User talk:Kurtbw
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[edit] Why WV split from Virginia
Can you provide a reference for the statement you added? I don't think the statement is completely accurate. Early WV history books that I've read tell a slightly different story. It would be correct to say the the western counties of Virginia took advantage of the Civil War to split off from Virginia, but the desire to do so was already there. The western mountaineers had little in common with the dandies and slavemasters of the tidewater, and in general, didn't agree with leaving the Union. But they may not have split away from Virginia if the roots of that decision hadn't been festuring for decades before.
As I recall the old history books, roads and taxes formed part of the basis of disagreement between the westerners and tidelanders. And travel between the two sections was horrible. For a legislator from Charleston to reach Richmond, he would have to travel down the Kanawha to Pt. Pleasant, up the Ohio to Pittsburgh, across the national road to Philadelphia, and then by sailing ship to a port on the James River, then by stagecoach to Richmond. There still aren't many roads connecting the two states - look at the problems that Corridor 'H' has created between the states. (I hope to travel home in the next few weeks and look for one my mothers's old WV history books. If I can find it, I may use it as a basis for revising your statement and adding to the section on the separation.)
I would agree with a more accurate statement: It is the only state formed during the American Civil War. WVhybrid 00:06, 11 June 2006 (UTC)
I disagree. My source for this comment was an interview I conducted sometime in 2004 with Gerry Reilly, the then-director of WV Independence Hall in Wheeling. More later. Kurtbw 14:55, 16 June 2006 (UTC)
- Hi Kurtbw
- Sorry I didn't response earlier.
- Can you be more specific with your disagreement?
- Can you provide a reference to the interview you mentioned?
- While I have not yet been able to find the old history text I mentioned earlier, I have found some interesting articles detailing the long term differences between the western counties and the eastern counties of Virginia. One worth reading is Ambler, C., "The Cleaveage Between Eastern and Western Virginia", The American Historical Review, Vol XV., No. 4, July 1910.
- Thanks, WVhybrid 01:32, 25 June 2006 (UTC)
