 In 1860, slaves composed 19.5% of the Commonwealth's population, and many Unionist Kentuckians saw nothing wrong with the "peculiar institution".The Commonwealth was further bound to the South by the Mississippi River and its tributaries, which were the main commercial outlet for her surplus produce, although railroad connections to the North were beginning to diminish the importance of this tie.The ancestors of many Kentuckians hailed from Southern states like Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee, but many Kentucky children were beginning to migrate toward the North.