Last modified: 2005-03-19 by rick wyatt
Keywords: united states | franklin | tennessee | treaty of dumplin creek | cherokee |
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The 1780s boundaries of North Carolina included what is now Tennessee. A fair portion of the inhabitants of what is now East Tennessee were involved in the creation of Franklin as a separate State, with the intention of becoming a member of the American confederation. This occurred after North Carolina considered, and then rejected, ceding the area west of the mountains to the Confederation Congress, as Virginia had done with her territories north of the Ohio River.
All of the western settlers did not go along with the new state, however, and for about four years both Franklin and North
Carolina maintained separate sets of officers, courts, and worst of all , tax collectors in the disputed territory.
After the creation of the new American Union in 1789 under the new Constitution, and North Carolina's admission to the new Union in 1790, North Carolina ceded the western territory to the federal government, which administered it under a territorial government until the creation and admission of the State of Tennessee in 1796.
In studying the documents of the government of Franklin, I have found one reference to a flag, but do not have it at my finger-tips. My recollection is that is was basically legislative authorization for Governor Sevier to establish a flag of the State of Franklin. But I have never found any other reference to such a flag.
Devereaux Cannon, 9 October 2002
A web page existed at one time at http://www.tnhillbillie.net/tn/jefferson/treaty/franklin.html
(page no longer available) that purported to show a flag of Franklin
(red-blue-green, Tennessee-style, with a blue disk on the red field and the
letter F in green on the blue disk (see here
for a recreation of it by António Martins-Tuválkin). While the State of
Frnaklin did indeed exist, and there was at least one reference to a flag, I
have never found any description or design for a Franklin flag, and I can
guarantee that this ugly parody of the Tennessee flag was not used in the State
of Franklin.
Devereaux Cannon, 9 October 2002
