State of Kanawha instance of proposed state of the United States
Kanawha was a proposed name for the 39 counties which later became the main body of the U.S. state of West Virginia, formed on October 24, 1861.  It consisted of most of the far northwestern counties of Virginia, which voted to secede from the state after Virginia joined the Confederate States of America at the beginning of the American Civil War on April 17, 1861.Background
The Wheeling Conventions
The geopolitical separation from Virginia had been approved by the Second Wheeling Convention of August 20, 1861.  The proposed name of "Kanawha" was based on the prominence of the Kanawha River running through the area (itself named after the local Canawagh, or Kanawha, Indian band, which were driven out of the area by the Iroquois  sometime after 1780) and was originally proposed by a committee of the founding convention as the name for the new state.
type of example of manifestation of representation of