Tennessee - 200th Anniversary - Lawrenceburg, TN - Community Commemoration on Waymarking.com

County of capsule: Lawrence County
Location of capsule: Public Square, center of green space, S. side of gazebo, Lawrenceburg

Capsule Text:

"We take for granted that our state is called Tennessee, that it was formed in 1796, and that it was the 16th state admitted to the union. But the story was nearly a whole lot different.

"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, holding courts, raising an army as needed against the hostile Native American tribes of the day). Had the state of North Carolina not been bitterly opposed to the formation of the new state, Franklin almost certainly 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.

"On this virtual tour we will take you to the state of Franklin.

"When it comes to the American Revolution, your textbook talks about things that happened in places like Boston, Philadelphia, and Yorktown. But it is important to remember that one of the main reasons for the American Revolution was King George III's order, as stated in the Proclamation of 1763, that the colonists go no further west than the Appalachian Mountains. London being a long way from these mountains, thousands of settlers ignored his demand and moved into what is now upper east Tennessee in the 1770s and 1780s. They also played a huge role in the outcome of the revolution by defeating a British army at the Battle of Kings Mountain.

"When the Revolutionary War ended, these settlers needed protection against Native American tribes, and the closest thing to an established government that these settlers had was the government of North Carolina. But -- for the same reasons King George III was reluctant to do so -- North Carolina didn't want to incur the expense of sending its militia to defend a bunch of frontier families moving further and further into lands claimed by Native American tribes. In the summer of 1784 the government of North Carolina voted to "give" this land to Congress. Then, after a new election, the North Carolina government rescinded that act and reclaimed this territory." ~ History for Kids

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