Genealogy
Products
Shop
online for
over 1500 family
history related products.
TheFamilyHistoryStore
|
Heritage
Scrapbooking
Everything
you
need to preserve
your family's
memories forever.
TheFamilyHistoryStore
|
|
Native
Americans
The Native Americans
of Kentucky can be categorized into five eras, the
Paleo-Indian Period, Archaic Period, Woodland Period,
Pre-Historic Period, and the Historic Period.
The first Native Americans
appeared in Kentucky around 10,500 B.C. They were
hunters and gatherers and lived in small nomadic
groups. These Indians hunted large game and gathered
seeds and other plant food for survival. This era
lasted until 8,000 B.C. when the Archaic Period
began.
During the Archaic
Period, the Indians continued to hunt, but gathering
became more important. Toward the end of this period
the Archaic tribes began cultivating squash and
started trading with other tribes. The Archaic era
lasted until 1000 B.C. when the Woodland culture
emerged.
During the Woodland
period, society became more complex. The people
continued to hunt and gather, but agriculture became
a more important source of food. Agriculture caused
the tribes to become more sedentary, allowing them
to make advancements in weaponry and pottery. The
dominant Woodland culture in the Kentucky area was
the Adena. These people were semi-permanent, cultivators
and traders. They left behind burial mounds that
still exist today.
The next two eras,
the Pre-historic, and the Historic, are what we
are most familiar with. During this time, agriculture
became very important. Corn and beans were introduced,
and demand for land rose. With this new agricultural
base, villages became permanent. In the Pre-Historic
period the Mississippian culture developed in western
Kentucky, and the Fort Ancient people developed
in eastern Kentucky.
During the Historic
period Shawnee and Iroquois tribes occupied Kentucky.
It was during this period that Native Americans
began coming into contact with Europeans. With these
Europeans came exposure to many new diseases, decimating
the Indian population.
The Early
Explorers
Historians are unsure
whether the French or the British were the first
Europeans to set foot on Kentucky soil, but we do
know that it was the French who first laid claim
to the Ohio River Valley.
In 1669, the Virginia
General Assembly granted permission for western
exploration, and two years later, Abrahm Woods,
a Virginian, dispatched the first expedition to
discover the rivers that flowed into the south sea.
Between 1673 and 1674, Gabriel Arthur crossed the
Kentucky River accompanied by a friendly tribe of
Indians known as the Tomahittan. During the expedition
the Tomahittan tribe attacked the Shawnees, and
as a result, Arthur was captured and wounded. He
was eventually freed and returned to Virginia with
the first detailed information about Kentucky. His
information sparked the interests of many fur traders
interested in trading with the Indians.
During the 17th and
early 18th centuries, interest in the land that
is now Kentucky was based on trade. Exploration
continued into the 1700s with John Howard and Christopher
Gist. The French and the British both laid claim
to the land, and during John Howard's exploration
he was arrested by the French and expedited to France
for trial. Christopher Gist explored Kentucky as
an agent of the Ohio Land Company in 1751. The company
received a royal grant of 200,000 acres between
the Monongahela and Yadkin Rivers, which reaffirmed
Virginia's claim to the land. The struggle for land
between the British and the French was settled after
the French and Indian War, which took place between
1754 and 1763. The Treaty of Paris ceded Canada
and all French claims east of the Mississippi to
England, with the exception of New Orleans. Once
the British held legitimate claim to the land, they
began settlement.
The First
Settlers
Harrodsburg is credited
as being Kentucky's first permanent settlement.
James Harrod, a Pennsylvanian, led 31 men into Kentucky
in 1774. They traveled down the Ohio and Kentucky
Rivers to present-day Mercer County. On June 16,
1774 they began constructing Harrodsburg. The settlers
erected cabins and cleared land for crops, but fled
the town during Indian attacks. The group returned
a year later with more settlers and joined the McAfee
family who had settled in the area during their
absence.
Boonesborough was
another early settlement, famous because of it's
well-known frontiersman Daniel Boone. Judge Daniel
Henderson, who went against government orders to
negotiate a piece Kentucky land from the Cherokees,
founded the town. Because of his considerable knowledge
of the area, Henderson employed Daniel Boone to
guide a group of settlers. In March of 1775, Boone
left Virginia for Kentucky with 35 men, his wife
Susannah, and a slave woman. Boone led the company,
and hunted for food along the way. Boone and his
entourage traveled through the Cumberland Gap and
continued west, suffering attacks by Indians that
took the lives of some of the men. Boone chose a
site on the south bank of the Kentucky River to
settle, and Henderson joined them soon after. Henderson
was so pleased with Boone that he allotted him 5,000
acres and named the new settlement after him. Food
was scarce in the beginning, but the town survived
and attracted more settlers.
Early Kentucky Government
Later that year (1775),
Henderson called for the creation of a government.
By that time Kentucky had four settlements; Harrodsburg,
Boonesborogh, Boiling Springs, and Logan's Station.
A representative from each town met in Boonsborogh
to draft a temporary government. They passed the
necessary measures calling for courts, militia,
debt collection, and punishment of criminals. The
government was set to meet one year later but never
did. A new resident, George Rogers Clark, called
for an assembly at Harrodsburg, and convinced the
men to travel to Virginia in hopes of convincing
officials to make Kentucky a separate county and
provide protection. Virginia donated gunpowder to
the settlers, which served as recognition of Virginia's
claim to Kentucky. That claim was substantiated
in 1776 when Montgomery, Washington, and Kentucky
counties were added to Virginia.
The American Revolution in Kentucky
By spring of 1776
the pioneer population of Kentucky numbered about
200, with most living in forts at Boonesborogh,
Harrodsburg, and Logan's Station. The area north
of the Kentucky River had been abandoned due to
Indian and British attacks. The Kentuckians raised
a militia led by George Rogers Clark. Boone, Harrod,
Logan and John Todd served as captains. This militia
protected the settlers from continued Indian attacks.
Clark realized that
Kentucky could only be saved from the British and
Indians if Virginia took the offensive, so Clark
enlisted 150 men and marched towards Kaskaskia.
Picking up more men along the way, he took Kaskaskia
by surprise. He was successful in gaining French
support as well as support from various Indian tribes.
Clark, being warned of an oncoming British attack
led by Hamilton, decided the only way to defeat
them would be by surprise. Clark's surprise attack
led to the surrender of Hamilton at Vincennes.
Clark was charged
with protecting Illinois and Kentucky, but he had
trouble raising troops in the west because the main
theatre of the Revolution was in Virginia. When
the fighting ended in 1781 with the surrender of
Cornwallace at Yorktown, fighting continued in the
west, and the British continued to occupy forts
for years afterwards. The continuing British occupation
of forts in the west was a causitive factor leading
to the War of 1812.
By
Rickie Lazzerini
Historian
BA History
University of California, Santa Barbara
Index
of Historical Reviews
© 2005 Rickie Lazzerini,
All Rights Reserved
This page may be freely linked to but may not
be reproduced
in any form without prior written consent from
the author.
|
