December 9, 2025 • 10 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, in the turbulent years after the Revolution, settlers west of the mountains felt the weight of distance from the governments that claimed them. Their answer was to imagine a new state named Franklin, a place shaped not by polished politics but by the realities of frontier life. The Appalachian Storyteller traces how this fragile experiment rose and unraveled, revealing a moment when the boundaries of early America were still unsettled and ordinary people tried to shape a future that never quite arrived.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
And we returned to our American stories. While we have
fifty states today, it might surprise some of you listening
that some didn't make the cut from Deseret to Superior
to Lincoln and the subject of our next story, Franklin.
Here to tell the story of the Lost state of
Franklin is JD. Phillips, the man behind the popular YouTube channel,
(00:33):
The Appalachian Storyteller, Take It Away. JD.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Our story begins in seventeen eighty four. A new country,
the United States, is born from the ashes of the
Revolutionary War. It was a time of great opportunity, as
all land east of the Mississippi River was seated by
Great Britain to this new nation. But the reality was
(00:57):
that nearly all of the people living in eighteen states
actually lived on the eastern side of the Appalachian Mountains.
There were only a few routes over them, and all
those trails were controlled by the Native Americans. There were
few white men who had successfully breached the mountain barrier
and had set up forts and small villages on the
(01:20):
western slopes. They were a hearty breed of men known
as the over mountain Men. They had learned much from
the natives about surviving in the wilderness and fighting tactics.
North Carolina was facing several problems. It claimed so much
land that it was impossible to practically govern it all.
(01:43):
News from its coastal capital took months to reach the
people living on the western side of the Appalachians, and
at the same time, North Carolina couldn't afford to send
any military aid to help these mountain men fight the
natives who were defending their homeland. With that in mind,
politicians set out giving huge land grants to soldiers who
(02:05):
had fought in the Revolution, helping to eventually fill the
territory with loyalists and men willing to fight the government's
battle forum to claim this new land. Yet, to their surprise,
many of the soldiers were tired of fighting wars, and furthermore,
North Carolina politicians had another problem. They were flat broke.
(02:25):
The war had left them penniless, so they created the
Land Grab Act, opening up the vast area that would
eventually become Tennessee to any person who was willing to
pay ten dollars for one hundred acres, and they sold
nearly four million acres of this land in a mere
eight months. But wouldn't you know, it. Over three million
(02:47):
of those acres were now owned by politicians and their
business friends, and many times without any actual proof of payment. Finally,
by April of eighteen eighty four, under pressure from hungers
to pay off its debts, North Carolina seated twenty nine
million acres all of its land that laid between the
Mississippi River and the Appalachian Mountains back to the federal government. However,
(03:12):
once the US government realized that they were now responsible
for all the costs to fight those Cherokee Indians, they
soon changed their mind. Suddenly, the over mountain men living
on the western slopes of the Appalachians were without state
or country. Yet these were no ordinary men. They were Appalachian,
and soon the entire course of American history would be
(03:35):
altered as these men in this area set out to
become the fourteenth state in the United States. By August
of eighteen eighty four, nearly one hundred over mountain men
met in what is now Jonesboro, Tennessee, and discussed the
dire circumstances they found themselves without any official status, protection,
(03:58):
or judicial accommodation. John Severe was one of the men
who attended this meeting. His leadership had proved vital during
the Battle of King's Mountain just a few years earlier.
He was very well respected by his peers. The custom
in those days was to name a town or a
county after a prominent politician, and during this era, no
(04:19):
man was more respected than Benjamin Franklin. Thus the new
territory comprising of modern day East Tennessee would be known
as a state of Franklin. Severe was named the first governor,
and they quickly set up officers and militia to protect
the area, and even adopted a state constitution that reflected
(04:41):
Appalachian values. It called for religious freedom, it allowed any
man the right to vote even if he didn't own property,
and it forbade all lawyers, preachers, or doctors from holding
political office. When word of this new state got back
to the other side, out of the mountains to North Carolina,
(05:02):
they conveniently forgot that they had willingly abandoned both the
people and the land. After all, the last thing those
politicians wanted was all that land that they now personally
owned through the fraudulent Land Grave, to be owned by
another state. So and in an about face, they officially
changed their minds and reasserted that the land was once
(05:23):
again part of North Carolina. They even continued to demand
payment of taxes from the mountain folks, but those Appalachians
just simply refused to pay and never sent a dime
to them. Soon word began to spread about this new
state with laws made to support and defend individual liberty,
and by now folks all around the South were already
(05:46):
tiring of the control and the restrictions and taxes of
this new American government. In their minds, this new Master
was much like the old Master. So in a massive migration,
nearly fifteen thousand families moved to the state of Franklin.
All of a sudden, this state, founded by Appalachian mountain men,
(06:07):
had grown to eight counties, and they had even created
their own currency, and their leader, John Severe, proved to
be equally skilled in both war and negotiations. Under his leadership,
the state of Franklin fought several large battles with Cherokees.
By June of seventeen eighty five, Severe met with Cherokee
(06:29):
leaders and negotiated the Treaty of Dumpling Creek, opening up
those lands to even more white settlers. Heck, even the
state capital of Franklin was built on this new land
in what is modern day Greenville, Tennessee. May you better
believe that a state is radical, as Franklin put the
United States government on notice. With these mountain folks self
(06:51):
governing themselves and negotiating peace treaties with Native Americans, they
certainly had to be stopped. The first blow came in
mid seventeen eighty five, when the official petition for Franklin
to become the fourteenth state of the United States of
America was officially voted on. Each of the thirteen states
(07:12):
had won vote, and a total of nine votes was
needed to admit Franklin into the Union. Franklin only received seven.
With North Carolina pressure in its neighboring states the vote
against Franklin. The state of Franklin was denied entry into
the United States, but that Appalachian spirit was alive and well.
The mountaineers carried in their own right, much like an
(07:35):
independent nation. So the United States began engaging in a
series of calculated moves to undermine Franklin's relationship with the Natives.
In November of seventeen eighty five, the United States negotiated
the Treaty of Hopewell with the Cherokees, which completely reversed
the treaty that John Severe and the State of Franklin
(07:56):
had in place. This treaty returned all the land along
the French Broad River back to the Cherokees. This meant
that the State of Franklin's capital was now sitting squarely
on Native American property. Over the next couple of years,
(08:18):
all outside governments refused to recognize any official court orders
from Franklin, making it impossible for folks to buy or
sell property or complete any legal paperwork, and by seventeen
eighty seven, internal strife was rampant, and many Franklin Knights
began lobbying for a return to statehood with North Carolina.
(08:38):
Seeing this, North Carolina agreed to forgive any unpaid back
taxes for those who would stop paying taxes to the
State of Franklin, and in the ultimate move to show power,
North Carolina placed their own tax collector in the State
of Franklin, a man named John Tipton, who was a
bitter rival of John Severe's. Tipton immediately ordered a sheriff
(09:01):
to see Severe's personal property as payment to North Carolina
for unpaid taxes. Yet Severe responded by showing up on
Tipton's doorstep with one hundred and forty five man militia,
and a two day siege of Tipton's home ensued. North
Carolina had had enough of John Severe, and finally they
arrested him for treason and they were set to tri
(09:22):
um in Morganton, North Carolina. However, a heavily armed group
of John Severe's supporters showed up at the jail house steps,
and that sheriff just so happened to fight alongside John
Severe in the Battle of King's Mountain, and he wisely
looked away as Severe mounted his horse and was free again.
Despite all his efforts, the state of Franklin had collapsed
(09:45):
and was now part of North Carolina again. Now the
irony of this story is that a year later, in
seventeen eighty nine, John Severe would receive a full pardon
for pledging allegiance to the state of Franklin. And what
did North Carolina do well. They promptly surrendered all of
its land from the Mississippi River to the Appalachians to
(10:07):
the federal government again as payment for its debt from
the Revolutionary War. This same land would become the sixteenth
state and who was the first governor of this new
state called Tennessee. You guessed it, John Severe.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
And a special thanks to J. D. Phillips, the man
behind the popular YouTube channel The Appalachian Storyteller, and a
terrific story about how states came to be and didn't
the story of the last state built by Appalachian mountainmen.
Here on our American Stories.
And we returned to our American stories. While we have
fifty states today, it might surprise some of you listening
that some didn't make the cut from Deseret to Superior
to Lincoln and the subject of our next story, Franklin.
Here to tell the story of the Lost state of
Franklin is JD. Phillips, the man behind the popular YouTube channel,
(00:33):
The Appalachian Storyteller, Take It Away. JD.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Our story begins in seventeen eighty four. A new country,
the United States, is born from the ashes of the
Revolutionary War. It was a time of great opportunity, as
all land east of the Mississippi River was seated by
Great Britain to this new nation. But the reality was
(00:57):
that nearly all of the people living in eighteen states
actually lived on the eastern side of the Appalachian Mountains.
There were only a few routes over them, and all
those trails were controlled by the Native Americans. There were
few white men who had successfully breached the mountain barrier
and had set up forts and small villages on the
(01:20):
western slopes. They were a hearty breed of men known
as the over mountain Men. They had learned much from
the natives about surviving in the wilderness and fighting tactics.
North Carolina was facing several problems. It claimed so much
land that it was impossible to practically govern it all.
(01:43):
News from its coastal capital took months to reach the
people living on the western side of the Appalachians, and
at the same time, North Carolina couldn't afford to send
any military aid to help these mountain men fight the
natives who were defending their homeland. With that in mind,
politicians set out giving huge land grants to soldiers who
(02:05):
had fought in the Revolution, helping to eventually fill the
territory with loyalists and men willing to fight the government's
battle forum to claim this new land. Yet, to their surprise,
many of the soldiers were tired of fighting wars, and furthermore,
North Carolina politicians had another problem. They were flat broke.
(02:25):
The war had left them penniless, so they created the
Land Grab Act, opening up the vast area that would
eventually become Tennessee to any person who was willing to
pay ten dollars for one hundred acres, and they sold
nearly four million acres of this land in a mere
eight months. But wouldn't you know, it. Over three million
(02:47):
of those acres were now owned by politicians and their
business friends, and many times without any actual proof of payment. Finally,
by April of eighteen eighty four, under pressure from hungers
to pay off its debts, North Carolina seated twenty nine
million acres all of its land that laid between the
Mississippi River and the Appalachian Mountains back to the federal government. However,
(03:12):
once the US government realized that they were now responsible
for all the costs to fight those Cherokee Indians, they
soon changed their mind. Suddenly, the over mountain men living
on the western slopes of the Appalachians were without state
or country. Yet these were no ordinary men. They were Appalachian,
and soon the entire course of American history would be
(03:35):
altered as these men in this area set out to
become the fourteenth state in the United States. By August
of eighteen eighty four, nearly one hundred over mountain men
met in what is now Jonesboro, Tennessee, and discussed the
dire circumstances they found themselves without any official status, protection,
(03:58):
or judicial accommodation. John Severe was one of the men
who attended this meeting. His leadership had proved vital during
the Battle of King's Mountain just a few years earlier.
He was very well respected by his peers. The custom
in those days was to name a town or a
county after a prominent politician, and during this era, no
(04:19):
man was more respected than Benjamin Franklin. Thus the new
territory comprising of modern day East Tennessee would be known
as a state of Franklin. Severe was named the first governor,
and they quickly set up officers and militia to protect
the area, and even adopted a state constitution that reflected
(04:41):
Appalachian values. It called for religious freedom, it allowed any
man the right to vote even if he didn't own property,
and it forbade all lawyers, preachers, or doctors from holding
political office. When word of this new state got back
to the other side, out of the mountains to North Carolina,
(05:02):
they conveniently forgot that they had willingly abandoned both the
people and the land. After all, the last thing those
politicians wanted was all that land that they now personally
owned through the fraudulent Land Grave, to be owned by
another state. So and in an about face, they officially
changed their minds and reasserted that the land was once
(05:23):
again part of North Carolina. They even continued to demand
payment of taxes from the mountain folks, but those Appalachians
just simply refused to pay and never sent a dime
to them. Soon word began to spread about this new
state with laws made to support and defend individual liberty,
and by now folks all around the South were already
(05:46):
tiring of the control and the restrictions and taxes of
this new American government. In their minds, this new Master
was much like the old Master. So in a massive migration,
nearly fifteen thousand families moved to the state of Franklin.
All of a sudden, this state, founded by Appalachian mountain men,
(06:07):
had grown to eight counties, and they had even created
their own currency, and their leader, John Severe, proved to
be equally skilled in both war and negotiations. Under his leadership,
the state of Franklin fought several large battles with Cherokees.
By June of seventeen eighty five, Severe met with Cherokee
(06:29):
leaders and negotiated the Treaty of Dumpling Creek, opening up
those lands to even more white settlers. Heck, even the
state capital of Franklin was built on this new land
in what is modern day Greenville, Tennessee. May you better
believe that a state is radical, as Franklin put the
United States government on notice. With these mountain folks self
(06:51):
governing themselves and negotiating peace treaties with Native Americans, they
certainly had to be stopped. The first blow came in
mid seventeen eighty five, when the official petition for Franklin
to become the fourteenth state of the United States of
America was officially voted on. Each of the thirteen states
(07:12):
had won vote, and a total of nine votes was
needed to admit Franklin into the Union. Franklin only received seven.
With North Carolina pressure in its neighboring states the vote
against Franklin. The state of Franklin was denied entry into
the United States, but that Appalachian spirit was alive and well.
The mountaineers carried in their own right, much like an
(07:35):
independent nation. So the United States began engaging in a
series of calculated moves to undermine Franklin's relationship with the Natives.
In November of seventeen eighty five, the United States negotiated
the Treaty of Hopewell with the Cherokees, which completely reversed
the treaty that John Severe and the State of Franklin
(07:56):
had in place. This treaty returned all the land along
the French Broad River back to the Cherokees. This meant
that the State of Franklin's capital was now sitting squarely
on Native American property. Over the next couple of years,
(08:18):
all outside governments refused to recognize any official court orders
from Franklin, making it impossible for folks to buy or
sell property or complete any legal paperwork, and by seventeen
eighty seven, internal strife was rampant, and many Franklin Knights
began lobbying for a return to statehood with North Carolina.
(08:38):
Seeing this, North Carolina agreed to forgive any unpaid back
taxes for those who would stop paying taxes to the
State of Franklin, and in the ultimate move to show power,
North Carolina placed their own tax collector in the State
of Franklin, a man named John Tipton, who was a
bitter rival of John Severe's. Tipton immediately ordered a sheriff
(09:01):
to see Severe's personal property as payment to North Carolina
for unpaid taxes. Yet Severe responded by showing up on
Tipton's doorstep with one hundred and forty five man militia,
and a two day siege of Tipton's home ensued. North
Carolina had had enough of John Severe, and finally they
arrested him for treason and they were set to tri
(09:22):
um in Morganton, North Carolina. However, a heavily armed group
of John Severe's supporters showed up at the jail house steps,
and that sheriff just so happened to fight alongside John
Severe in the Battle of King's Mountain, and he wisely
looked away as Severe mounted his horse and was free again.
Despite all his efforts, the state of Franklin had collapsed
(09:45):
and was now part of North Carolina again. Now the
irony of this story is that a year later, in
seventeen eighty nine, John Severe would receive a full pardon
for pledging allegiance to the state of Franklin. And what
did North Carolina do well. They promptly surrendered all of
its land from the Mississippi River to the Appalachians to
(10:07):
the federal government again as payment for its debt from
the Revolutionary War. This same land would become the sixteenth
state and who was the first governor of this new
state called Tennessee. You guessed it, John Severe.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
And a special thanks to J. D. Phillips, the man
behind the popular YouTube channel The Appalachian Storyteller, and a
terrific story about how states came to be and didn't
the story of the last state built by Appalachian mountainmen.
Here on our American Stories.
Host
Lee Habeeb
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