State of Franklin
The State of Franklin (also the Free Republic of Franklin or the State of Frankland) was an unrecognized proposed state located in present-day East Tennessee, in the United States. Franklin was created in 1784 from part of the territory west of the Appalachian Mountains that had been offered by North Carolina as a cession to Congress to help pay off debts related to the American War for Independence. It was founded with the intent of becoming the 14th state of the new United States.
| The State of Franklin (Frankland) | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| August 1784 – December 1788 | |||||||||
The state of Franklin highlighted on a map of Tennessee | |||||||||
| Capital | Jonesborough (August 1784 – December 1785) Greeneville (December 1785 – 1788) | ||||||||
| Area | |||||||||
| • Coordinates | 36°10′N 82°49′W | ||||||||
| Government | |||||||||
| • Type | Republic / Organized, extralegal territory | ||||||||
| "Governor" (President) | |||||||||
• December 1784 – December 1788 | President/Governor Col. John Sevier | ||||||||
| Speaker of the Senate | |||||||||
• December 1784 – December 1788 | Landon Carter | ||||||||
| William Cage | |||||||||
| Col. Joseph Hardin | |||||||||
| Legislature | Congress of Greeneville | ||||||||
• Upper house | Senate | ||||||||
• Lower House | House of Representatives | ||||||||
| Historical era | post American Revolution | ||||||||
• North Carolina cedes the Washington District to federal government | April 1784 | ||||||||
• Secedes from North Carolina and blocks federal government claims; Franklin proclaimed | August 23, 1784 | ||||||||
• Petition for Frankland statehood sent to Congress | May 16, 1785 | ||||||||
• Provisional name changed to "Franklin" | December 24, 1785 | ||||||||
• Disbanded; and area re-acquired by North Carolina | March–September 1788 1788 | ||||||||
• Area is designated part of the Southwest Territory | 1790 | ||||||||
| Political subdivisions | Counties | ||||||||
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| Today part of | East Tennessee, United States | ||||||||
Franklin's first capital was Jonesborough. After the summer of 1785, the government of Franklin (which was by then based in Greeneville), ruled as a "parallel government" running alongside (but not harmoniously with) a re-established North Carolina bureaucracy. Franklin was never admitted into the union. The extra-legal state existed for only about four and a half years, ostensibly as a republic, after which North Carolina reassumed full control of the area.
The creation of Franklin is novel, in that it resulted from both a cession (an offering from North Carolina to Congress) and a secession (seceding from North Carolina, when its offer to Congress was not acted upon and the original cession was rescinded).