the Bluegrass
State, is surrounded by Tennessee, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio,
West Virginia, and Virginia.
Unlike most other states, Kentucky was not home to any Native
Americans when white explorers first visited it in 1750. The Shawnee
and Cherokee hunted on Kentucky land, but they lived in Ohio and
Tennessee. The first colonial settlement was Harrodstown (now
Harrodsburg) in 1774.
A land speculator from North Carolina purchased land in central
Kentucky and tried to create a fourteenth colony there. Virginians
blocked the proposal, and in 1776, they incorporated the region as the
County of Kentucky.
Kentucky was the main gateway for migration into the Mississippi
Valley. By the late 1780s, its settlements were growing, and Virginia soon
realized it could not retain control of the area.
By 1860, half of all Kentucky’s agricultural income was from tobacco. Kentucky was unique during the American Civil War (1861–65)
because it sent men to fight on both sides of the war. Perhaps more so
than in any other state, Kentucky residents felt divided. In the North,
Kentucky-born Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865; served 1861–65) was
president of the United States. In the South, Kentucky native Jefferson
Davis (1808–1889) was president of the Confederate States of America.
Kentucky sent around one hundred thousand soldiers to serve in the
Union army, while around thirty thousand fought for the Confederacy.
After the war, railroad construction increased and led to the development
of timber and coal industries in the eastern part of the state.
In 2006, Kentucky was home to more than four million people,
89.9 percent of them white. Frankfort is the capital city, but it ranks
next-to-last in size of all the state’s major cities. Louisville is the largest,
with more than 550,000 residents. Kentucky is a mountainous state, its highest point being Black Mountain at 4,139 feet (1,262 meters). The
Appalachian Mountains run through Kentucky.
As was true during the Civil War, Kentuckians remain divided in
their loyalties to political parties. In the twenty-first century, poorer
mountain areas tend to vote Republican, while the wealthier lowlanders
usually vote Democratic.
Kentucky’s economy was once agricultural, but manufacturing took
over and continues to bring in the most money. Kentucky leads the
United States in the production of coal and whiskey and ranks second in
tobacco production. It is also one of the biggest producers of trucks and
automobiles.
Kentucky is known for its fine thoroughbred racehorses, and it hosts
the Kentucky Derby on the first Saturday in May every year, a tradition
since 1875. It is the most famous event in thoroughbred horseracing in the world.