For centuries Tennessee was a hunting ground for many Native American tribes, including the Paleo, Cherokee, and Chickasaw. These tribes roamed the area hunting its native cougar, elk, and black bear, but none settled there permanently because so much intertribal warfare existed within its borders. The first European to visit Tennessee was Spanish explorer, Hernando de Soto, who toured the area in 1540.
In the 17th century, both English and French explorers built temporary forts in the region. For years, the two countries battled each other for the influence over the territory and its abundance of animal pelts. The English outnumbered the French in the region, and eventually they defeated them. The Treaty of Paris of 1763, which ended the French and Indian Wars, officially gave the British possession of the territory. Immediately following the wars, British colonists from Virginia and South Carolina explored the region, noting its agricultural potential. In 1769, the first permanent settlements were made in the Watauga River Valley in the northeast Tennessee by William Bean and other white pioneers. At this point, officially, Tennessee was part of North Carolina.
Back-country English, Scotch-Irish, and German inhabitants, dissatisfied with their political and economic status, first broke the British prohibition of settling west of the Appalachians in Tennessee. Although the British superintendent of Indian affairs originally intended to remove the settlers, they decided to lease the lands to the new inhabitants instead. In 1772, the new colonists established their own independent government in the area, known as the Watauga Association.
In 1775, Richard Henderson's Transylvania Land Company purchased nearly 20,000,000 acres of land from the Cherokees, even though the Native Americans were not unanimous on the decision to give up their territories. When the Revolutionary War broke out Tennessee pioneers petitioned North Carolina for annexation. In 1777 Tennessee pioneers, under Colonel Evan Shelby, defeated a hostile branch of the Cherokees known as the Chickamauga. A temporary government at Nashville was set up during the winter of 1779-80 under the Cumberland Compact.
After the American victory in the Revolutionary War, Native American attacks ceased temporarily, and boundaries were established with the Cherokees and the Chickasaws by the Hopewell treaties. In addition to settling boundary disputes, the Native Americans granted whites the use of the Tennessee River and their road through the Cumberland Plateau. In return, the U.S. government paid the Native Americans in goods and money. In 1784, the local inhabitants organized a new state called Franklin, named after Benjamin Franklin. They adopted a constitution and elected a governor, but North Carolina refused to cede the territory to the United States. Indian troubles, internal dissension, and failure to be recognized by the federal government or by North Carolina, caused the fledgling state to be involuntarily incorporated into the Southwest Territory by 1790. In 1796, Tennessee finally joined the Union, and Andrew Jackson served as its Governor. From 1790 to 1830, Tennessee experienced a terrific population boom when English, Scotch, and Irish immigrants flooded the region as Native American lands opened up. Today less than two percent of Tennessee's residents are foreign born. In 1825, approximately 14,000 Cherokee Indians still occupied their native lands, but by 1836 all of the Native Americans were sadly removed by force from Tennessee.
When the Civil War broke out Tennessee was torn between Union and Confederate sentiments, but in June of 1861 more than two-thirds of the stateΓÇÖs voters approved secession. Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy, promptly established military strongholds at Nashville, Knoxville, and Union City. Over 100,000 men from Tennessee fought for the Confederate Army, but over 30,000 also fought for the Union. Some of the Civil War's most grueling battles were fought on Tennessee soil (more than 400 engagements in total), and no state was the site of more bloodshed except Virginia.
After the Civil War, Congress made great efforts to put Tennessee back up on its feet. It was the first southern state readmitted to the Union, and within a year of its readmittance, schools for African American children had been established. Political and social problems within the state however, were far from being resolved. In 1868, the Ku Klux Klan was organized by ex-Confederate soldiers in order to scare, taunt, and physically harm the former slaves. Radical Unionists (along with Republicans) disenfranchised the ex-Confederates until 1869 when military occupation of Middle and West Tennessee came to an end.
Tennessee affirmed its nickname as the Volunteer State in World War I when nearly 100,000 of its men enlisted to fight. During the Great Depression, President Franklin D. Roosevelt approved of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) as part of his New Deal program to counteract unemployment. The TVA, which tamed the Tennessee River with dams, power plants, and reservoirs, was one of the most successful campaigns of the New Deal and worked well to re-establish industry, agriculture, and morale in the state.
World War II also greatly stimulated Tennessee's economy. In 1943, the city of Oak Ridge became the site of three Atomic Energy Commission installations and a research laboratory. Soon known as an "atomic community," Oak Ridge was where the atomic material used in the bombs which ended World War II was processed. Today the city houses the American Museum of Atomic Energy.
Despite Tennessee's industrial growth and progress, relations between the races was slow to evolve in the state. Following the 1954 US Supreme Court requiring school integration, there was racial tension and violence in Clinton and in Nashville. In 1957 only a handful of blacks attended Nashville's formerly all-white schools, but by 1963 the number had risen dramatically. In the late 1960's, discrimination and prejudice were still common in Tennessee, and while on a national campaign, civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated at a hotel in Memphis.
Today the diversification of industry in Tennessee is unequaled anywhere in the South. Chemicals, air conditioners, and aluminum smelting accent the state's tobacco, cotton, corn, and cattle industries. Tennessee is also the nationΓÇÖs number one producer of zinc, pyrite, and ball clay. More than half of the state's population resides in its 3 urban areas; Nashville, Memphis, and Knoxville.
Visiting the State
American Museum of Science and Energy, in
Oak Ridge.
The Chucalissa Archaeological Museum reconstructs
a 15th-century Native American Choctow village.
Confederama Hall of History has "highly acclaimed"
re-creation of Chattanooga's Civil War
Battle of 1863.
Dayton features the Scopes Museum-Rhea
County Courthouse.
Elvis Presley's estate, Graceland, on Elvis Presley
Boulevard in Memphis.
Huntsville Space Museum
Gatlinburg, located in the heart of the Smoky
Mountains, is a delightful mountain retreat which
features many unique shops, attractions, museums,
campgrounds, parks, and resorts.
Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee
and North Carolina.
Jack Daniel's Distillery, in Lynchburg, is the nation's
oldest registered distillery.
Kentucky Lake is the second largest manmade lake
in the world.
Memphis: Beale Street is home of the Blues, where
W.C. Handy first played the blues; Agricenter
International showcase for agricultural technology;
Memphis Zoological and Botanical Gardens.
Mississippi River Museum on Mud Island tells
natural and cultural history of the "Father
of Waters."
In Norris is the Museum of Appalachia, "the most
authentic and complete replica of pioneer
Appalachian life in the world," 65 acres, 30 log
cabins authentic, 250,000 artifacts, the Appalachian
Hall of Fame.
Nashville: the soul of country music, with 70 years
of broadcasts from "Music City, USA;" The Grand Ole
Opry; Car Collectors Hall of Fame, from Elvis' Cadillac
to John F. Kennedy's Lincoln Parade Car; the Country
Music Hall of Fame; historic RCA Studio B; Farris
Agricultural Museum; The Hermitage-- home of
Andrew Jackson; Tulip Grove; Music Village USA,
Music Valley Wax Museum of the Stars, and Music
Valley Car Museum; The Parthenon, the world's only
full-sized reproduction of the Greek Parthenon.
National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel,
site of the 1968 assassination of Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr.
In Pigeon Forge are such serious pursuits as Elvis
Museum, Dollywood, Dixie Stampede Dinner
Attraction, and a mine in which visitors can pan for
rubies, sapphires and other gems.
Sports complex, the Pyramid, is 32 stories high and
covers 6 football fields in area.
Sun Studio launched the careers not only of Elvis,
but of Jerry Lee Lewis, BB King, Muddy Waters, Roy
Orbison, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, and others.
Volunteer State Veterans Hall of Honor in Knoxville
pays tribute to soldiers who died in war.
Famous Tennesseeans
W(illiam) C(hristopher) Handy (1873-1958) Composer and musician known as the "father of the blues," which he statrted in Menphis, Tennessee.
Andrew Jackson (1767-1845) 7th president of the United States' worked as a lawyer, a delegate, and a senator of Tennessee.
Anthony Mason, Knicks player, known as the strongest man in the NBA. Starred at Tennessee State University before joining the NBA.
Dinah Shore, popular television show host and actress.
Conway Twitty, country-western singer; celebrated in Twitty City, in Hendersonville, Tennessee.
Fascinating Fact
Andrew Jackson, one of Memphis's founders, named the city after the first capital of ancient Egypt. Although Nashville boasts to be the "Athens of the South" with its full-scale replica of the Parthenon, Memphis has plans of its own and is now building a pyramid!
Tennessee adopted its flag in 1905. The three stars within the blue circle refer to Tennessee's rank as the third state to join the Union after the original 13 and also symbolize its three distinct geographical regions. The red, white, and blue colors coincide with the colors of the American and Confederate flags.
