Ghosts of the Bluegrass - Tapa blanda

""A thorough treatment of what ghost stories may be found in central Kentucky."--Western Folklore" -- ""Bell witch stories, ghostly dogs, campus ghosts, rattling chains--all are here, with titles like 'The Gray Lady of Liberty Hall' and 'Family Banshee Foretells Deaths." In sum, this is a fine anthology with extremely interesting and readable ghost stories, worth reading for the charm of the stories themselves." -- Journal of Folklore Research" -- ""Nicely laid out and well edited.... An inexpensive tool for those researching tale types in central Kentucky, and perhaps useful in enticing other students toward interest in fieldwork projects."--Western Folklore" -- ""The compilers have done an excellent job of editing, inserting helpful explanatory or historic notes to add to information on a particular story, and giving cross references for like stories."--Kentucky Kaleidoscope" -- ""I felt like I was there sitting down with some of the area's best storytellers, hearing authentic stories. McCormick and Wyatt have done a tremendous service to current readers and to future generations by preserving this important part of our heritage."--Roberta Simpson Brown, author of The Walking Trees and Other Scary Stories and The Queen of the Cold-Blooded Tales" -- ""Whether you read this collection with enthusiasm or with skepticism, you are bound to learn a few things about people who believe ghosts exist after physical death from the family tales and first hand experiences that truly cannot be explained." --Hardin Company Historical Society" -- ""Ghosts is a humorous, sometimes scary collection of first-hand accounts of the supernatural in Central Kentucky." --Larry Muhammad, courier-journal.com" -- ""Authors James McCormick and Macy Wyatt introduce you to the notorious spirits dwelling among us in Ghosts of the Bluegrass." --Kentucky Monthly" -- ""Ghosts of the Bluegrass is a treasure trove of stories from Kentuckians." --Heather Chapman, Lexington Herald-Leader" -- ""Central Kentucky now has another book relevant to local life and culture, this one as portrayed by ghostly beings that still love the area, thus refuse to leave even after death!" -- William Lynwood Montell, from the foreword" -- ""Honest reflections of local lore on the ever-fascinating subjects of death and the unexplainable."--Joseph Sobol" -- ""This book will be of lasting appeal."--Roberta Simpson Brown, author of Queen of the Cold-Blooded Tales" --

On June 1,1792, Kentucky became the fifteenth state in the new nation and the first west of the Alleghenies. Lowell Harrison reviews the tangled and protracted process by which Virginia's westernmost territory achieved statehood. By the early 1780s, survival of the Kentucky settlements, so uncertain only a few years earlier, was assured. The end of the American Revolution curtailed British support for Indian raids, and thousands of settlers sought a better life in the "Eden of the West." They swarmed through Cumberland Gap and down the Ohio River, cleared the land for crops, and established towns. The division of sprawling Kentucky County into three counties in 1780 indicated its rapid growth, and that growth accelerated during the following decade. With population increase came sentiment for separation from Virginia. Such demands had been voiced earlier, but a definite separation movement began in 1784 when a convention -- the first of ten such -- met in Danville. Not until April 1792 was a constitution finally drafted under which the Commonwealth of Kentucky could enter the Union. While most Kentuckians favored separation, they differed over how and when and on what terms it should occur. Three factions struggled to control the movement, but their goals and methods shifted with changing circumstances. This confusing situation was made more complex by the presence of the exotic James Wilkinson and the "Spanish Conspiracy" he fomented. Harrison addresses many questions about the convoluted process of statehood: why separation was desired, why it was so difficult to achieve, what type of government the 1792 constitution established, and how Governor Isaac Shelby and the first General Assembly implemented it. His engaging account, which includes the text of the first constitution, will be treasured by all Kentuckians.