Secession Abandoned in the Jackson Purchase
Mayfield, Graves County, Kentucky
Marker Inscription
Secession Abandoned. In May, 1861, delegates of seven Kentucky and twenty Tennessee westernmost counties, the Jackson Purchase, met in Mayfield. Belief in Southern cause, dissatisfaction with Kentucky adherence to Union, and Tennessee delay joining South, caused convention vote to secede and form a Confederate state. With Tennessee's vote to secede, June 8, 1861, proposal abandoned.
Erected by Kentucky Historical Society
The Story
In May 1861, delegates from the westernmost counties of Kentucky and Tennessee—the region known as the Jackson Purchase—gathered at Mayfield, frustrated by Kentucky's stubborn adherence to the Union and by Tennessee's slowness to leave it. Strongly sympathetic to the Southern cause, the convention voted to secede and form a new Confederate state. When Tennessee itself voted to secede in June, the separatist proposal was dropped.
Why it matters
The episode captures how deeply divided Kentucky was in 1861, with one corner so pro-Confederate it briefly imagined its own path out of the Union.
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Related events
- · Jackson Purchase secession convention
Themes & tags
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