State of Franklin

In 1784, settlers in the mountain valleys west of the Appalachians decided to govern themselves. North Carolina had offered its western lands to Congress and then taken the offer back, leaving the frontier counties feeling abandoned. Their leaders met at Jonesborough, proclaimed a new state, elected Revolutionary War hero John Sevier governor and, in 1785, named it Franklin in the hope of winning Benjamin Franklin's support. He politely declined to give it.

Franklin ran courts and levied taxes and, short of hard money, accepted payment in corn, tobacco, apple brandy and animal skins. Its bid to join the Union won the votes of seven states in Congress, short of the two-thirds required under the Articles of Confederation. North Carolina reasserted control, rival governments clashed in an armed skirmish in 1788, and by early 1789 Sevier and the last holdouts had sworn allegiance to North Carolina. The land became part of the Southwest Territory and, in 1796, the state of Tennessee.

• Tennessee
  The Volunteer State, a long ribbon across the South became part of
• North Carolina
  The Tar Heel State, from the Blue Ridge to the Outer Banks broke away from
• The Appalachian Mountains
  The ancient, worn mountains of the eastern U.S. related
• Vermont Republic
  The independent republic that became the 14th state related