Editing Harlan County, Kentucky (section)

==History==
[[File:Harlan County Courthouse, Kentucky.jpg|thumb|left|Harlan County Courthouse]]
Eastern Kentucky is believed to have supported a large [[Archaic period in the Americas|Archaic]] Native American population in prehistoric times, and has sites of other cliff dwellings. These sites were used by successive cultures as residences and at times for burials.<ref name="Pine Mtn">[https://pinemountainsettlement.net/?page_id=2875 Series 10-Built Environment: "Indian Cliff Dwelling"], Pine Mountain Settlement School, posted May 27, 2001; 2013-12-18; January 13, 2014</ref>

In 1923, an Indian Cliff Dwelling was discovered near [[Bledsoe, Kentucky]]. Built in a south-facing cliff, it was near a stream. While archeology was not yet well-developed as an academic discipline, several professors from the [[University of Kentucky]] came to the site to excavate it and try to assess the finds. They included "Dr. William D. Funkhouser, a zoologist; Dr. Arthur McQuiston Miller, a geologist; and Victor K. Dodge (called Major Dodge in the reports), all members of a group of scholars interested in early Native American rockshelters." They arrived soon after the discovery and "took charge of a controlled excavation of the site."<ref name="Pine Mtn"/>  They helped found the first department of anthropology and archaeology at the university, gaining departmental status in 1926.<ref name="Pine Mtn"/>

Historical tribes in this area included the [[Cherokee]] and [[Shawnee]].

Before the American Revolutionary War, European Americans considered the area presently bounded by Kentucky state lines to be part of the Virginia colony. In 1776, it was established as Kentucky County by the Virginia colonial legislature, before the British colonies declared independence in the American Revolutionary War. In 1780, the Virginia state legislature divided Kentucky County into three counties: Fayette, Jefferson, and Lincoln.

In 1791 the previous Kentucky County was incorporated into the new nation as a separate state, Kentucky. This change became official on June 1, 1792. In 1799, part of Lincoln County was divided to create Knox County.

Harlan County was formed in 1819 from a part of [[Knox County, Kentucky|Knox County]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.naco.org/Counties/Pages/FindACounty.aspx|title=Find A County|publisher=Naco.org|access-date=April 16, 2013|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110531210815/http://www.naco.org/Counties/Pages/FindACounty.aspx|archive-date=May 31, 2011}}</ref> It is named after [[Silas Harlan]].<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3Lac2FUSj_oC&q=cannon+ky&pg=PA131|title=Kentucky Place Names|publisher=University Press of Kentucky|date=1987|access-date=April 28, 2013|author=Rennick, Robert M.|page=131|isbn=0813126312}}</ref> With the help of his uncle Jacob and his brother James, Harlan built a log [[stockade]] near [[Danville, Kentucky|Danville]], which was known as "Harlan's Station". He had journeyed to Kentucky as a young man with [[James Harrod]] in 1774, serving as a scout and hunter. He reached the rank of [[Major (United States)|Major]] in the [[Continental Army]].

Silas Harlan served under [[George Rogers Clark]] in the [[Illinois campaign]] of 1778–79 against the British; he commanded a [[Company (military unit)|company]] in [[John Bowman (pioneer)|John Bowman]]'s raid on [[Chalahgawtha|Old Chillicothe]] in 1779, and assisted Clark in establishing [[Fort Jefferson (Kentucky)|Fort Jefferson]] at the [[Mouth (river)|mouth]] of the [[Ohio River]] in 1780. Two years later, in 1782, at the [[Battle of Blue Licks]], he died leading the advance party.

His fiancé at the time of his death, Sarah Caldwell, married his brother James Harlan. They were grandparents of [[John Marshall Harlan]], who became an attorney and a [[Supreme Court of the United States|U.S. Supreme Court Justice]].<ref>{{cite book|title=Major Silas Harlan: His Life and Times|last=Green III|first=James S.|year=1964|location=Baxter KY|page=83}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=History and Genealogy of the Harlan Family; and Particularly of the Descendants of George and Michael Harlan Who Settled in Chester County PA, 1687|url=https://archive.org/details/historygenealogy02harl|last=Harlan|first=Alpheus Hibben|year=1914|location=Baltimore}}</ref>

Due to a growing regional population the county was reduced in size when [[Letcher County, Kentucky|Letcher County]] was formed in 1842, using a part of its territory. It was further reduced when [[Bell County, Kentucky|Bell County]] was formed on August 1, 1867, from parts of it and Knox County.<ref>[http://www.genealogyinc.com/kentucky/bell-county/ "Bell County, Kentucky"] Genealogy Inc. Retrieved July 6, 2010.</ref> Finally in 1878, its northwestern part was partitioned to form [[Leslie County, Kentucky|Leslie County]] and its final boundaries were established.

Coal was a major resource in the county and, as the nation developed industry, the region's coal was exploited in the [[coal mining industry]]. Given the harsh conditions of mining, labor attempted to organize to gain better working conditions and pay, beginning in the early 20th century. What was called the [[Harlan County War]] in the 1930s consisted of violent confrontations among strikers, strikebreakers, mine company security forces, and law enforcement. These events resulted in the county being called "Bloody Harlan." After the [[Battle of Evarts]], May 5, 1931, Kentucky governor [[Flem D. Sampson]] called in the [[United States National Guard|National Guard]] to restore order.

Ballads sung on the picket line at the Brookside mine in Harlan County were captured on film by documentarian [[John Gaventa]].<ref>Tom Hansell, Patricia Beaver and Angela Wiley, "Keep Your Eye upon the Scale," ''Southern Spaces'', 2015 [http://southernspaces.org/2015/keep-your-eye-upon-scale]</ref> The county was the subject of the documentary film ''[[Harlan County, USA]]'' (1976), directed by [[Barbara Kopple]]. It documented organizing during a second major period of labor unrest in the 1970s, particularly around the Brookside Strike.

{{quote box
| align = right
| quote = <poem>My daddy was a miner
And I'm a miner's son
And I'll stick with the union
Till every battle's won

They say in Harlan County
There are no neutrals there
You'll either be a union man
Or a thug for J.H. Blair</poem>
| source = [[Florence Reece|Florence Patton Reece]], <br>[[Which Side Are You On?]]
}}

In 1924, Conda Uless (Ulysses) "Condy" Dabney<ref>[https://www.ancestry.com/interactive/6482/005152380_00644?pid=23188469 U.S. World War I Draft Registration Card: Conda Uless Dabney], accessed March 2017</ref> was convicted in the county of murdering a person who was later found alive.<ref>[http://library.albany.edu/preservation/brittle_bks/Borchard_Convicting/chpt9.pdf Convicting the Innocent - Errors in Criminal Justice: Condy Danny] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160520024636/http://library.albany.edu/preservation/brittle_bks/Borchard_Convicting/chpt9.pdf |date=May 20, 2016 }}, accessed March 2017</ref>

From the late eighteenth through the mid-nineteenth century, Harlan County and nearby counties were settled by numerous persons of multiracial descent, with African, European and sometimes American Indian ancestors. Many such families were descended from [[free people of color]] in colonial Virginia, who formed families of free white women and free, indentured or enslaved African and Black men. Because the mothers were free, their mixed-race children were born free.

Descendants of such free people of color, some of whose members have been called [[Melungeon]], have documented the racial heritage of Harlan's early settlers through 19th-century photographs, DNA analysis such as the [[Melungeon DNA Project]], and historic records.

In 2007, the [[Ridgetop Shawnee]] Tribe of Indians formed as a non-profit organization to work on improving the lives of multiracial families and preserving Native American heritage, structures and artifacts in the area. It established the Kentucky Native American Data Bank, which has the names of 1,000 people of documented Native American descent related to this region; it is accessible for free on the Rootsweb Internet site. Now known as the Ridgetop Shawnee, they have become the heritage arm of Pine Mountain Indian Community, LLC, which since 2013 has taken the lead in working on economic development in the region.

In 2019, the county was the site of the [[2019 Harlan County coal miners protest]], one in a long history of coal mining. Coal miners demanded back payment from a coal company that fired them shortly after declaring bankruptcy. They occupied a railroad track and prevented a coal train from leaving the county for almost two months.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Kentucky miners, still seeking back pay, end coal train protest after two months|url=https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/28/us/kentucky-coal-miners-protest-ends/index.html|last1=Sandoval|first1=Polo|last2=Almasy|first2=Steve|date=September 28, 2019|website=[[CNN]]|access-date=May 30, 2020|last3=Ly|first3=Laura}}</ref>