Plantations that operated within the present-day boundaries of West Virginia were located in the counties of the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians and in the Kanawha and Ohio River valley regions.
[2] Following the French and Indian War, settlement and agricultural development continued unabated in the Shenandoah and South Branch Potomac valleys.
[4] By the 1860 United States census, Berkeley, Greenbrier, Hampshire, Hardy, Jefferson, Kanawha, and Monroe counties consequently had the largest populations of slaves in present-day West Virginia.
[9] Despite West Virginia receiving Union statehood on June 20, 1863, sympathies and loyalties within the state's borders remained divided, especially within areas economically dependent upon the plantation system.
[11] Other plantations, like Mill Island and Willow Wall near Moorefield, and Elmwood near Shepherdstown, were utilized as hospitals for wounded soldiers and irregulars.