The history of Tennessee goes back to 12,000 years ago and was first inhabited by Paleo-Indians. Many cultures flourished in the region like the Archaic (8000–1000 BC), Woodland (1000 BC–1000 AD), and
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There were three expeditions led by Spanish explorers, namely Hernando de Soto in 1540, Tristan de Luna in 1559, and Juan Pardo in 1567 in the region of Tennessee that established the first European settlement. During this period, Tennessee was inhabited by tribes of Muscogee and Yuchi people. The native tribes vanished possibly because of the European diseases brought by the colonizers.
Hunters from Virginia explored much of East and Middle Tennessee in the early eighteenth century. The settlers were mainly English and Scottish-Irish who formed the Watauga Association, a community built on lands leased from the Cherokee peoples.
In 1776 during the American Revolutionary War, Fort Watauga at Sycamore Shoals was attacked by Dragging Canoe and his group of men (the Cherokee) who were aligned with the British Loyalists. These renegades were referred to as the Chickamauga. In 1780 the frontier fort on the banks of the Watauga River served as a staging area for the Overmountain Men who were preparing to trek over the Appalachian Mountains to defeat the British Army.
Statehood
After the American Revolutionary War, North Carolina ceded its western lands to the federal government. The settlers in the region around Tennessee were incensed by the transfer without their consent and decided to form an independent government under John Sevier. In 1789, the cession was re-enacted and in 1790 the federal government created the Territory of the United States. William Blount was appointed the governor.
Finally in 1796 Tennessee was admitted to the Union as a slave state. Knoxville was made the capital. Tennessee is the sixteenth US state and the first to be carved out of national territory under the jurisdiction of the United States federal government.
Most of the battles of the American Civil War were fought in the cities and farms of Tennessee. The rivers of the state served as Union invasion routes. In February 1862, after the victories of General Ulysses S. Grant on the lower Tennessee and Cumberland rivers Nashville was occupied. One of the bloodiest battles of the war was fought near the Mississippi state line in April wherein Memphis fell to a Union fleet. The battle of Murfreesboro, Vicksburg campaign, and the Chattanooga campaign were some of the major events of the Civil War.
The end of the war saw many changes in the constitution of the state. On February 22, 1865, Tennessee adopted a constitutional amendment that freed the slaves. It ratified the fourteenth amendment to the United States Constitution on July 18, 1866; and on July 24, 1866 became the first state to be re-admitted to the Union.
The late nineteenth century in Tennessee saw remarkable changes in the social arena. There were campaigns for women’s rights and their right to vote. The founding of the Tennessee Equal Suffrage Association in 1906 was a crucial event of the century. The coming of the Jim Crow Laws was important as it ended the prevalent racial segregation.
Recent History
The establishment of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) in 1933 is one of the most important events after the Civil War. The TVA made significant contributions to the state by providing hydroelectric power cheaply and in abundance. It brought about significant changes and growth in the economy of Tennessee. On August 18, 1920, Tennessee became the thirty-sixth and final state necessary to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution; the Amendment provided women the right to vote.
The economy has advanced rapidly in the twentieth century, (especially since the 1970s) with a tremendous growth in the service, trade, and finance sectors of the state economy.
In 1996, Tennessee celebrated its bicentennial.
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