VOL. VI--APRIL, 1921--NO. 2

MAKING WEST VIRGINIA A FREE STATE

THE HISTORIC BACKGROUND

In 1763 the Peace of Paris definitely fixed the boundaries of
Virginia, giving as its western line, the Mississippi River from the
Ohio River to the Lake of Woods.[1] As time and settlement progressed,
the other colonies, growing fearful of Virginia's commanding position,
protested against her retention of this vast territory. Finally, in
1784, Virginia ceded to the Congress of the Confederation all lands
lying north and west of the Ohio River. She wanted it stipulated,
however, that the territory between the Ohio River and the Allegheny
Mountains comprising what is now West Virginia should remain forever
hers. Although the Congress did not make this stipulation, for the
reason that Virginia was unable to show title; Virginia was,
nevertheless, permitted to retain possession of the said territory.[2]

"The surface of Virginia of that day is divided into two unequally
inclined planes and a centrally located valley. The eastern plane is
subdivided into the Piedmont and the Tidewater; the western into the
Allegheny Highlands, the Cumberland Plateau, and the Ohio Valley
section; the area between was designated the Valley." The eastern
part of the State abounds in rich fertile soil, well adapted to
agriculture, while the western portion, especially the trans-Allegheny
region possesses in large quantities such natural resources as
bituminous coal, building stone, natural gas and petroleum.[3] The
"Valley," a part of the great Appalachian range of valleys, is a
depressed surface, several hundred feet below the top of the Blue
Ridge Mountains on the one side, and the Alleghenies on the other. It
is the dividing line of the two sections of the State then known as
eastern and western Virginia.

The earlier settlements west of the mountains were made by the more
adventurous persons of the east, who had no property or other ties to
attach them to the soil whence they came. At a later date, a more
substantial class, Germans and Scotch-Irish Presbyterians, made
settlements in this western country. They brought few slaves with them
but engaged in agriculture. A new type of people from the free States
to the north and west, next, came to Western Virginia.[4]

Slavery did not become a flourishing institution there, and in the
decades between the years of 1840 and 1860, the demand for slave labor
in the Gulf States caused the bulk of