KENTUCKY, FLAG OF

U.S. state flag consisting of a dark blue field (background) with the state seal in the centre. At the time of its admission to the Union in 1792, Kentucky was considered to be on the nation's western frontier, and this was reflected in the symbolism of the state seal. According to the design specifications adopted on June 14, 1962, the seal shows two men embracing; one of the figures is a frontiersman in buckskins, and the other is a gentleman in formal frock coat and pants. These suggest Kentucky's country and city inhabitants of 1792, as well as Westerners and Easterners with their common interest in preserving national unity. That theme is reflected in the state motto, United we stand, divided we fall. The Kentucky seal has been represented in the centre of the state flag since the flag's adoption on March 26, 1918. The dark blue background is typical of half of all American state flags. Framing the seal is a wreath of goldenrod (the state flower) and the name Commonwealth of Kentucky. Like Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts, Kentucky has designated itself a commonwealth, although legally it has the same status as the other states. Whitney Smith History Exploration and settlement Before the arrival of Europeans, the Kentucky region was a hunting ground and battlefield for such Indian tribes as the Shawnee from the north and the Cherokee from the south. Even earlier agricultural and hunting peoples left burial mounds and other traces. French and Spanish explorers must have seen Kentucky from the rivers of the Mississippi basin, and traders entered the region from the eastern colonies during the early 18th century. During the 1750s and '60s Indian resistance and rough terrain hindered successful exploration of the region. In 1769, however, Daniel Boone penetrated to the central plateau region, or Bluegrass country. Settlement was rapid during the 1770s, though the prophecies of an angry Cherokee chieftain, Dragging-Canoethat Boone and other whites would find Kentucky a dark and bloody landwere in large part fulfilled. British officers spurred the Indians during the Revolution, notably in raids on Boonesboro in 1777 and 1778 and at a bloody ambush at Blue Licks in 1782, and settlers encountered numerous other sieges, scalpings, and skirmishes. Following the war immigrants poured down the rivers and traveled the Wilderness Road from Cumberland Gap. The settlers founded towns and before long began to call for separation of the judicial district of Kentucky from Virginia. Statehood conventions at Danville in the 1780s were somewhat ruffled by the Spanish Conspiracy of James Wilkinson and others to ally the region with Spain, but they led ultimately to admission into the Union on June 1, 1792, and to the organization of state government, which took place in a Lexington tavern. Statehood and crises Events leading to a second state constitution in 1800 revealed an internal division that has continued to characterize Kentucky. Farmers, who floated their grain, hides, and other products on flatboats down the Mississippi to Spanish-held New Orleans, allied themselves with other antislavery forces to oppose slaveholders and businessmen. The federal Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798, passed in an attempt to control criticism of the government, were vigorously opposed. One of the leading spokesmen for the opposition was the young politician Henry Clay, who was to stamp his personality on the state and national scenes as the great compromiser. Kentucky took a lead in the War of 1812, much of which was fought in the adjacent Northwest Territory against combined British and Indian forces. Following the war a land boom, with attendant speculation and inflation, and the chartering of 40 independent banks that flooded the state with paper money led to financial disaster during the national economic panic of 1819. Fierce controversy over relief to debtors split Clay's Whigs and Andrew Jackson's Democrats. Signs of progress from 1820 to 1850, however, included the building of a canal at Louisville, the chartering of railroads, and increased manufacturing. The slavery question was uppermost, however, until the Civil War. The few large slaveholders were located mainly in the plantation agriculture of the Bluegrass and Pennyrile sections, but by 1833, when the legislature forbade importation of slaves for resale, the state was already one-quarter black. Until the Civil War, proslavery forces maintained an iron control of government and prevented any constitutional change that endangered their property.