Before the Volunteer State: New Thoughts on Early Tennessee, 1540-1800

Most general studies of Tennessee history begin with the arrival of Anglo-American settlers in the 1760s, with only a brief overview of the state’s “prehistory.” This welcome volume rethinks this narrative by placing Tennessee’s origins firmly in the seventeenth century. In ten thoughtful essays, scholars of trans-Appalachian and early American history address a number of issues that have been touched on only fleetingly within Tennessee historiography, including the dynamic balance of Nativ...