During the Civil War, Louisville was a major stronghold of Union forces, which kept Kentucky firmly in the Union. Then by 1861, the civil war had broken out. Ethnic tensions rose, and on August 6, 1855, known as " Bloody Monday", Protestant mobs attacked German and Irish Catholic neighborhoods on election day, resulting in 22 deaths and widespread property damage. It was the center of planning, supplies, recruiting, and transportation for numerous campaigns, especially in the Western Theater. ĭuring this point in the 1850s, the city was growing and vibrant, but that also came with negativity. The city was often a point of escape for fugitive slaves to the north, as Indiana was a free state. Įarly Louisville was a major shipping port and enslaved African Americans worked in a variety of associated trades. By 1828, the population had grown to 7,000 and Louisville became an incorporated city. The city's early growth was influenced by the fact that river boats had to be unloaded and moved downriver before reaching the falls. See also: Louisville, Kentucky, in the American Civil War View of 2nd Street and Main Street, Louisville, in 1846 In 1803, explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark organized their expedition across America in the town of Clarksville, Indiana at the present-day Falls of the Ohio opposite Louisville, Kentucky. Early residents lived in forts to protect themselves from raids from the local indigenous population, but they moved out by the late 1780s. The city was named in honor of King Louis XVI of France, whose soldiers were then aiding Americans in the Revolutionary War. Two years later, in 1780, the Virginia General Assembly approved the town charter of Louisville. Several landmarks in the community are named after him. George Rogers Clark, credited as the founder of Louisville. The first European settlement in the vicinity of modern-day Louisville was on Corn Island in 1778 by Col. As a result, settlements grew up at this stopping point. The rapids at the Falls of the Ohio created a barrier to river travel. The history of Louisville spans hundreds of years, and has been influenced by the area's geography and location at the head of the Falls of the Ohio River.Įarly history and founding Louisville's founder, George Rogers Clark See also: National Register of Historic Places listings in Jefferson County, Kentucky As of 2019, the MSA had a population of 1,395,634, the 43rd largest in the nation. The Louisville-Jefferson County, KY-IN Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) includes Louisville-Jefferson County and 12 surrounding counties, seven in Kentucky and five in Southern Indiana. However, the balance total of 633,045 excludes other incorporated places and semiautonomous towns within the county and is the population listed in most sources and national rankings. The city's total consolidated population as of the 2020 census was 782,969. Despite the merger and renaming, the term "Jefferson County" continues to be used in some contexts in reference to Louisville Metro, particularly including the incorporated cities outside the " balance" which make up Louisville proper. The official name of this consolidated city-county government is the Louisville/Jefferson County Metro Government, abbreviated to Louisville Metro. Since 2003, Louisville's borders have been the same as those of Jefferson County, after a city-county merger. Muhammad Ali International Airport, Louisville's main commercial airport, hosts UPS's worldwide hub. Today, the city is known as the home of boxer Muhammad Ali, the Kentucky Derby, Kentucky Fried Chicken, the University of Louisville and its Cardinals, Louisville Slugger baseball bats, and three of Kentucky's six Fortune 500 companies: Humana, Kindred Healthcare, and Yum! Brands. It was the founding city of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, which grew into a 6,000-mile (9,700 km) system across 13 states. With nearby Falls of the Ohio as the only major obstruction to river traffic between the upper Ohio River and the Gulf of Mexico, the settlement first grew as a portage site. Named after King Louis XVI of France, Louisville was founded in 1778 by George Rogers Clark, making it one of the oldest cities west of the Appalachians. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border. Louisville ( / ˈ l uː i v ɪ l/ i LOO-ee-vil, US: / ˈ l uː ə v əl/ i LOO-ə-vəl, locally / ˈ l ʊ v əl/ i LUUV-əl) is the most populous city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, sixth-most populous city in the Southeast, and the 27th-most-populous city in the United States.
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