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It is now most commonly believed that the name Kentucky can be
attributed to various Native American languages with several
possible meanings from "land of tomorrow" to "cane and turkey
lands" to "meadow lands." This last may come from the Iroquois
name for the Shawnee town Eskippathiki. The name Kentucky
referred originally to the Kentucky River and from that came
the name of the region.
Kentucky was originally inhabited by Native Americans,
including the Shawnee. Kentucky is one of four states referred
to as a commonwealth. Before the American War of Independence,
this land was called Transylvania with its capital at
Boonesborough. It was a major gateway for early
European-American migration to the west through the Cumberland
Gap, and was the first major frontier developed west of the
Appalachian Mountains. Guns enabled this movement westward,
and even the term shotgun was first coined in Kentucky in
1776. In
1790, Kentucky delegates accepted Virginia's terms for
separation and the state constitution was drafted at the final
convention in April 1792. On June 1, 1792, Kentucky became the
fifteenth state in the union and Isaac Shelby, a Revolutionary
War hero from Virginia, was named the first Governor of the
Commonwealth Of Kentucky.
Most Native Americans living in Kentucky were displaced in the
1800s, with the Trail of Tears crossing part of the state near
Hopkinsville. Kentucky was a border state during the American
Civil War and for a time had two state governments, one
supporting the Confederacy and one supporting the Union.
Fittingly, the Presidents of both the United States (Abraham
Lincoln) and the Confederate States (Jefferson Davis) during
the Civil War were born in Kentucky.
Kentucky and its residents are most well known for
thoroughbred horses and horse racing, local bourbon whisky
distilleries, bluegrass music and enthusiasm for basketball,
particularly for the two principal basketball rivals in the
state—the blue and white Wildcats of the University of
Kentucky and the red and black Cardinals of the University of
Louisville. While Kentucky's other pastimes are distinctly
those of the South.
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