The state of Franklin declares independence - August 23rd, 1784

On this day in 1784, four counties in western North Carolina declared their independence as the State of Franklin.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This Day in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio.
Hello and welcome to This Day in History Class, a
show for those interested in the ins and outs of
everyday history. I'm Gaybeluesier, and today we're looking at a
strange chapter from the early days of the American Union,

(00:22):
the story of the so called Lost State of Franklin.
The day was August twenty third, seventeen eighty four. Four
counties in western North Carolina declared their independence as the

(00:42):
State of Franklin. The break from North Carolina was motivated
by land disputes and by the growing fear that the
land on which Franklin Knights lived might be sold to
Spain or France to help cover the nation's war dead
following the American Revolution. The proposed the state was never
formally recognized by Congress and existed in a legal limbo

(01:05):
for the better part of five years. After that, North
Carolina resumed control of the region for a time, but
the land in which the rebelling counties lay would eventually
become the state of Tennessee. The years following the Revolutionary
War were a time of great uncertainty for people living
outside of the established thirteen colonies. For example, communities west

(01:29):
of the Appalachian Mountains and east of the Mississippi River
didn't automatically become part of the United States. Instead, they
had three options. They could become their own jurisdictions within
existing states, propose new states to join the Union, or
most drastically, break off entirely and create their own sovereign republics.

(01:52):
For the first two years after the American Revolution, the
residents of the Cumberland River Valley reluctantly went with the
first option. The independent communities they had formed before the
war became four counties in western North Carolina, Sullivan, Washington, Green,
and Spencer, known today as Hawkins. This arrangement was shaky

(02:16):
to begin with, but it fell apart completely in June
of eighteen seventy four, when North Carolina ceded control of
its western counties to the federal government. The fledgling nation
had found itself in deep debt after the Revolution, and
one option considered to help pay it off was to
sell some of its western land to Spain or France.

(02:38):
The North Carolina state government got on board with this
effort and offered to hand over its western holdings to Congress.
It wasn't a certainty that the federal government would accept
the land. It had two years to decide, and even
if it did, there was no guarantee that the land
would be sold off to a foreign power, as most

(02:59):
in the area. Nonetheless, the people who already lived in
the region didn't want to take that chance. They voiced
their disapproval to the state government, and in response, North
Carolina rescinded its offer later that year. Unfortunately, news traveled
very slowly in those days, and rather than wait to

(03:19):
see what the state would do, county representatives gathered in
Jonesborough that August and declared their independence from North Carolina.
They eventually found out that the session of their land
had been called off, but county leaders decided to continue
pursuing their independence anyway. In December of that year, delegates

(03:40):
met for a convention where they wrote their own declaration
of independence, proposed a draft constitution, and elected their own leader,
revolutionary war veteran John Severe. The following year, the county's
petitioned to become the fourteenth US state Frankland. A simple
majority of states accepted the petition, but it fell short

(04:03):
of the two thirds majority needed to pass. As a
last ditch effort, The counties changed their proposed name to
Franklin in an effort to win the favor of founding
father Benjamin Franklin, but alas Congress still rejected the proposal.
Being absorbed into an existing state hadn't worked out for

(04:23):
the residents of Franklin, and now neither had forming their
own state, so they decided to try the last option
available to them, ignore Congress and run Franklin as its
own independent nation. And so for the next four years,
Franklin existed as an extra legal, standalone republic right next

(04:45):
door to North Carolina. Under the leadership of John Severe,
Franklin operated as if it had actually been ratified by Congress.
It built roads, established courts, issued marriage licenses, and even
negotiated treaty with the region's indigenous tribes. Things went okay
at first, but as time went on, the difficulties of

(05:07):
self governance began to rear their heads. Franklin's barter based
economy made it difficult to accumulate wealth through conduct trade
with other states, and as the US government made new
treaties with Native Americans, Franklin found that its own agreements
were difficult to maintain, leading to open conflicts with the Cherokee, Chickamauga,

(05:28):
and Chickasaw tribes. With no militia of its own to
protect its citizens, Franklin was forced to abandon its experiment
in self government and officially rejoin North Carolina in seventeen
eighty nine. The reunion didn't last long, though, as once
again the state promptly turned over the land to the

(05:49):
federal government. This time, Congress accepted the land right away,
and to help keep the peace, it appointed many former Franklinites,
including John Severe, to the newly formed territorial government. Less
than a decade later, in seventeen ninety six, their long
held dream of statehood was finally realized when North Carolina's

(06:11):
former territory, including the communities that had once formed Franklin,
became the new state of Tennessee. Franklin's rebellion didn't work
out as planned, but it still had a lasting impact
on American politics. The ordeal had created so much chaos
and confusion for the young nation that it led to

(06:31):
the inclusion of a clause in the US Constitution regarding
the formation of new states. It specified that while new
states can be admitted to the Union, they cannot be
formed within the boundaries of any other state or states
unless all parties, including Congress, agree to it first. I'm

(06:56):
Gay Bluesiery and hopefully you now know a little more
about history today than you did yesterday. If you'd like
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if you have any comments or suggestions, feel free to
send them my way by writing to this Day at

(07:17):
iHeartMedia dot com. Thanks to kazb Bias for producing the show,
and thanks to you for listening. I'll see you back
here again tomorrow for another day in History class.