Among those regions of the country that are culturally self-conscious–northern New England, Southern California, Appalachia–the South has been especially occupied, during the past two centuries, in defining what constitutes its distinctive character. As with any such topic, there is no end of debate, and no conclusion on the horizon. And the discourse has yielded a vast library of studies.
Of which How Kentucky Became Southern is a notable addition. Kentucky, of course, is the quintessential border state–you can cross the line into Virginia to the east, Illinois and Indiana to the west–and while not a part of the Confederacy, its sentiments were generally pro-Southern on the antebellum debates about the extension of slavery. Its greatest statesmen, however, was (and remains) Henry Clay, a proponent of union and “the American system,” author of the great legislative compromises on slavery in the West, and not least, young Abraham Lincoln’s beau ideal. So is Kentucky “Southern,” and if it is, when did it become so?
