“Rivers, mountains, and plains, fertile soil and poor, racial strains and early experiences — all tend to set a people apart and stamp them with an individuality. In addition, place them on a borderland between two diverging civilizations, and that individuality becomes more marked and complete. Thus, only, can much that is peculiar to Kentucky be explained.
Kentucky, among all the states of the Union, has long held a position of special importance and significance. Pronounced characteristics desirable and otherwise have always been associated with the Kentuckian. … As time went on, it was still the custom to think of them as being apart from the people of the other states surrounding them.
As between Indiana and Illinois, little or no difference might be noted; but, as between either of these and Kentucky, a new race would likely be conjured up. The Civil War, its causes and its results, gave additional proof that Kentuckians were not like other people.”
— E. Merton Coulter, The Civil War and Readjustment in Kentucky.
