They would pay taxes to a General Assembly on the other side of the Cumberland Mountains, to a legislature that would not support trade to New Orleans and might not respond to raids from Shawnee living north of the Ohio River. Without support for roads or defense from the Virginia legislature in Richmond, settlers in Kentucky County saw that remaining within Virginia would provide few benefits. Retaining Virginia's claim to the far western lands would have required funding for defense against Native Americans and the British in Canada, and for transportation projects that would not bring trade to Alexandria, Fredericksburg, Richmond, or Petersburg. Virginia chose to give away its lands north of the Ohio River, ceding the Northwest Territory to the new Continental Congress. In the late 1700's, there was no realistic way to construct a canal or road to carry Kentucky's agricultural products through Cumberland Gap to a port on the Atlantic seaboard The only feasible option was to float freight down the rivers, and in Kentucky the rivers float west to the Mississippi River. The costs to carry heavy freight by horse-drawn wagon for 350-400 miles to Richmond, including a crossing of the Blue Ridge, were too high for farmers to make a profit. A road or canal from the Cumberland Gap to a Virginia port was clearly not feasible in the 1700's. Topography made it difficult to get Kentucky's products to the Chesapeake Bay. The legislature was unresponsive to requests to fund roads and canals west of the Allegheny Front that would send agricultural goods down the Mississippi River, rather than to a port in Virginia. The General Assembly made few investments in the Kentucky country. Washington personally supported a canal to facilitate the connection between west and east via the Potomac River, but Virginia's leaders living east of the Appalachians remained focused on trade via rivers that flowed eastward to the Chesapeake Bay. George Washington feared that the United States would lose support of western settlers unless new transportation infrastructure could bring their products across the mountains to port cities on the Atlantic seaboard. Surplus agricultural products, including deerskins, lumber, and corn converted into whiskey, were floated down the Sandy, Kentucky, and Cumberland rivers to Ohio River and then down the Mississippi River to market at New Orleans. Settlers crossed through Cumberland Gap to obtain cheap land, and that land was used for farming. Source: Kentucky Secretary of State - Geographic Materials, 13 Coloniesīeing west of the Allegheny Front was key to the development of Kentucky. In 1780, Kentucky County was subdivided into Jefferson, Lincoln, and Fayette counties.īy 1780, Kentucky County had been split into Jefferson, Lincoln, and Fayette counties Source: Kentucky Secretary of State - Geographic Materials, Animated County Maps 1776-1795 The straight line of the Virginia-North Carolina boundary and the twisted boundaries of two natural features - the Big Sandy River and the Cumberland Mountains - were used to define the edges of the new county called Kentucky: 1Īll that part thereof which lies to the south and westward of a line beginning on the Ohio, at the mouth of Great Sandy creek, and running up the same and the main or north easterly branch thereof to the great Laurel Ridge or Cumberland Mountain, thence south westerly along the said mountain to the line of North Carolina, shall be one distinct county, and called and known by the name of Kentucky. Source: Kentucky Secretary of State, Geographic Materials The name Fincastle disappeared, since it honored the family of Lord Dunmore at a time when he had fled from the developing American Revolution in Williamsburg.Ī Virginia county was first called Kentucky in 1776, when Fincastle County was split into three jurisdictions In 1776, the General Assembly divided Fincastle County to create Washington, Montgomery, and Kentucky counties. The Virginia-Kentucky state boundary involved less conflict and less debate than the other boundaries that now exist between Virginia and North Carolina, Tennessee, Maryland, and the District of Columbia. Source: US Geological Survey (USGS), Wharncliffe, WV-VA-KY 7.5-minute topographical quadrangle map (2014) The tip of Buchanan County marks the Kentucky-Virginia-West Virginia border Virginia-Kentucky Boundary Virginia-Kentucky Boundary
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