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Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 1: Hello and welcome to This Day in History Class, a

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Speaker 1: show for those interested in the ins and outs of

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Speaker 1: everyday history. I'm Gaybeluesier, and today we're looking at a

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Speaker 1: strange chapter from the early days of the American Union,

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Speaker 1: the story of the so called Lost State of Franklin.

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Speaker 1: The day was August twenty third, seventeen eighty four. Four

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Speaker 1: counties in western North Carolina declared their independence as the

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Speaker 1: State of Franklin. The break from North Carolina was motivated

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Speaker 1: by land disputes and by the growing fear that the

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Speaker 1: land on which Franklin Knights lived might be sold to

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Speaker 1: Spain or France to help cover the nation's war dead

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Speaker 1: following the American Revolution. The proposed the state was never

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Speaker 1: formally recognized by Congress and existed in a legal limbo

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Speaker 1: for the better part of five years. After that, North

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Speaker 1: Carolina resumed control of the region for a time, but

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Speaker 1: the land in which the rebelling counties lay would eventually

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Speaker 1: become the state of Tennessee. The years following the Revolutionary

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Speaker 1: War were a time of great uncertainty for people living

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Speaker 1: outside of the established thirteen colonies. For example, communities west

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Speaker 1: of the Appalachian Mountains and east of the Mississippi River

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Speaker 1: didn't automatically become part of the United States. Instead, they

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Speaker 1: had three options. They could become their own jurisdictions within

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Speaker 1: existing states, propose new states to join the Union, or

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Speaker 1: most drastically, break off entirely and create their own sovereign republics.

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Speaker 1: For the first two years after the American Revolution, the

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Speaker 1: residents of the Cumberland River Valley reluctantly went with the

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Speaker 1: first option. The independent communities they had formed before the

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Speaker 1: war became four counties in western North Carolina, Sullivan, Washington, Green,

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Speaker 1: and Spencer, known today as Hawkins. This arrangement was shaky

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Speaker 1: to begin with, but it fell apart completely in June

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Speaker 1: of eighteen seventy four, when North Carolina ceded control of

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Speaker 1: its western counties to the federal government. The fledgling nation

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Speaker 1: had found itself in deep debt after the Revolution, and

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Speaker 1: one option considered to help pay it off was to

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Speaker 1: sell some of its western land to Spain or France.

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Speaker 1: The North Carolina state government got on board with this

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Speaker 1: effort and offered to hand over its western holdings to Congress.

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Speaker 1: It wasn't a certainty that the federal government would accept

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Speaker 1: the land. It had two years to decide, and even

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Speaker 1: if it did, there was no guarantee that the land

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Speaker 1: would be sold off to a foreign power, as most

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Speaker 1: in the area. Nonetheless, the people who already lived in

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Speaker 1: the region didn't want to take that chance. They voiced

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Speaker 1: their disapproval to the state government, and in response, North

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Speaker 1: Carolina rescinded its offer later that year. Unfortunately, news traveled

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Speaker 1: very slowly in those days, and rather than wait to

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Speaker 1: see what the state would do, county representatives gathered in

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Speaker 1: Jonesborough that August and declared their independence from North Carolina.

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Speaker 1: They eventually found out that the session of their land

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Speaker 1: had been called off, but county leaders decided to continue

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Speaker 1: pursuing their independence anyway. In December of that year, delegates

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Speaker 1: met for a convention where they wrote their own declaration

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Speaker 1: of independence, proposed a draft constitution, and elected their own leader,

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Speaker 1: revolutionary war veteran John Severe. The following year, the county's

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Speaker 1: petitioned to become the fourteenth US state Frankland. A simple

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Speaker 1: majority of states accepted the petition, but it fell short

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Speaker 1: of the two thirds majority needed to pass. As a

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Speaker 1: last ditch effort, The counties changed their proposed name to

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Speaker 1: Franklin in an effort to win the favor of founding

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Speaker 1: father Benjamin Franklin, but alas Congress still rejected the proposal.

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Speaker 1: Being absorbed into an existing state hadn't worked out for

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Speaker 1: the residents of Franklin, and now neither had forming their

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Speaker 1: own state, so they decided to try the last option

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Speaker 1: available to them, ignore Congress and run Franklin as its

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Speaker 1: own independent nation. And so for the next four years,

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Speaker 1: Franklin existed as an extra legal, standalone republic right next

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Speaker 1: door to North Carolina. Under the leadership of John Severe,

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Speaker 1: Franklin operated as if it had actually been ratified by Congress.

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Speaker 1: It built roads, established courts, issued marriage licenses, and even

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Speaker 1: negotiated treaty with the region's indigenous tribes. Things went okay

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Speaker 1: at first, but as time went on, the difficulties of

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Speaker 1: self governance began to rear their heads. Franklin's barter based

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Speaker 1: economy made it difficult to accumulate wealth through conduct trade

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Speaker 1: with other states, and as the US government made new

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Speaker 1: treaties with Native Americans, Franklin found that its own agreements

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Speaker 1: were difficult to maintain, leading to open conflicts with the Cherokee, Chickamauga,

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Speaker 1: and Chickasaw tribes. With no militia of its own to

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Speaker 1: protect its citizens, Franklin was forced to abandon its experiment

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Speaker 1: in self government and officially rejoin North Carolina in seventeen

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Speaker 1: eighty nine. The reunion didn't last long, though, as once

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Speaker 1: again the state promptly turned over the land to the

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Speaker 1: federal government. This time, Congress accepted the land right away,

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Speaker 1: and to help keep the peace, it appointed many former Franklinites,

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Speaker 1: including John Severe, to the newly formed territorial government. Less

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Speaker 1: than a decade later, in seventeen ninety six, their long

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Speaker 1: held dream of statehood was finally realized when North Carolina's

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Speaker 1: former territory, including the communities that had once formed Franklin,

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Speaker 1: became the new state of Tennessee. Franklin's rebellion didn't work

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Speaker 1: out as planned, but it still had a lasting impact

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Speaker 1: on American politics. The ordeal had created so much chaos

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Speaker 1: and confusion for the young nation that it led to

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Speaker 1: the inclusion of a clause in the US Constitution regarding

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Speaker 1: the formation of new states. It specified that while new

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Speaker 1: states can be admitted to the Union, they cannot be

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Speaker 1: formed within the boundaries of any other state or states

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Speaker 1: unless all parties, including Congress, agree to it first. I'm

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Speaker 1: Gay Bluesiery and hopefully you now know a little more

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Speaker 1: about history today than you did yesterday. If you'd like

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Speaker 1: to keep up with the show, you can follow us

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Speaker 1: on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at TDI HC Show, and

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Speaker 1: if you have any comments or suggestions, feel free to

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Speaker 1: send them my way by writing to this Day at

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Speaker 1: iHeartMedia dot com. Thanks to kazb Bias for producing the show,

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Speaker 1: and thanks to you for listening. I'll see you back

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Speaker 1: here again tomorrow for another day in History class.