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Kentucky and Tennessee
The two bordering, kind of long and narrow states, right here in these United States
Both are in the American South, although Kentucky feels more like a mix of the Midwest and the
South. I’d argue it has more in common with Indiana than Tennessee.
There’s quite a college sports rivalry between the University of Kentucky Wildcats and University
of Tennessee Volunteers that goes back 127 years. But apparently the rivalry goes beyond
sports. The two states even used to have a border dispute.
So yeah, let’s jump into the history of both states first. Eh?
Humans have lived in the area for thousands of years. At the time of European arrival,
the two dominant American Indian tribes in modern-day Tennessee and Kentucky were the
Chickasaw and the Cherokee, although the Shawnee were also dominant in modern-day Kentucky.
Europeans made it to what is now Tennessee first. During the 1500s, three different Spanish
expeditions passed through there, the first being the Hernando de Soto expedition in 1540.
It wasn’t until at least 133 years later that Europeans first arrived in what is today
Kentucky. Several French expeditions traveled to it via the Mississippi River. The English
first came to what is now both states in the 1670s, and it’d be them that came out in
the greatest numbers compared to other European groups over the next 100 years.
By the time of the American Revolution, there were English settlements out that way. In
modern-day Tennessee, the Watauga Association kind of did their own thing until North Carolina
took over it. Daniel Boone was famously one of the first settlers of European descent
to regularly check out both Tennessee and Kentucky, eventually living in Kentucky. He
helped build a couple trails so other pioneers could do the same. The more famous one, the
Wilderness Road, cut through the Cumberland Gap near the Kentucky-Tennessee border. In
1774, Harrod’s Town, named after James Harrod, became the first permanent English settlement
in Kentucky. No one knows for sure where the name “Kentucky” comes from, by the way,
although some say it comes from the Iroquois name meaning “land of tomorrow.” Tennessee
gets its name from the Tennessee River, which got its name from the Cherokee village of Tanasi.
Like I said, modern-day Tennessee was once part of North Carolina, but modern-day Kentucky
was once part of Virginia. Both used to have a short-lived colony called Transylvania,
but it didn’t have any vampires. From 1784-1788, the state of Franklin, in modern-day northeastern
Tennessee, broke away, with North Carolina’s permission actually. However, North Carolina
took it right back after Franklin’s governor tried to get it to join the Spanish Empire.
By that time, both North Carolina and Virginia had a hard time controlling what was going
on west of the Appalachian Mountains. In 1788, Virginia let Kentucky break away and try to
be its own state. The next year, after North Carolina ratified the U.S. Constitution, it
just let the federal government have all of its lands west of the Appalachian Mountains.
Yep, that’d later be Tennessee. The United States admitted Kentucky as the 15th state
on June 1, 1792 and Tennessee as the 16th state exactly four years later (June 1, 1796),
with the fiery future President Andrew Jackson as its first Representative in Congress.
But those borders between the two….remember how I said there was a border dispute? Well,
back in 1779, two dudes named Thomas Walker and Daniel Smith surveyed it and made maps.
But 46 years later, another dude named Thomas Matthews surveyed to show the true border,
which was supposed to be 36 degrees and 30 minutes. So this left a disputed strip of
land between the two states ranging from 6 to 12 miles wide. Eventually this strip was
nicknamed Kennesee. Get it? Kennesee. Oh boy, so creative. Well, Tennessee got that strip,
but Kentucky still got the right to grant the remaining land to settlers.
During the War of 1812, half of all Americans killed in action were from Kentucky, although
Tennessee got its “Volunteer State” nickname because so many who volunteered to fight in
that war came from the state.
In those early years of the two states, both were hubs of the Second Great Awakening, a
revival movement that spread Protestant Christianity through large gatherings with emotional preaching,
singing, and straight up reforming.
Um, yeah, speaking of reform, although there was talk in those early years about possibly
getting rid of slavery in the two states, unfortunately the institution of slavery ended
up only growing more quickly in both as their agriculturally-based economies came to rely
on it. By the American Civil War, about 20% of the population of Kentucky was enslaved
and 25% of the population of Tennessee was enslaved. Speaking of that war, uh yeah Tennessee
broke away from the United States during it, joining the newly formed Confederate States
of America. Kentucky stayed with the Union, but remained a slave state throughout the
war. Slave states that didn’t leave the Union were called Border States, and as I
hinted earlier, even today Kentucky feels like a border state, whereas Tennessee feels
more like a true Southern state.
Anyway, after the Civil War ended, Tennessee was the first state admitted right back into
the United States, but let me tell you, the Jim Crow laws, which treated African Americans
as second class citizens, were pretty horrible in both states for the rest of the 1800s and
first half of the 1900s. Thousands of racially motivated lynchings also took place in both states.
By 1900 the coal industry had grown tremendously in Kentucky. In 1920, Tennessee’s vote in
favor of ratifying the Nineteenth Amendment, which gave women the right to vote, was the
last one necessary to make it pass, which led to a lot of drama there. It passed by
literally one vote. Kentucky had ratified it more than eight months before Tennessee.
During the Great Depression, Tennessee got the Tennessee Valley Authority, the country’s
largest public utility, which built huge hydroelectric dams and coal-fired power plants, bringing
lots of cheap electricity to the state. The TVA covers portions of Kentucky, too. Both
states began to become much more industrialized and urbanized in the years following World
War Two, and were also both hot spots for the Civil Rights Movement.
For the rest of the 1900s and into the 21st century, while both states became more urbanized,
Tennessee’s cities grew more. Tennessee has been growing at a faster rate ever since
World War Two. Back then, Tennessee had around 300,000 more people. (T-2.9 million, K- 2.6
million) Today, it has around 2.3 million more people. (T- 6.8 million, K- 4.5 million)
More Tennessee residents live in cities, and it has six cities with a population larger
than 100,000. Kentucky has just two. Frankfurt, Kentucky’s capital, has less than 28,000
people, while Nashville, Tennessee’s capital, has nearly 700,000 people.
Tennessee has three more electoral votes. (T-11, K-8)
Tennessee has a more ethnically diverse population overall.
More Tennessee residents have college degrees (T-35%, K-32%). However, Kentucky spends more
per student on education.
According to Forbes magazine, Tennessee is a much better state for business. Probably
a big reason why is that Tennessee residents pay much less in taxes than Kentucky residents.
In fact, they have some of the lowest taxes in the country. Major industries in Tennessee
include agriculture, manufacturing, and tourism. Major industries in Kentucky also include
agriculture and manufacturing, particularly automobile manufacturing, but also coal mining
is still big there, believe it or not.
The poverty rate is higher in Kentucky. (T-16.7%, K-18.3%) And yep, the median household income
is higher in Tennessee. (T- $52,375, K- $50,247) That said, the violent crime rate is higher
in Tennessee.
Tennessee is more religious, although both are in the Bible Belt, a region of the country
where Protestant fundamentalism is widely practiced. Speaking of belts, Tennessee is
in the Sun Belt, Kentucky is not. The Sun Belt is a region across the Southern United
States known for milder weather and huge population growth in recent decades. But you know this
because you’ve already seen my Sun Belt video.
Kentucky is known for its bourbon distilleries and college basketball. Tennessee is known
for its whisky distilleries and music. Maybe that’s why it has 10 state songs? Shout
out to Middle Tennessee State in Murfreesboro, known for its music industry program. Oh,
and shout out to my friend Shawn, who went there.
Tennessee is the birthplace of what we call country music. Today Nashville, Tennessee
remains the country music capital of the world, with dozens of record labels based there and
the Grand Ole Opry, the world famous weekly country music radio show which features live
concerts. It greatly helped country music become...you know...a thing when it first
started broadcasting way back in 1925. Really though, Nashville is known for catering to
ALL music genres. It’s a major center for the music industry. Of course, I have to mention
the music of Tennessee’s second largest city, Memphis. So many great musicians came
out of Memphis, who went on to create distinct sub genres of music out of the blues, rock
n’ roll, soul, gospel, and rap.
That said, Bill Monroe, the dude who basically created what we call bluegrass music, is from
Kentucky. It’s called “bluegrass,” by the way, because his band was called the Blue
Grass Boys, named for his home state. Of course, Monroe spent much of his life in Tennessee,
and was a regular performer on the Grand Ole Opry.
The part of Kentucky that often gets the most attention is commonly referred to as the Golden
Triangle, which features the Louisville metropolitan area, Lexington metropolitan area, Northern
Kentucky metropolitan area, which is really just an extension of the Cincinnati metropolitan
area, and everything in between. The Golden Triangle has most of the state’s population,
wealth, and economic growth, and much of the rest of the state isn’t growing much.
Interestingly, Tennessee divides itself into three regions called Grand Divisions-
East Tennessee, Central Tennessee, and West Tennessee. It’s why there are three stars on the state
flag. All three regions certainly are distinct, and Tennessee’s Constitution even requires
that those in government working together come from different regions to better represent
the whole state.
Kentucky is where President Abraham Lincoln was born. Oh, and Jefferson Davis, the President
of the Confederacy during the Civil War, was also born in Kentucky. Awkward.
Kentucky is where KFC got started. Hey did you know that KFC stands for Kentucky Fried
Chicken? True story. But Tennessee is where Cracker Barrel got started.
Despite the rivalry, both have lots in common, for real.
First of all, they are about the same size. Tennessee is just slightly bigger.
Both have a similar geography, both bordered in the east by the beautiful Appalachian Mountains.
This whole eastern portion is known as the Cumberland Plateau. The mountains are bigger
in Tennessee, however. Clingmans Dome, located in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park,
is the highest point in both states.
West of the Cumberland Plateau in both states are the Interior Lowlands made up of prairie
and forests, but also lots of hills, and going even further west you get into the Gulf Coastal
Plain in both states. Northwestern Kentucky is also pretty hilly, and that’s where most
its coal deposits are. Oh yeah, I mentioned Bluegrass earlier...Kentucky also has its
famous Bluegrass Region with really fertile soil and rolling hills...and uh GREEN grass.
The area is known for its many horse farms. Lexington, which is located in the region,
is known as the “Horse Capital of the World.” Kentucky is also home to probably the most
famous horse race in the world, the Kentucky Derby, which takes place every year in Louisville.
Both have a similar climate. Sure, Kentucky gets a little colder in the winter being further
north and Tennessee gets a little hotter in the summer being further south, but both have
an almost entirely humid subtropical climate, with small areas at the highest altitudes
that have an oceanic climate. Both get lots of precipitation compared to most other states,
although Tennessee gets more.
Both are in two different time zones that split up each state.
Both have one national park. As I referenced earlier, Tennessee has part of the Great Smoky
Mountains National Park, the country’s most visited. Kentucky has Mammoth Cave National
Park. Mammoth Cave is the world’s longest cave system. Woahness. But Tennessee has a
lot of caves, too. Don’t you forget it.
Both border A LOT of other states due to their unique shapes. Kentucky borders 7 other states.
Tennessee borders 8 other states. In fact, Tennessee and Missouri are tied for first
place for the state that borders the most other states.
Both border the mighty Mississippi River to the west, and Kentucky’s northern border
is all woah woah woah mostly because that’s the mighty Ohio River, which empties into
the Mississippi at the western corner of the state. But hold on, now what’s going on
HERE?
Well that’s the Kentucky Bend, which is a tiny part of a peninsula created by an oxbow
loop meander of the Mississippi River. For many years Kentucky and Tennessee fought over
this fertile area where cotton did well. So why is it isolated from the rest of Kentucky?
Well, when maps were drawn up, they didn’t account for a series of earthquakes which
caused the Mississippi River to change its path. These earthquakes, known as the 1811-1812
New Madrid earthquakes, were arguably the biggest earthquakes in American history. They
were so big they could be felt as far away as South Carolina and they caused church bells
to ring in Boston.
So yeah, the western portion of both states can experience some serious earthquakes, and
the eastern portion of both states, especially Tennessee, is known for getting earthquakes,
too. Oh you want more natural disasters? Both can get a lot of tornadoes each year. However,
both are far enough inland that they don’t have to worry about hurricanes much.
Speaking of hurricanes, politically speaking, both lean conservative. Both greatly supported
Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election, but back in the 1990s both were more like
swing states, with both voting for Bill Clinton in both the 1992 and 1996 presidential elections.
The median age in both is about the same. (K- 39.1, T- 38.9)
The biggest religion in both is Christianity. Specifically, Evangelical Protestant.
Both states have a low cost of living, although it’s generally cheaper to live in Kentucky
than Tennessee. But I think that’s where I’ll end this video because, oh my gosh
I can’t believe the bargains in both states and why are YOU not living in either state
yet? Seriously? If you can work from home, move to Kennessee today.
This video is sponsored by Newsvoice. It’s my favorite place to look at the news.
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Which state is better? What did I forget to mention? I especially want to hear from you
if you are from one of those two states. Also, here is
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