Most people that settle in Missouri came from states like Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Louisiana(French settlers). That's why Missouri was divided like it was. Most of it's population came from the south, brought slaves to Missouri. That's why it was a slave state with free states surrounding it.

People in Missouri who supported the south probably had it rougher than any other person that supported the south because of Missouri's location. Union troops surrounded Missouri from the West, North and East. People in the deep south like Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia didn't have that problem.

And if you really want to get technical, Missouri came from the Louisiana Territory. It was called the Missouri territory which made the states of Missouri and Arkansas. Arkansas came out of the Missouri territory when it was divided up into states.

This post was edited on 2/17/13 at 10:07 pm

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Posted by I Ham That I Ham

Oh Lord, it's hard to be humble

Member since Jan 2012

10773 posts

Posted on 2/17/13 at 10:18 pm to bayou2003

but "Little Dixie"?

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Posted by RocketBallz

Member since Oct 2012

1285 posts

Posted on 2/18/13 at 1:03 pm to bayou2003

quote:
Most people that settle in Missouri came from states like Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Louisiana(French settlers). That's why Missouri was divided like it was. Most of it's population came from the south, brought slaves to Missouri. That's why it was a slave state with free states surrounding it.

A very large chunk of settlers came straight from Germany. People with German ancestry are the largest group in Missouri. From the Missouri Wiki:

The five largest ancestry groups in Missouri are: German (27.4 percent), Irish (14.8 percent), English (10.2 percent), American (8.5 percent) and French (3.7 percent).

The main reason Missouri sided with the Union was because of these Germans and their disdain for slavery.

How this relates to Arkansas and Missouri being rivals, I'm not really sure. Does Arky have a large French or Polish popluation??