joined the Union as the 35th state on this date in 1863.
According to the Library of Congress:
The land which formed the new state originally constituted part of Virginia. Historically, the two areas differed culturally, as pioneering individuals traditionally settled the western portion, while a slave holding aristocratic society developed in the eastern portion. Westerners made an unsuccessful attempt to formally separate from Virginia in 1769. When Virginia seceded from the Union in 1861, the residents of the western counties, few of whom owned slaves, decided to stay with the Union. “Mountaineers always freemen” is the state’s motto.
View President Lincoln’s handwritten corrections to Secretary of State Seward’s opinion on the admission of West Virginia.
