By the 1800s, the population of the United States had grown to about 4 million people. Pioneers were heading west, outside the borders of the United States, in search of inexpensive farmland to settle. They traveled across the Appalachian Mountains to reach the Central Plains, which had ideal farming soil and the Gulf Coastal Plain, which is located south of the Central Plains and was home to Native Americans for hundreds of years.

Daniel Boone settled in Kentucky in 1773 after leading a group of pioneers safely across the Cumberland Gap. Pioneers who left Kentucky were attacked by Native Americans who lived in the region. Later, Boone purchased much of the land in Kentucky from the Cherokees. The trails he expanded for pioneer travel became known as the Wilderness Road. Boone founded the settlement Boonesborough, and Kentucky became the fifteenth state in 1792.