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Why Did Some American States Split In Two?
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Mar 31, 2025
Go to https://ground.news/Knowledge to spot media bias and make sure you’re getting the full story. Subscribe through my link for less than $1/month or get 40% off unlimited access this month only. In this video I talk about US states and territories that split up. When you look at a U.S. state map, you'll notice a few states sharing similar names like North and South Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia, and North and South Dakota, each having unique historical reasons for their division. Virginia and West Virginia split during the Civil War due to conflicting allegiances. The Carolinas split for administrative reasons during colonial times, and the Dakotas split due to regional differences and political strategies during their admission to the Union. Additionally, some states like Kentucky, Maine, Vermont, and Rhode Island were formed from territories originally claimed by other states or colonies. As the U.S. expanded westward, territories were often reorganized and renamed, leading to the gradual formation of new states. Travel with me as we dive into the history behind these divisions and how territories evolved into the states we know today, highlighting both genuine splits and cases of shared origins. TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 US States With The Same Name 00:27 Other States That "Split" From Existing Ones 01:29 Virginia & West Virginia 02:18 British Virginia Colony 02:29 Kentucky's "Split" From Virginia 02:53 Former Claims Of The First 13 Colonies 03:20 How The "State Cessions" Led To New States 05:54 How The First 13 States Also Came From Common Colonies 06:39 North Carolina & South Carolina 07:26 North Dakota & South Dakota 08:16 How Many US States Came From The Same Territories 08:54 US Territorial Evolution: From Territories To States 10:22 Difference Between Organized & Unorganized Territories 11:00 Summary
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When you look at a state map of the United States, you notice a few of them have the same names
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North Carolina and South Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia, North Dakota and South Dakota
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These are states that, in one way or another, split up. Although some split upon statehood, others after it, and others way before the US were even a concept
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Putting into question if they are really states that split up, or just states that originate from the same territory, thus sharing a similar name
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In addition to those states that do share a name, there are also other ones in the US
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that were formed out of the territory of existing states or which originate from common colonies
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even though they today use completely different names. Kentucky, which was a part of Virginia, Maine, which was a part of Massachusetts
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Vermont, which was a part of New York, Rhode Island was a part of the Connecticut colony too
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before setting off on their own, among others. US unorganized territories were once very large and encompassed what are multiple states each as
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well. For the actual cases of states splitting up, the US constitution admits this possibility
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even today, as long as that internal secession is approved by the first state's government
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So in this video, we're going to dive deeper into this topic, understanding which states split up
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and why, in addition to which originate from the same colonies and or territories
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If we talk about the ones with the same names, this will allow us to understand the rest
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Let's start with Virginia and West Virginia. This is the only true case of a state split
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and it has to do with the temporary split that the entire US faced as a country during the Civil War
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Virginia had sided with Confederacy in the South, but some people in what was then the
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northwest of the state, aimed to repeal the secession and side with the north. Unable to do
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so and with the support of the Union, which saw Virginia as a state of their enemy at the time
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they seceded from Virginia themselves and were admitted into the US as their own state in 1863
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After the conflict ended, reunification could have theoretically taken place, but West Virginia was already a state in its own right, a reward for siding with the winning power
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of the Union, and no desire to lose its newly acquired autonomy existed. Not only did they
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used to exist together with Virginia as a single state up to this point, but they also share a
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common history as part of the British Virginia colony which stretched into what is today Kentucky
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which is why we can also consider Kentucky as having split from Virginia just earlier
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but it wasn't a true state split because it did happen so much earlier. Kentucky was admitted
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into the Union at the start of it as the 15th state in 1792
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Remember that the initial 13 had just gotten independence from the British in 1776, and
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the state was formed out of territory at the time claimed by Virginia In fact this map shows us how the 13 colonies stretched further into the interior with their claims sometimes they even
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overlapped as was the case with New York and Virginia, and Virginia even claimed this whole
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area up to the Great Lakes. When the Revolutionary War ended and the British ceded their land east
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of the Mississippi River and west of the Proclamation Line, these lands were claimed by the 13 colonies
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individually, and federal negotiations had to take place to set the permanent boundaries
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This map shows us that process, which came to be known as state sessions, where most of the 13
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colonies ended up ceding all of their western claims to the federal government in order to
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allow the establishment of new states. New York and Virginia had the largest claims
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and so they ceded the most land. Interestingly, New York claimed what would then become West
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Virginia. Massachusetts and Connecticut also ceded some strips of land in the Great Lakes area
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and North Carolina ceded what would then become Tennessee. Georgia, in turn, ceded what would
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become North Alabama and Mississippi. And so, one could technically say that all these eastern
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interior states were formed from the claimed territory of the initial 13 colonies, but it
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would be perhaps a stretch to say that they split from them. And just like some US states split in
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two, opinions can be split as well. And most importantly, they can be different depending on
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the ideology of who is giving it. Take for instance this feud between Texas Governor Abbott and NYC
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Mayor Adams that's kicking off due to the migrants being bussed from the Texas border to NYC by
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Governor Abbott. Ahead of Abbott's visit to NYC in April, Adams invited him to stay at a migrant
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shelter and learn how New York is handling the immigration crisis. And because I read it on
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ground news, I don't just get one version of the story, I see the whole picture plus
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context you can't find anywhere else. Here on the top right we can see how this story is being covered by the media, showing
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the sources covering it and how those outlets are or are not biased
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Over here you can see how each article framed the situation. On the left, this headline says one thing, but this right leaning article is reporting
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something else. In addition, you get a factuality meter, which isn't a fact checker for the article itself
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but a representation of how factually correct the outlets that covered it tend to be
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Seeing how differently immigration is being covered side by side makes me realize just how much understanding of an issue is influenced by what you read
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In summary, Ground News lets you expand your perspective and escape manipulative algorithms that reinforce media narratives and bias
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Because the same can be said with some of the original 13 colonies too, which themselves form from common territory of specific English colonies
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For instance, the Massachusetts Bay Colony initially included parts of New Hampshire and most of Maine
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and Rhode Island was a part of the territory claimed by Connecticut until 1728
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state, the same way Delaware was part of Maryland's territorial claim until 1767
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Vermont's case is a little different, as its territory was arguably part of the province
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of New York between 1664 and 1777. When the American Revolution came, Vermont seceded from New York and became self-governing
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it ended up being granted statehood in its own right in 1791, and so it was the first
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state in the Union which had not been a separate British colony
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If we move onto the second example of two states sharing a name, North and South Carolina
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we see a similar situation. Initially being united and including Tennessee's territory, the province of Carolina was an
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English colony between 1663 and 1712, being named after the Latin Carolus, the translation
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of King Charles's name. Due to having different needs and plans for both parts of the colony, the English decided
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to split it in two. And so, in 1712, the provinces of North Carolina and South Carolina were established still
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as English colonies. A latitude line was set as the boundary but borders weren't really defined until 1771
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they had developed separately throughout these decades and 5 years later came the Revolutionary
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War with each joining as their own, separate states into the Union
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And what about the third case of North and South Dakota? Both of the Dakotas were part of a single Dakota territory which was formed in 1861
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So why didn't they join the union as a single state but instead as two
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Stephen Bucklin, a professor of history at the University of South Dakota points to regional
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differences in trade routes and population size as the two main factors
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Also, there was some animosity between North and South and disputes about which side would
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get to have the capital of the new state. In addition, some claimed that despite local policy rivalries, both regions highly favored
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a specific party at the time which was able to lobby federal government to make sure that
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two states were admitted in order to increase their representation in congress
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South Dakota wanted to keep the Dakota name and proposed the north could be called the state of Pembina or Lincoln but the north refused to give up the name and so they both
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kept it. And this one opens the door to something else that we can learn about here, how territories
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became states and how they share common origins. As the US expanded west, first to that British ceded territory east of the Mississippi but
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then also into the French sold Louisiana territory and then into the Mexican sessions, new states
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New states didn't emerge right away, there were no US citizens living there, and so it
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didn make sense for borders to be set and administrations established in new states Instead the US created unorganized territories which were then organized and then transitioned into states gradually as borders were defined a count of 60 people was reached and a state constitution
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was drafted. Let's use that US territorial expansion gif that I love and use so often
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to understand this. It happened first with the part of the British session in the Northwest
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territory which became the Indiana territory when Ohio became a state. The Mississippi territory
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included Alabama, the Louisiana territory became the Missouri territory when Louisiana became a
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state, then splitting into the Arkansas territory at the same time as Oregon country was established
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in the northwest. As Missouri and Arkansas joined, the interior became the unorganized territory
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This trend of a territory taking a name and then losing that name when the first state within it
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it was made official seems to be common. This reorganization and renaming of territories kept
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happening until the contiguous 48 states were established. And the territorial evolution shows
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us how so many of the western states, especially, share a common heritage in these territories
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having slowly split from them one by one. It would however potentially be a mistake to claim
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that for instance, Montana is split from Nebraska just because it originates from the Nebraska
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territory. In many cases that is just a matter of the name that happened to be chosen as the first
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one of the territory. Although some seem to be real territory splits. For instance, the New Mexico
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territory was established from the Mexican session and became an organized territory in 1850 in what
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is today Arizona and New Mexico, only splitting into the two in 1862 due to the local desire of
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the people of Arizona. They were actually the last two of the Contiguous 48 to reach statehood
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It's also important to differentiate between unorganized territories and organized ones. Very often, borders for future states were defined and they held the status of territory
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until specific requirements were met and their name was already set. The Washington Territory was seemingly unorganized and with different borders from 1853 to 1863
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And from 1863 to 1889, it existed still as a territory but with organized borders
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before achieving statehood that year. And while the Washington Territory included what is today Idaho at one point
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I wouldn't say Idaho split from it, but if a region had split from the organized Washington
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territory in 1863 onwards, I think we could partly consider it as such
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So, that is an overview of US states that split up, either from old English colonies
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from early US states or from US unorganized territories. What do you think about this
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Do you think any of these states should get back together or are there any other states
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you think should split up today? Let me know in the comments. Thanks for watching, remember to subscribe and I will see you next time for more general knowledge
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