Missouri Territory, less the state of Louisiana, was organized in 1812. So after that date, if you were born in the "Show Me" state, you really were born in Missouri. However, if you were born in Arkansas before 1819 you may have been born in Missouri also since Arkansas Territory was taken from Missouri that year. When Missouri was admitted to the Union in 1821 the remainder of the territory became known as "Unorganized Territory."
In 1854, when Senator Stephen Douglas got together with President Franklin Pierce, the Kansas-Nebraska Act was put into effect. This organized the territories of Kansas and Nebraska. Now if you were born in Kansas, you were born in Kansas. And the same would be so for Nebraska. But this still wasn't the case if you were born in Colorado.
The Territory of Colorado was established in 1861. So up until then even if you were born in Colorado, you weren't. You were born in Kansas Territory from which Colorado was created. Now if you're feeling blue about all this, consider how Pike's Peak, Louisiana sounds. When Zebulon Pike discovered Pike's Peak back in 1806 that tall sphere wasn't in Colorado. It was in Louisiana Territory, then later it was in Kansas Territory. No, they didn't move it around. Just like everything else in Colorado, Pike's Peak wasn't considered in Colorado until she became a territory.
What it all comes down to, thanks to Napoleon and a lot of other folks, I for one am thankful we can call the vast prairie the Great AMERICAN Plains.
To explore the Louisiana Purchase on the Internet see:
THE TREATY OF THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE http://www.earlyamerica.com/earlyamerica... Here you can read the entire text of the purchase document. There are links to view the original document as well as a 1790 map of Louisiana Territory.
THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE http://members.tripod.com/~jtlawson/inde... This site not only tells about the purchase which was one of the largest land transactions in history, but also gives links to information on major persons involved in the transaction: Thomas Jefferson, Napoleon I, and others.
Don't Forget to Visit Our SUITE 101 UNIVERSITY: your place for online learning! A new course has been added and is now in progress: THE GREAT AMERICAN WEST, 1861 to 1876, written and instructed by Mary Trotter Kion. http://www.suite101.com/course.cfm/17161...
The major printed sources for this article are:
These United States: The Questions of Our Past, Vol. 1: to 1877, By Irwin Unger. Published by Simon and Schuster, Inc. New Jersey, 1986.
