West Virginia: The Road to Statehood - New

Excellent production

Nowdays border West Virginian counties were proconfederate and the Union government gave to West Virginia as a present. Greenbrier county had 12.7% slaves, here the touristic industrial used slaves. Kanawa county had 13,7% slaves here the salt mines used slaves.
The most Proconfederate counties were in West Virginia: Mercier more than 75% confederat soldiers recruitments (5.3% slaves), 50-75% confederate soldiers recruitsments: Monroe (10.5% slaves), Greenbrier (12.7% slaves), Pocahontas (6.4% slaves), Kanawa (13.7% slaves), Logan (3.0% slaves), Pendleton (4.0% slaves), Whyoming (2.2% slaves), Jefferson (28.2% slaves), Roane (1.3% slaves) and Gilmer (1.4% slaves). The most prounionist counties 100-90% prounionist soldiers recruiments : Hancock (0% slaves and this county almost voted Abraham Lincoln!), Brooks (0.3% slaves), Ohio (0.4% slaves), Marshall (0.2% slaves), Monongalia (0.8% slaves), Preston (0.5% slaves), Wetzel (0.1% slaves), Morgan (2.5% slaves), Tucker (1.4% slaves), Upshur (2.9% slaves), Ryler (0.3% slaves), Doddridge (0.7% slaves), Taylor (1.5% slaves), Ritchie (0.6% slaves), Wood (1.6% slaves), Mason (4.2% slaves), Clay (1.2% slaves).
Strong prounionist counties 89-75% prounionist soldiers recruinments: Cabell (3.8% slaves), Marion (0.5% slaves), Harrison (4.2% slaves), Lewis (2.9%), Barbour (1.1% slaves), Pleasants (0.5% slaves), Webster (0.2% slaves).
The more counties had a little prounionist majority, but the proconfederate sentiment was strong minority.

enjoyed that.

Despite the history think about the powerhouse Virginia could be today if they had not seperated.

I was in White Sulphur Springs, I was working in the funeral home there. I to where a fire truck 🚒 was parked and that when I learned that we had fatalities. It was a really hard time but the people are some of the best people in the world. I know John personally and he is a very good man and loves Jesus and his people of Greenbrier County. I remember going to people our neighbors in allegheny country Va. they brought us bags of ice 🧊 we was able to take to people. We was able to some to the local nursing home.

Thank you for this incredible documentary!

Now I know where Saddam Hussein got his election tactics.

#1 🇩🇪✌🏻🇺🇸🥇🚬🍔🍏🔩🍎

If the Panhandle of "West Virginia" wanted to remain Union, well, they had the majority there. But all the other Counties SOUTH of the Panhandle should have stayed with Virginia, because the MAJORITY of votes would have been PRO CONFEDERACY. The SOUTHERN PART OF WEST VIRGINIA WAS STOLEN ILLEGALLY BY LINCOLN AND THE NORTH!! I love the Great People of West Virginia, but the way it was formed was NOT CONSTITUTIONAL IN ANY WAY OR FORM. We either go by the Constitution, or we dont. Thats why we are in the mess we are in today. Period. God bless

In the first stanza in John Denver's song, which is by far the "Anthem" of West Virginia: "Almost heaven, West Virginia/Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah River/Life is old there/Older than the trees/Younger than the mountains/Growin' like a breeze"

Its sad that they use the term bondage... Typical though!

The times democrats hated the lost of their slaves again... TODAY!!! Dammed those Dixiecrats.

This narrator has thick West Virginia (almost pittsburgh/baltimore) accent "Haume" ... "prahposauhl" "Orlandoh Poauh"

Nothing but love for both states I am from Virginia but we were also 1 for a long time

Well my car left down here in West Virginia while driving to the east coast. Now learning about the place where I'll stay for a week without being planned. Interesting history though.

Where is the history of slavery written by slaves and the next generation of people who were descendants of slaves who heard their stories of being slaves in West Virginia?

The other state succession was Massachusetts and Maine became two states and funny but slavery was the root cause at that event too. The Missouri compromise brought that new state Maine to the USA in 1820. East Tennessee was little plantation area and they wanted to same as West Virginia did. Interesting Maryland, Delaware, Missouri and Kentucky remained in the Unio and these were less then 20% slaves (for example Kentucky) those states in 1860. It may be small Dixie in Missouri (where the most slaves lived in Missouri and the central base was for the Kansas pre Civil War) was confederate sentiment area, but St Louis was solid Unionist city during the Civil War and the Ozarck reagion too. The unionist regions were in the Confederate states:
1. Greatest was East Tennessee
2. Ozark region in Arkansas
3. West part of North Carolina
4. New Bern port city in North Carolina
5. North part of Georgia
6. North part of Alabama
7. North Texas
8. two smaller areas in Mississipi state
West Virginia fits well in this list without any plantation system with 18 000 slaves.
East Tennessee gave soldiers to the Union. The first Union success in the Western Theater was the battle of Mill springs. Under general George Thomas (East Virginian unionist general) the 1st and 2nd (East) Tennessee regiment fought in 1862 january! West part of North Carolina gave 15 000 unionist soldiers during the Civil War. The Ozark region gave soldiers to the Union later.

My 5'th Great Grandfather
founded Wheeling West
Virginia , his name was
Col.Ebenezer Zane and his sister was Betty Zane
the grandmother of Zane
Grey . Zane's first name
was Pearl which he changed , thank goodness .!

East Tenneessee wanted same, but the CFA occupied that area.

Succed

Thank you for all of this new information - although the only name I recognized throughout this whole thing was Abraham Lincoln.
This has to do with just 2 states back in the 1860‘s - I never realized how enormously complex American history really is.

Wild and Wonderful West Virginia. Wonderful documentary. Thank you for the history of the Mountain 🏔 State.
I am proud of my Walker kin and our family history in Panther 🐆, West Virginia. Scott-Irish and Cherokee blood lines. Mountain Men and Mountain Ladies rule. God Bless all Coal Miners.

The Proclamation applied only to slaves in Confederate-held lands; it did not apply to those in the four slave states that were not in rebellion (Kentucky, Maryland, Delaware, and Missouri, which were unnamed), nor to Tennessee (unnamed but occupied by Union troops since 1862) and lower Louisiana (also under occupation), and specifically excluded those counties of Virginia soon to form the state of West Virginia. Also specifically excluded (by name) were some regions already controlled by the Union army. Emancipation in those places would come after separate state actions or the December 1865 ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment, which made slavery and indentured servitude, except for those duly convicted of a crime,

Why West Virginia Owes Its Existence to a Bank Robbery


By late-June 1861, the Wheeling Convention had found itself in a unique legal conundrum.

On one hand, the convention was declaring itself to be the legal and sovereign government of Virginia.

On the other hand, the convention had received only limited recognition from the President – the Secretary of War had corresponded with the convention’s “Governor,” but the Secretary stopped short of fully recognizing them as being the sovereign authority of Virginia.

Though the Lincoln Administration appreciated their loyalty to the Union, the constitutional crisis their very existence presented was a battle the administration was not prepared to engage in nor desired.

The vast majority of the “representatives” had not even been elected and more than four out of five Virginia counties were not awarded any type of representation in the body, therefore any claims to be the true government of Virginia could not be legally substantiated.


Lacking any true legal authority, including the power of taxation, the convention, which was by this time claiming to serve as the Government of the Commonwealth of Virginia, found itself in desperate need for funding – after all, the assembly had voted to pay themselves for their “service” to the people of Virginia, but had no treasury from which to move forward with this act.

To establish a state treasury, Governor Francis Pierpont (the unelected “governor” of the Restored Government of Virginia) and delegate Peter Van Winkle secured roughly $10,000 in a loan from Wheeling banks on their personal endorsement.

Despite this loan, the newly created government would require a lot more capital than that to ensure its survival.

Officials in Wheeling began to actively liquidate tangible property which belonged to the Virginia government in Richmond – claiming authority over the property, due to being the “Restored Government of Virginia.”

Despite their claims of sovereignty over the entire state, the reality was that Western Virginia was a lawless land in the summer of 1861 and the sitting authority in each town often the army with the most infantrymen nearby.

As the Restored Government continued to suffer from insufficient funds, Presley Hale, a representative from the community of Weston in Lewis County, approached the appointed governor and told him of a massive stockpile of gold that was presently being housed in a bank back in his hometown of Weston.

The gold belonged to the Commonwealth of Virginia and had been placed in the bank by the Richmond government to pay workers who were building the Trans-Allegheny Asylum, later known as the Weston State Hospital.

Hale argued that this money belonged to Virginia and since the Wheeling Convention was now the Restored Government of Virginia, the gold belonged to them.

The total amount of the stockpile was $27,000, equal to roughly a quarter-million dollars in 2014 money.


Under Governor Pierpont’s order, the Seventh Ohio Infantry drove deep into the state and marched into the town of Weston early in the morning on June 30, 1861.


After having marched 25 miles from Clarksburg the night before, the Ohio Infantry entered the town at the break of dawn and immediately began rousing the townspeople from their beds with a deafening rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

As residents, nearly all of which were still in their bedclothes, ran into the streets in a panic, the invading army marched straight to the bank where the gold was being stored and demanded the money.

Robert McCandlish, the bank’s teller, was driven from his bed and ordered to turn over the gold immediately.

McCandlish asked if some money could be kept to pay the workers, as it was intended, but his request was denied by the invading Ohio army.

Realizing any resisting would be futile, the teller then reached into the vault and handed over twenty-seven leather pouches to Union Army officials, each of which contained $1,000 in gold.

From the community of Weston, the gold was loaded onto a heavily guarded wagon and carried to Clarksburg, where it was transferred to a train that took it to Wheeling.

Though the gold proved valuable in the establishment of the Restored Government’s treasury, the manner in which it was taken from the people of Weston remained a source of contention for decades to come.

In addition to robbing the countless number of working West Virginians who had been laboring in the construction of the facility, the foreign invaders – under the Restored Government’s command ignored the rights of the free citizens.

Commanding officer Colonel Erastus Bernard Tyler ordered his troops to sweep through the town and seize any individuals suspected of Confederate sympathies. Fathers, sons and community leaders were separated from their homes and deprived of their basic constitutional rights — the same rights the invading army arresting the free citizens of Lewis County were supposedly fighting to protect.

The events of this early summer morning in 1861 set a dangerous precedence in the history of America and that of West Virginia – the nation, founded by freethinking men like Jefferson and Franklin, had entered into an era where one’s own personal sympathies could be reason enough to be seized by Federal authorities.

Sadly, this terrible precedence which would eventually lead to the arrest of media members in the months to come by officials in the Lincoln Administration, as well as the incarceration of Japanese-Americans less than a century later, simply due to their ancestry, all had its origins in a command issued by Governor Francis Pierpont of the Restored Government of Virginia – the forerunner of the State of West Virginia.

In the decades ahead, as the Wheeling Convention’s “Restored Government of Virginia” would evolve into the State of West Virginia, the state government’s officials would continue down this terrible path – siding with big money over their own working citizens’ interests.

This appalling misalignment of priorities would serve as the root causes for horrific events of bloodshed in the generations to come.

Events such as the Battle of Blair Mountain, the Matewan Massacre and the bloodshed at Paint Creek can all be traced to government officials placing their own personal interests above the will of their citizens.

Sadly, these ghastly tragedies could have been easily avoidable, if only the people of the mountains had an honest government – sadly, the plant that was the state’s government throughout the turbulent 1920s was corrupt to its root – owing its founding on the lies of the Wheeling Convention.

Though the state’s motto may boldly proclaim that “Mountaineers are Always Free,” in reality, thanks in large part to the unlawful precedence set by the 1861 assembly, West Virginia’s mountaineers have historically been the most oppressed people in the nation.

The incredible wealth created by petroleum was key to bringing statehood for West Virginia during the Civil War, he claimed. “Many of the founders and early politicians were oil men – governor, senator and congressman – who had made their fortunes at Burning Springs in 1860-1861,” McKain explained. In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation admitting the state of west Virginia as a slave state on June 20.

Fake history .no facts to verify just media selling hate agenda .americans demand the truth

One of my ancestors was the 2nd Governor of West Virginia Daniel Duane Tompkins Farnsworth he was born in 1819 and died in 1892 I have a picture of him.

I wish everything west of Roanoke was included. We here in SWVA are forgotten about by the folks across the mountain in Richmond.

AMERCIA!!!!!11111
!!!

Im watching this for a award and this video is actually pretty helpful

country road take me home❤️

States should be allowed to peacefully divorce.

So could this actually be the start of the American Civil War ?

I wouldn't donate a dime to the West Virginia Public Broadcasting! You're all liberals and
don't give a damn for what's right for the state or the country. Keep your fingers off the CONSTITUTION! "OR ELSE!"

When you have to watch this for school

5

Very nice….

I respect your opinion, but everything you started out with is incorrect, ( whot is my proof, my grate grandfathers personal diary’s and his brothers ) slavery had very little to do with West Virginia becoming a state, in fact not at all, The people of what is now West Virginia started back in the late 1830s for economic reasons.

The state I was born in. Mountain Momma.

Rejoin Virginia

West Virginia... my dear mountain momma. My god do I love you. You are all that I am... all that I am.

the union wanted the iron and coal of that area so the union made a deal with the coal and iron mine owners to form west Virginia

West Virginia will soon, not be known for our Country Roads. Country roads all over the state are being gated by a 2.2 billion dollar company, who is leasing land to individuals, and giving them the right to block dirt roads that have been open to the public for over 100 years. Dirt roads in almost every county in West Virginia are now being gated off by industrial gates. Someone needs to stop this before all our dirt roads are gone. We are West Virginia, home of the country roads, not home of the gated cooperation roads.

I am from McDowell county WV US Army veteran....

If you switch W. V to V.W (Volk Wagen)....

Thank you for this documentary and information im from wva.

Born in grantsville west Virginia, Calhoun county...1961

West Virginians, and Virginians are like two brothers who fight with each other. We're still kinsfolk, but we don't attend the family. reunion.

I’ve never been to W Virginia, but I have ancestors that were born here in the early 1800’s so I came to learn about the state!