View source for Jackson Purchase

{{Short description|Region in Kentucky}}
{{Infobox former subdivision
|native_name =
|conventional_long_name = 
|common_name = Jackson Purchase
|subdivision = Country
|nation = {{flagicon|USA}}[[United States]]
|demonym = [[Chickasaw]]
|status_text = Territorial acquisition
|government_type = Federal & State
|title_leader = U.S. negotiator
|title_deputy = U.S. negotiator
|leader1 = General [[Andrew Jackson]]
|year_leader1 = 1818
|deputy1 = Ex-governor [[Isaac Shelby]]
|year_deputy1 = 1818
|capital = 
|coordinates = 
|today = Western Kentucky & [[West Tennessee]] <!-- Do NOT add flags, per MOS:INFOBOXFLAG -->
|event_start = Claimed by U.S.
|date_start = 1792
|event_end = 1818
|date_end = 
|event1 = U.S. acquired in [[Treaty of Tuscaloosa]]
|date_event1 = October, 1818
|event2 = Annexed to Kentucky & Tennessee
|date_event2 = 1819
|event3 = 
|date_event3 = 
|life_span = 
|era = [[Territorial evolution of the United States|Westward expansion of the U.S.]]
|image_map = File:Map of Kentucky highlighting Purchase.png
|image_map_caption = Counties comprising the Jackson Purchase region
|stat_year1 = 2020
|stat_area1 = 6,202.5
|stat_pop1 = 196,876
|area_gained1 = Western [[Kentucky]], [[West Tennessee]],
|gained_from1 = The [[Chickasaw Nation]]
|area_gained_year1 = 1818
|Status = Former disputed territory
|Divisions = [[List of counties in Kentucky|Counties]]
|DivisionsNames = {{bulletlist|[[Ballard County, Kentucky|Ballard]]|[[Calloway County, Kentucky|Calloway]]|[[Carlisle County, Kentucky|Carlisle]]|[[Fulton County, Kentucky|Fulton]]|[[Graves County, Kentucky|Graves]]|[[Hickman County, Kentucky|Hickman]]|[[Marshall County, Kentucky|Marshall]]|[[McCracken County, Kentucky|McCracken]]  }}
|DivisionsMap = 
|divisions_map_caption = 
|membership_title1 = 
|membership1 = 
|membership_title2 = 
|membership2 = 
|_noautocat =
}}

The '''Jackson Purchase''', also known as the '''Purchase Region''' or simply '''the Purchase''', is a [[region]] in the U.S. state of [[Kentucky]] bounded by the [[Mississippi River]] to the west, the [[Ohio River]] to the north, and the [[Tennessee River]] to the east.<ref>{{cite book| title=Encyclopedia of Kentucky| chapter=Geography| publisher=University Press of Kentucky| location=Lexington| date=May 18, 1992| editor-last=Kelber| editor-first=John E.| pages=367–368| chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/kentuckyencyclop0000unse/page/366/mode/2up?q=geography| isbn=978-0-8131-1772-0| access-date=November 3, 2023| chapter-url-access=registration}}</ref>

Jackson's Purchase also included all of [[Tennessee]] west of the Tennessee River. In modern usage, however, the term refers only to the Kentucky portion of the Jackson Purchase. The southern portion is simply called [[West Tennessee]].{{fact|date=April 2025}}

==History==
===Origin===
The land was ceded after prolonged negotiations with the Chickasaw Indians in which the United States was represented by [[Andrew Jackson]] and [[Isaac Shelby]], while the Chickasaws were represented by their chiefs, head men, and warriors including: [[Levi Colbert]], his brother [[George Colbert]], Chinubby, and [[Chief Tishomingo|Tishomingo]].  On October 19, 1818, the two sides agreed to the transfer by signing the [[Treaty of Tuscaloosa]].<ref name="Tenn En" />  The United States agreed to pay the Chickasaw people $300,000, at the rate of $20,000 annually for 15 years, in return for the right to all Chickasaw land east of the Mississippi River and north of the new state of [[Mississippi]] border.<ref name="Tenn En">{{cite encyclopedia| url=https://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/entries/treaties/| last=Rolater| first=Fred S.| title=Treaties| encyclopedia=Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture| date=March 1, 2018| access-date=November 3, 2023}}</ref><ref name="Gov1">{{cite web| url=http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/amlaw/lwss-ilc.html| title=Indian Land Cessions in the United States 1784-1894 (United States Serial Set, Number 4015)| website=[[Library of Congress]]|  access-date=November 3, 2023}}</ref>

===After statehood===
Although claimed as part of Kentucky at its statehood in 1792, the land did not come under definitive U.S. control until 1818, when General [[Andrew Jackson]] and ex-Kentucky governor [[Isaac Shelby]], representing the United States federal government, purchased it from the [[Chickasaw]] [[Native Americans of the United States|Indians]] through several treaties, including the [[Treaty of Tuscaloosa]].<ref name="Tenn En"/><ref name="Gov1"/>

[[File:TENNESSEE map -Treaty of Tuscaloosa.jpg|upright=1.25|thumb|The [[Western Tennessee]] land acquisitions under President [[James Monroe]] between the [[Chickasaw]] and the U. S. affecting the states of [[Kentucky]] and [[Tennessee]], and the [[Alabama Territory]]:<ref name="Tenn En" /><br /><small>*Pink with red outline  – Treaty of Tuscaloosa (1818)<br>*Yellow – Treaty with Chickasaw (1817)<br>*Gray – Treaty with Chickasaw (1805)</small>]]

Historically, this region has been considered the most "Southern" of Kentucky; having an agricultural economy tied to cotton plantations and the use of enslaved labor before the [[American Civil War|Civil War]], and being settled by people from Eastern and Central Kentucky, and backcountry areas of Tennessee, Virginia, Georgia, and the Carolinas;  the Purchase in the years after the war voted as the most staunchly Democratic region in Kentucky, owing to heavily pro-Confederate sentiment in the region. For well over a century, it provided such overwhelming margins for Democratic candidates that Kentucky Democrats routinely called it the "Gibraltar of Democracy".  The most widely circulated newspaper and media outlet in the Purchase, ''[[The Paducah Sun]]'', was once named the ''Paducah Sun-Democrat'' (see [[WPSD-TV]]). Due to changing demographics, most counties in the Purchase in the early 21st century have populations that are overwhelmingly white. Many African Americans left the area after the Civil War and in the Great Migration of the 20th century, many of them migrating to cities in the Midwest and West for industrial jobs.{{Citation needed|date=December 2023}}

During the Civil War, the Purchase was the area of strongest support for the [[Confederate States of America|Confederate]] cause within Kentucky. On May 29, 1861, a group of Southern sympathizers from Kentucky and Tennessee met at the [[Graves County, Kentucky|Graves County]] Courthouse in [[Mayfield, Kentucky|Mayfield]] to discuss the possibility of aligning the Purchase with West Tennessee. Most records of the event were lost, possibly in an 1864 fire that destroyed the courthouse.<ref name="Consider"/> After the War the region heightened its sense of being "Southern".<ref>{{cite thesis| first=Patricia| last=Hoskins| title='The Old First is With the South:' The Civil War, Reconstruction, and Memory in the Jackson Purchase Region of Kentucky| degree=PhD| publisher=Auburn University| date=May 9, 2008| publication-date=2009| url=http://etd.auburn.edu/bitstream/handle/10415/1685/Dissertation.pdf?sequence=1&ts=1433586080323| pages=296–315}}</ref>

In 1907, [[Fulton County, Kentucky|Fulton County]] judge Herbert Carr declared in a speech that the [[Mayfield Convention]] adopted a resolution for secession, and a historical marker in front of the courthouse also proclaims this as fact. But, the surviving records of the meeting, authored by a Union sympathizer, make no mention of this resolution. Historian Berry Craig states that the convention believed the whole of Kentucky would eventually secede and make unnecessary a separate resolution for the Purchase to break away.{{Citation needed|date=December 2023}}

Records do show that the convention adopted resolutions condemning President Abraham Lincoln for "waging a bloody and cruel war" against the South, urging Governor [[Beriah Magoffin]] to resist Union forces and praising him for refusing to answer Lincoln's call for soldiers, and condemning the provision of "Lincoln guns" to Union sympathizers in Kentucky. The convention nominated [[Henry Cornelius Burnett|Henry Burnett]] to represent [[Kentucky's 1st congressional district|Kentucky's First District]] in [[United States Congress|Congress]]. The Mayfield Convention was a precursor to the later [[Russellville, Kentucky|Russellville]] Convention, that formed the provisional [[Confederate government of Kentucky]].<ref name = "Consider">{{cite journal | last=Craig |first=Berry F. |title=The Jackson Purchase Considers Secession: The 1861 Mayfield Convention |journal=The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society |volume=99 |issue=4 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23384796 |date=Autumn 2001 |pages=339–361|jstor=23384796 }}</ref>
[[File:Kentucky Congressional Districts, 118th Congress.svg|thumb|Kentucky congressional districts as of 2023]]
Since the late 20th century, the Purchase has voted for [[History of the United States Republican Party|Republicans]] in national elections while giving higher percentages to candidates of the [[History of the United States Democratic Party|Democratic Party]] in state and local elections. This trend is similar to realignment among white conservatives in other parts of the South. {{As of|2004}}, however, the region's delegation in the Kentucky General Assembly included both Republican Party and Democratic Party representatives. For the first time in history, the region elected Republicans for both of its two state senators. The Jackson Purchase is within [[Kentucky's 1st congressional district]].

==Geography==
The Purchase comprised what is now eight counties, with a combined land area of 3,394.8 square miles (6,202.5&nbsp;km<sup>2</sup>), about 6.03% of Kentucky's land area. Its 2010 census population was 196,365 inhabitants, equal to 4.53% of the state's population. [[Paducah, Kentucky|Paducah]], the largest city and main economic center, has just over 25,000 residents. The region's other two largest cities, [[Murray, Kentucky|Murray]] and [[Mayfield, Kentucky|Mayfield]], have about 18,000 and 10,000 residents respectively. The main educational institution is [[Murray State University]].<ref>Olive, W. W. "Geology of the Jackson Purchase region." ''Kentucky: Roadlog for the Geological Society of Kentucky field excursion: Kentucky Geological Survey'', Ser 10.11 (1972).</ref><ref>Davis, Darrell Haug (1923). "Geography of the Jackson Purchase". ''Kentucky Geological Society''.</ref>

===Counties===
* [[Ballard County, Kentucky|Ballard County]]
* [[Calloway County, Kentucky|Calloway County]]
* [[Carlisle County, Kentucky|Carlisle County]]
* [[Fulton County, Kentucky|Fulton County]]
* [[Graves County, Kentucky|Graves County]]
* [[Hickman County, Kentucky|Hickman County]]
* [[Marshall County, Kentucky|Marshall County]]
* [[McCracken County, Kentucky|McCracken County]]

===Largest municipalities===
{{legend2|#b4ddb4|[[County seat]]|border=1px solid #AAAAAA}}{{dagger|alt=County seat}}
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
!Rank
!Name
!Population
! data-sort-type="number"|Area
!County
!Inc.
|- style="background-color:#b4ddb4;"
| 1
| [[Paducah, Kentucky|Paducah†]]
| 27,137
| {{convert|20.75|mi2|2|abbr=on}}
| [[McCracken County, Kentucky|McCracken]]
| 1838
|- style="background-color:#b4ddb4;"
| 2
| [[Murray, Kentucky|Murray†]]
| 17,307
| {{convert|11.68|mi2|2|abbr=on}}
| [[Calloway County, Kentucky|Calloway]]
| January 17, 1844
|- style="background-color:#b4ddb4;"
| 3
| [[Mayfield, Kentucky|Mayfield†]]
| 10,017
| {{convert|7.38|mi2|2|abbr=on}}
| [[Graves County, Kentucky|Graves]]
| 1846
|- style="background-color:#b4ddb4;"
| 4
| [[Benton, Kentucky|Benton†]]
| 4,756
| {{convert|5.10|mi2|2|abbr=on}}
| [[Marshall County, Kentucky|Marshall]]
| 1845
|-
| 5
| [[Calvert City, Kentucky|Calvert City]]
| 2,514
| {{convert|18.51|mi2|2|abbr=on}}
| [[Marshall County, Kentucky|Marshall]]
| March 18, 1871
|- style="background-color:#b4ddb4;"
| 6
| [[Hickman, Kentucky|Hickman†]]
| 2,365
| {{convert|3.58|mi2|2|abbr=on}}
| [[Fulton County, Kentucky|Fulton]]
| February 18, 1841
|-
| 7
| [[Fulton, Kentucky|Fulton]]
| 2,357
| {{convert|2.98|mi2|2|abbr=on}}
| [[Fulton County, Kentucky|Fulton]]
| 1872
|-
|8
| [[Clinton, Kentucky|Clinton]]
| 1,222
| {{convert|1.62|mi2|2|abbr=on}}
| [[Hickman County, Kentucky|Hickman]]
| 1831
|-
| 9
| [[LaCenter, Kentucky|LaCenter]]
| 872
| {{convert|0.60|mi2|2|abbr=on}}
| [[Ballard County, Kentucky|Ballard]]
| 
|- style="background-color:#b4ddb4;"
| 10
| [[Bardwell, Kentucky|Bardwell†]]
| 714
| {{convert|0.87|mi2|2|abbr=on}}
| [[Carlisle County, Kentucky|Carlisle]]
| 1878
|}

==Economy==
Though chiefly an agricultural economy, tourism is an important industry in the Purchase, focused chiefly on water-related activities at the [[Tennessee Valley Authority|TVA]]-created [[Kentucky Lake]].  Together with the portion of the Tennessee River north of Kentucky Dam, it forms the eastern border of the Purchase.

===Notable people===
Notable people from the region include:<ref>All included in Kleber, John E., ed. (1992). [https://archive.org/details/kentuckyencyclop0000unse/page/n7/mode/2up "The Kentucky Encyclopedia"].</ref>

* [[Alben W. Barkley]], [[Vice President of the United States]], 1949–1953
* [[Julian Carroll]], 54th [[Governor of Kentucky]], 1974–1979
* [[Steven Curtis Chapman]], Christian music artist
* [[Irvin Cobb]], humorist and author
* [[Jackie DeShannon]], singer/songwriter
* [[Steve Finley]], major league baseball player, 1989–2007
* [[Joe Fulks]], basketball player
* [[Robert H. Grubbs]], [[Nobel Prize]] winner in Chemistry, 2005
* [[Lloyd Tilghman]], Confederate general
* [[Harry Lee Waterfield]], [[lieutenant governor of Kentucky]], 1955–1959 and 1963–1967

== See also ==
* {{Portal-inline|Kentucky}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite journal |last=Clark |first=Thomas D. |title=The Jackson Purchase: A Dramatic Chapter in Southern Indian Policy and Relations |journal=Filson Club Historical Quarterly |volume=50 |year=1976 |pages=302–320}}
* {{cite book |last=Davis |first=Darrell Haug |title=Geography of the Jackson Purchase |publisher=Kentucky Geological Society |location=Frankfort, KY |oclc=5232803 |year=1923}}
* {{cite book |author=[[Federal Writers' Project]] |title=Kentucky: A Guide to the Bluegrass State |year=1939 |url=https://archive.org/details/kentuckyguidetob00federich/ |series=American Guide Series |publisher=Harcourt, Brace and Company |location=New York}} {{endash}} classic guide from the Federal Writers Project; covers main themes and describes every town and feature, with capsule histories
* {{cite thesis |last=Hoskins |first=Patricia |title='The Old First is With the South:' The Civil War, Reconstruction, and Memory in the Jackson Purchase Region of Kentucky |degree=PhD |publisher=Auburn University |year=2009 |hdl=10415/1685}}
* {{cite book |editor-last=Kleber |editor-first=John E. |title=The Kentucky encyclopedia |year=1992 |publisher=University Press of Kentucky |isbn=978-0-8131-1772-0 |url=https://archive.org/details/kentuckyencyclop0000unse |url-access=registration}}
* {{cite journal |last=Whitesell |first=Hunter B. |title=Military Operations in the Jackson Purchase Areas of Kentucky, 1862–1865 |journal=Register of the Kentucky Historical Society |volume=63 |date=April 1965 |pages=141–167}}

==External links==
* [http://www.jacksonpurchasehistory.org Jackson Purchase Historical Society]

{{Kentucky}}{{Coord|36.86|-88.76|dim:80000_region:US-KY|display=title}}

[[Category:1818 in Kentucky]]
[[Category:1818 in the United States]]
[[Category:Aboriginal title in the United States]]
[[Category:Chickasaw]]
[[Category:Historical regions in the United States]]
[[Category:History of Kentucky]]
[[Category:History of Tennessee]]
[[Category:History of United States expansionism]]
[[Category:October 1818]]
[[Category:Regions of Kentucky]]
[[Category:Regions of Tennessee]]