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The Switzerland of America
East Tennessee's position in the antebellum South was ambivalent. The mountain ranges that enclose this area on all sides cut East Tennessee off from ready communication with other regions, created a sense of isolation, and produced a set of distinct economic and cultural characteristics. East Tennessee was relatively poor in comparison with other parts of the Confederacy, and staple crop agriculture was largely absent. It relied little on slavery, and there are indications that by 1860 a free labor ideology had begun to take hold. At the same time, East Tennessee's rural structure was similar to that of other regions of the state, its manufacturing sector was still small, and its transportation systems provided links not with the North but rather with its Southern neighbors. Further, East Tennessee's political leaders, both Whig and Democrat, proudly identified themselves as Southerners, defended the institution of slavery, and supported Southern interests in Congress. East Tennessee's location in the Appalachians did not in itself separate it from the rest of the South. As John S. Inscoe and Kenneth Noe amply demonstrated, western North Carolina and southwest Virginia, Appalachian regions with economic structures similar to East Tennessee's, fully supported secession and supplied thousands of recruits to the Confederate army.[1]
The territory that became known as East Tennessee was not penetrated by Europeans until the late colonial period. Many of these early settlers came west from Virginia and North Carolina, while others drifted down the valleys from Pennsylvania. They gathered in four settlements on the Watauga, Nolichucky, and Holston Rivers and engaged in hunting, farming, trade with Native Americans, and land speculation. Their first years were chaotic and their future uncertain, for this land belonged to the Cherokee and by British regulations was closed to settlement. The white communities evaded British orders to withdraw behind the dividing line established by the Proclamation of 1763; they then attempted first to lease this area and then to purchase it outright. Many Cherokee resented the trespassers, however, and in 1776 tensions between the two groups erupted into war. The white settlers suffered considerable losses, but in 1777, aided by troops from North Carolina, they defeated the Cherokee and forced them to cede thousands of acres.[2]
The early settlements were also threatened by political disorder. Because surveys lagged behind settlement, it was unclear whether this territory belonged to Virginia or North Carolina. As a consequence, East Tennesseans lacked both legal and political institutions. To fill this political vacuum, in 1772 delegates established a new government, the Watauga Association, which consisted of a court of five members with both legislative and executive powers, a clerk, and a sheriff. It governed the settlements until 1776, when North Carolina formally annexed this region. The Watauga Association had many flaws, but it provided a measure of law and order, and East Tennessee's early historians proudly pointed to it as the first written constitution west of the Appalachian Mountains.[3]
The East Tennessee settlements were largely untouched by the first years of the Revolutionary War. But in 1780, after British forces had occupied much of North Carolina, the loyalist commander Major Patrick Ferguson demanded that the settlers on the frontier acknowledge British authority and threatened to raze their homes if they refused. In response, about one thousand volunteers from East Tennessee, North Carolina, and western Virginia marched across the mountains, overtook a loyalist force at King's Mountain, and nearly annihilated it. This victory, in conjunction with numerous American triumphs in the South in 1780 and 1781, ended the British threat. King's Mountain also established a powerful tradition of patriotism and national loyalty in East Tennessee.[4]
The conclusion of the Revolutionary War did not bring stability to East Tennessee. Despite its annexation of this region, North Carolina had been slow to incorporate the new settlements. The North Carolina legislature had established three counties, Washington, Greene, and Sullivan, with rudimentary governments, but the settlers still lacked effective representation in the state legislature, legal institutions, and security from Native American raids. This situation worsened in early 1784, when North Carolina ceded its western lands to the Confederation government, leaving the frontier settlements in a political limbo and depriving East Tennessee of government. Angry at their position, in late 1784 East Tennessee delegates again met in a convention, proclaimed their region the state of Franklin, organized a government, and applied to Congress for admission.
The premature bid for statehood proved disastrous. In response to North Carolina's opposition, Congress rejected petitions from Franklin for admission in both 1785 and 1786. North Carolina's governor then threatened to arrest the leaders of the Franklin movement and try them for treason. East Tennessee settlers split into pro- and anti-Franklin factions, the former headed by John Sevier and the latter by John Tipton, both wealthy land speculators and ambitious politicians. The two groups formed armed bands and struggled for control of political and judicial offices. The crisis peaked in 1788, when Tipton and his supporters arrested Sevier and took him to North Carolina for trial. The position of the Franklin government was further damaged by renewed war with the Cherokee in 1786-88. At the same time, the statehood movement spurred North Carolina to remedy its neglect of the frontier. In late 1784 North Carolina repealed the cession of its frontier lands, appointed a superior court judge and an Indian commissioner for the region, and established a militia. It also dropped its charges against Sevier and allowed him to return to East Tennessee. This combination of threats and improved government proved effective, and in 1789 the Franklin government collapsed. Nevertheless, the experience of Franklin and the desire for a separate East Tennessee state were not forgotten.[5]
From this point on, the fortunes of the East Tennessee settlers improved dramatically. In 1789 North Carolina again ceded its public lands to the new Federal government, opening huge tracts for sale and reviving hopes of self-government. In 1790 Congress organized East Tennessee and other frontier areas into the Southwest Territory, and President George Washington appointed William Blount, a wealthy land speculator and an early settler in East Tennessee, as governor. By 1795 the settlements in what would become East and Middle Tennessee had reached a sufficient population to apply for statehood, and in 1796 Congress, over Federalist objections, admitted the state of Tennessee. Rapid expansion followed political stability, and throughout the 1790s and early 1800s the Cherokee were repeatedly forced to cede land and move south to accommodate the region's rapidly growing white population. In 1817 and 1819 most Cherokee signed treaties giving up their remaining land in East Tennessee in exchange for territory across the Mississippi River, and in 1835 the few remaining families in the southeastern corner of East Tennessee were forcibly removed.[6]
