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Franklin — The Lost State
The State that didn’t Survive in the U.S.A.
Long, long ago, in a place far away… there was a state called Franklin, but it was not to be.
The State of Franklin was an unrecognized territory in what is now Eastern Tennessee, in the United States. They created Franklin in 1784 from territory west of the Appalachian Mountains. North Carolina had offered the area to congress, to pay toward debts related to the Revolutionary War.
Franklin’s founding should become the 14th state of the United States of America. It was not to be.
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to Congress) and a secession (seceding from North Carolina, when its offer to Congress was not acted upon and they rescinded the original cession). [Wikipedia.com]
The American Revolutionary War left the United States of America deeply in debt. North Carolina voted to give 29,000,000 acres between the Allegheny Mountains and the Mississippi River to offset its debts in 1784.
The area was part of the Washington District. They gained these western counties through a lease from the Overhill Cherokee.
The North Carolina cession to the federal government stipulated Congress must accept responsibility for the area within two…
