肯塔基州小档案：
人口：约404万
面积：约104，623平方公里，排名第37位
州府：法兰克福Frankfort
肯塔基州，名称来自印第安语，其意义为平坦之地level land。
1765年开始殖民。本州原来是弗吉尼亚州之一部。1792年6月1日成为美国第15州。这是原来13州之外向西发展首先成立之一州（第14在东北，即佛蒙特州）。以紫莞花Goldenrod为州花。本州别名叫做“青草之州”Bluegrass State。本州箴言：“团结必胜，分裂必败”United We Stand，Divided We Fall。州府是法兰克福Frankfort，位于中北部。大商业都市路易斯尔Louisville，位于北境俄亥俄河畔。最著名之大学为肯塔基大学，创于1856年，位于本州州府东南方之雷克星敦Lexington。总而言之，本州中北部是本州的精华区域。
本州特征有二：第一，历史方面，美国林肯总统Abraham Lincoln之诞生地，在本州中部内拉鲁县Larue County之荷根维Hodgenville，同时也是印第安人强烈抵抗白人侵入的地方。据调查，印第安人远在15000年前，已在肯州西部森林区内居住。第二，名胜方面，本州石灰岩层甚厚。由于岩层隆起，已出现许多石灰阱及世界最大的石灰洞。这个洞叫做曼摩斯洞Mammoth Cave。它是由于溶蚀作用与侵蚀作用而形成的大石灰洞。洞内有石膏层及石灰岩。由溶蚀作用形成无数石钟乳、石笋、石桂、石花、石穴、石室、石瀑及地下湖。最有名之石瀑，是“冻结的尼加拉”Frozen Niagara。它是大块石花，高22公尺，长15公尺。好像瀑布。也有由石灰岩形成的巨大堤岸，叫做“中国长城”The Great Wall of China。地下湖内有无目之鱼。
主要农作物烟草，产量仅次于北卡罗来纳州，列美国第2位。次要作物是玉蜀黍、大豆及水果。牛奶产量亦多。烟煤产量在各州名列第二，年产量超过12000万吨。此外，也出产石油及天然气。
Introduction简介
Kentucky’s first human inhabitants were descendants of prehistoric peoples who migrated from Asia over an artic land bridge to North America as long as 30，000years ago．Even the earliest prehistoric Indians made stone and wooden hunting tools．Archaic（古代的）people grew squash（南瓜），and Woodland people expanded by growing corn and beans．The development of pottery（陶器）in the Woodland Period led to new cooking methods that survived until the arrival of metal cookware（〈美〉［总称］烹饪用具，炊具）．
During the second half of the 17th century，European explorers －French，Spanish，and English began entering the region，and by 1749land companies were being formed to survey Kentucky and stake claims．After Robert Cavelier，sieur de La Salle，claimed all regions drained by the Mississippi and its tributaries（附庸国）for France，British interest in the area quickened．The first major expedition to the Tennessee region was led by Dr．Thomas Walker，who explored the eastern mountain region in 1750for the Loyal Land Company．Walker was soon followed by hunters and scouts（侦察员）including Christopher Gist．Further exploration was interrupted by the last conflict（斗争，冲突）（1754—1763）of the French and Indian Wars between the French and British for control of North America，and Pontiac’s Rebellion ，a Native American uprising（起义）（1763—1766）．
With the British victorious in both，settlers soon began to enter Kentucky．They came in defiance（蔑视）of a royal proclamation of 1763，which forbade settlement west of the Appalachians（［the Appalachians］阿巴拉契亚山脉［北美洲］）．Daniel Boone ，the famous American frontiersman（〈美〉（靠近未开发地带的）边远的居民，边远者），first came to Kentucky in 1767；he returned in 1769and spent two years in the area．A surveying party under James Harrod established the first permanent settlement at Harrodsburg in 1774，and the next year Boone，as agent for Richard Henderson and the Transylvania Company，a colonizing group of which Henderson was a member，blazed the Wilderness Road from Tennessee into the Kentucky region and founded Boonesboro．Title to this land was challenged by Virginia，whose legislature voided（1778）the Transylvania（特兰西瓦尼亚）Company’s claims，although individual settlers were confirmed in their grants．
Kentucky was made（1776）a county of Virginia，and new settlers came through the Cumberland Gap（坎伯兰岬口）and over the Wilderness Road or down the Ohio River．These early pioneers of Kentucky and Tennessee were constantly in conflict with the Native Americans．The growing population of Kentuckians，feeling that Virginia had failed to give them adequate protection，worked for statehood in a series of conventions held at Danville．Others，observing the weaknesses of the U．S．government，considered forming an independent nation．Since trade down the Mississippi and out of Spanish－held New Orleans was indispensable（绝对必要的）to Kentucky’s economic development，an alliance with Spain was contemplated，and U．S．General James Wilkinson，who lived in Kentucky at the time，worked toward that end．
However，in 1792a constitution was finally framed and accepted，and in the same year the Commonwealth of Kentucky（its official designation）was admitted to the Union，the first state West of the Appalachians（阿巴拉契亚山脉［北美洲］）．Isaac Shelby was elected the first governor，and Frankfort was chosen capital．Commonwealth，meaning government based on the common consent（同意，赞成）of the people，dates to the time of Oliver Cromwell’s England in the mid－1600s．The other U．S．commonwealths，Massachusetts，Pennsylvania and Virginia，were originally British colonies．Kentucky，once part of Virginia，chose to remain a commonwealth when it separated from Virginia．
U．S．General Anthony Wayne’s victory at the battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794effectively ended Native American resistance in Kentucky．
In 1795，Pinckney’s Treaty between the United States and Spain granted Americans the right to navigate（航行于）the Mississippi，a right soon completely assured by the Louisiana Purchase of 1803．Enactment（法律，法规）by the federal government of the Alien and Sedition Acts（1798）promptly provoked（挑拨，煽动）a sharp protest in Kentucky．The state grew fast as trade and shipping centers developed and river traffic down the Ohio and Mississippi increased．
The War of 1812spurred economic prosperity in Kentucky，but financial difficulties after the war threatened many with ruin．The state responded to the situation by chartering in 1818a number of new banks that were allowed to issue their own currency．These banks soon collapsed（崩溃），and the state legislature passed measures for the relief of the banks’creditors（债权人）．However，the relief measures were subsequently declared unconstitutional by a state court．The legislature then repealed（废除）legislation that had established the offending court and set up a new one．The state became divided between prorelief and antirelief factions，and the issue also figured in the division of the state politically between followers of the Tennessean Andrew Jackson，then rising to national political prominence，and supporters of the Whig Party of Henry Clay，who was a leader in Kentucky politics for almost half a century．