Kentucky Pioneers 1941 ERPI Classroom Films - Encyclopedia Britannica

more at http://quickfound.net/

'Follows pioneer families along wilderness road to Kentucky. Shows their schools, recreation and everyday tasks, such as weaving, soap-making, cooking, carpentry and candle-making.'

Originally a public domain film from the Library of Congress Prelinger Archives, slightly cropped to remove uneven edges, with the aspect ratio corrected, and one-pass brightness-contrast-color correction & mild video noise reduction applied.

The soundtrack was also processed with volume normalization, noise reduction, clipping reduction, and/or equalization (the resulting sound, though not perfect, is far less noisy than the original).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Kentucky

Wikipedia license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

The prehistory and history of Kentucky spans thousands of years, and has been influenced by the state's diverse geography and central location. It is not known exactly when the first humans arrived in what is now Kentucky. Around 1800 BCE, a gradual transition began from a hunter-gatherer economy to agriculturalism. Around 900 CE, a Mississippian culture took root in western and central Kentucky; by contrast, a Fort Ancient culture appeared in eastern Kentucky. While the two had many similarities, the distinctive ceremonial earthwork mounds constructed in the former's centers were not part of the culture of the latter.

The first permanent European-American settlement, Harrod's Town, was established in 1774. Kentucky was the 15th U.S. state, admitted to the Union on June 1, 1792, after the American Revolutionary War. Kentucky was initially neutral in the American Civil War, but joined the Union side after a Confederate invasion in 1861. The state remained under Union control for most of the war...

Before 1750, Kentucky was populated nearly exclusively by Cherokee, Chickasaw, Shawnee, Yuchi, Mosopelea, and several other tribes of Native Americans. Early British exploration of the area that would become Kentucky was made in 1750 by a scouting party led by Dr. Thomas Walker, and in 1751 by Christopher Gist for the Ohio Company. Any French claims to Kentucky were lost after the British defeated them in the French and Indian War and signed the Treaty of Paris (1763) on February 10, 1763. The Iroquois claim to much of what is now Kentucky was purchased by the British in the Treaty of Fort Stanwix on November 5, 1768. By 1774 only a few bands of Indians were permanently resident south of the Ohio River. The major tribes—based north of the river—agreed not to hunt south of it.

In 1774, Harrod's Town became the first white permanent settlement in Kentucky. Harrod's Town, named after James Harrod, was founded by the order of the British royal Governor of Virginia John Murray, the 4th Earl of Dunmore. James Harrod led an expedition to survey the bounds of land promised by the British crown to soldiers who served in the French and Indian War. Leaving from Fort Redstone, Harrod and 37 men traveled down the Monongahela and Ohio Rivers to the mouth of the Kentucky River, eventually crossing Salt River into what is today Mercer County, Kentucky. On June 16, 1774, the men established the first pioneer settlement in Kentucky, Harrod's Town. The men divided the land amongst them; Harrod chose an area about six miles (9.7 km) from the settlement proper, which he named Boiling Springs.

On July 8, 1774, Shawnee attacked a small party of Harrod's in the Fontainbleau area, killing two men. The others escaped to the camp, some 3 miles (4.8 km) away.

Just as Harrod's men had completed the settlement's first structures, Dunmore dispatched Daniel Boone to call them back from the frontier and into military service against some bands of Shawnee and Mingo in Lord Dunmore's War... The Treaty of Camp Charlotte, signed by Shawnee Chief Cornstalk, which concluded Lord Dunmore's War, ceded to Royal Virginia the Shawnee claims to all lands south of the Ohio River (today's states of Kentucky and West Virginia). The Shawnee were also obligated in the Treaty of Camp Charlotte to return all white captives and stop attacking barges of immigrants traveling on the Ohio River. On March 8, 1775, Harrod led a group of settlers back to Harrodstown to stay...

During the American Revolution, 1775–1783, settlers soon began pouring into the region; Dragging Canoe responded by leading his faction into the Cherokee–American wars, 1776–1794, especially along the Holston River, at the height of the American Revolutionary War...

Kentucky's second largest city, and former capital Lexington, is named for Lexington, Massachusetts, site of one of the first battles of the Revolution. As the first "new" west for the Patriots, Kentucky was situated in the Western theater of the American Revolutionary War...