Lost State of Franklin

Lost State of Franklin

The people who lived in what is now upper east Tennessee originally formed a state called "Franklin". In 1784, they elected a governor and a legislature; wrote a constitution; and began going about the business of running their affairs (collecting taxes,creating laws, holding courts, raising an army as needed against the hostile Native American tribes of the day the Cherokee indians). Had the state of North Carolina not been so bitterly opposed to the formation of the new state,"Franklin" almost certainly it would have been accepted into the union by the Continental Congress. But because of North Carolina's opposition, the proposal to accept Franklin failed to be approved by Congress. "Franklin" later ceased to exist, becoming a footnote in history and one of the more vivid examples of the failure of the short-lived American confederation government. This leads to confusion on people being from North Carolina and not Tennessee.

These links will help you find more information on the history of the formation of the state of Tennessee.

http://americanhistory.about.com/od/governmentandpolitics/f/articles_of_confederation_fails.htm

http://americanhistory.about.com/library/docs/blarticles.htm

http://loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/articles.html

http://www.ushistory.org/gov/2b.asp

http://www.tnhistoryforkids.org/places/state_of_franklin

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/state-of-franklin-declares-independence

http://www.pbs.org/program/mysterious-lost-state-franklin/

http://www.tngenweb.org/pre1796/franklin.htm

https://familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/State_of_Franklin

http://www.ourstate.com/the-state-of-franklin/

http://www.tngenweb.org/greene/maps/franklin-1788.html