At
the time of Tennessee's first exploration by Europeans, Cherokee
inhabited the area of present-day Tennessee, residing in the region
east of the Tennessee River after eradicating the Uchee. The area
of today's state was used by neighboring Native American tribes
as a hunting ground. Cherokee claimed east Tennessee, while Choctaw
asserted rights to middle Tennessee and the upper Cumberland River
area. Shawnee claimed the lower Cumberland area, and Chickasaw
used and claimed the territory between the Tennessee and Mississippi
rivers, in west Tennessee.
The British organized Ft. Loudon in east Tennessee in 1756, and
the 1763 Treaty of Hard Labour opened the region for settlement
by North Carolinians and Virginians. The Watauga Association,
formed about 1771, organized the first government for what is
now Tennessee. North Carolina claimed the region, along with portions
of what became middle and western Tennessee, based on its colonial
charter granting land from sea to sea. A settlement, made by former
Wataugans at French Lick in 1779 in present-day central Tennessee,
was organized as the Cumberland Compact.
During the Revolutionary War, small groups of hunters and trappers,
some with their families, trekked across the Blue Ridge to nestle
in the deep river valleys in east Tennessee marking the first
permanent settlements. Claims to Tennessee's western lands were
ceded to the United States government after a difficult and complicated
series of events beginning with the first cession act of 1784
that was repealed that same year. Frustrated over proceedings
and lack of representation in the North Carolina legislature,
settlers on the frontier of present-day East Tennessee formed
the independent State of Franklin in 1784. Lasting only four years,
it failed in 1788. North Carolina ceded the area of Tennessee
to the U.S. government in 1790, reserving some sections, and Congress
created the “Territory South of the River Ohio.” North
Carolina granted Revolutionary soldiers land in the reserved area
in middle Tennessee. In 1796, Tennessee separated from North Carolina
and became the sixteenth state.
Frontier settlers from North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia
migrated to Tennessee. Many were Scots-Irish who had traveled
through the Shenandoah Valley down the Great Wagon Road to reach
the territory. Germans from Pennsylvania and Virginia settled
in the region west of Chattanooga. Others followed Robertson's
Road into middle Tennessee.
Tennessee's history, following statehood, was partially linked
with that of Andrew Jackson's military career and campaigns in
the Battle of New Orleans and the Indian Wars. As part of the
U.S. government policy toward Native Americans, West Tennessee
was purchased from the Chickasaw who were removed, along with
the Cherokee and other native tribes, to what is now Oklahoma.
Strong sentiments existed for the Union, particularly in east
Tennessee. Opposing sentiments were advocated by those whose plantation
economy depended on the institution of slavery. Black slaves were
an important part of the state's farm economy. During the Civil
War, Tennessee was an active battleground, with over 400 battles
fought within its borders. Tennessee voted to withdraw from the
Union but was the first to be readmitted.
Several epidemics swept through the populace following the war.
Most of the state's railroads had to be rebuilt during the Reconstruction
as Tennessee attempted to reclaim its previous importance in agriculture
and commerce. In the beginning of the twentieth century a project
to control floods and capture the Tennessee River's power with
the building of Wilson Dam over the state's border in Muscle Shoals,
Alabama, culminated in the Tennessee River Valley Authority in
1933. The energy production from the TVA created new industry
and jobs in time to serve production needs during World War II.
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