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Full-Text Articles in History

America's First Secession: The Lost State Of Franklin Fell Just Short Of Admission To The Young Union, Kevin T. Barksdale Aug 2012

America's First Secession: The Lost State Of Franklin Fell Just Short Of Admission To The Young Union, Kevin T. Barksdale

Kevin T. Barksdale

On Dec. 14, 1784, a small assemblage of Tennessee Valley leading men met at a rustic courthouse in Jonesboro, N.C. under a darkening cloud of political uncertainty, 28 western political and economic leaders voted overwhelmingly to declare their communities' independence from their parent state of North Carolina and to form America's 14th state- Franklin.


The Lost State Of Franklin: America's First Secession, Kevin Barksdale Aug 2012

The Lost State Of Franklin: America's First Secession, Kevin Barksdale

Kevin T. Barksdale

In the years following the Revolutionary War, the young American nation was in a state of chaos. Citizens pleaded with government leaders to reorganize local infrastructures and heighten regulations, but economic turmoil, Native American warfare, and political unrest persisted. By 1784, one group of North Carolina frontiersmen could no longer stand the unresponsiveness of state leaders to their growing demands. This ambitious coalition of Tennessee Valley citizens declared their region independent from North Carolina, forming the state of Franklin. This book chronicles the history of this ill-fated movement from its origins in the early settlement of East Tennessee to its …


“We Will Hold Our Land:” The Cherokee People In Postrevolutionary North America, 1781-1792, Kevin T. Barksdale Aug 2012

“We Will Hold Our Land:” The Cherokee People In Postrevolutionary North America, 1781-1792, Kevin T. Barksdale

Kevin T. Barksdale

In June of 1783, Spain’s newly-appointed Governor of Louisiana Estevan Miro convened a conference of southeastern Indians in Pensacola with representatives from the dominant regional Amerindian groups, including the Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Creeks in attendance. Among the attendees at the West Florida congress was a small contingent of Chickamauga Cherokee, led by their principal chief Dragging Canoe. During the parlay, Governor Miro implored the Indians to “not be afraid of the Americans,” promised to provide guns and ammunition in their ongoing efforts to prevent the further loss of their lands, and urged them to “continue to fight against American” westerners.


Our Rebellious Neighbors : Virginia's Border Counties During Pennsylvania's Whiskey Rebellion, Kevin T. Barksdale Aug 2012

Our Rebellious Neighbors : Virginia's Border Counties During Pennsylvania's Whiskey Rebellion, Kevin T. Barksdale

Kevin T. Barksdale

Focuses on the 1794 Whiskey Rebellion in Pennsylvania, and its impact on the Virginia counties of Ohio, Harrison and Monongalia. Background on the Whiskey Rebellion; Concerns over the frontier dynamics occurring in Appalachian Virginia following the rebellion; Reaction from Pennsylvanians following the passage of the excise tax in March 1791.


Appalachia’S Borderland Brokers: The Intersection Of Kinship, Diplomacy, And Trade On The Trans-Montane Backcountry, 1600-1800, Kevin T. Barksdale Aug 2012

Appalachia’S Borderland Brokers: The Intersection Of Kinship, Diplomacy, And Trade On The Trans-Montane Backcountry, 1600-1800, Kevin T. Barksdale

Kevin T. Barksdale

This paper and accompanying historical argument builds upon the presentation I made at last year’s Ohio Valley History Conference held at Western Kentucky University. In that presentation, I argued that preindustrial Appalachia was a complex and dynamic borderland region in which disparate Amerindian groups and Euroamericans engaged in a wide-range of cultural, political, economic, and familial interactions. I challenged the Turnerian frontier model that characterized the North American backcountry as a steadily retreating “fall line” separating the savagery of Amerindian existence and the epidemic civility of Anglo-America. On the Turnerian frontier, Anglo-American culture washed over the Appalachian and Native American …


Violence, Statecraft, And Statehood In The Early Republic : The State Of Franklin, 1784–1788, Kevin Barksdale Aug 2012

Violence, Statecraft, And Statehood In The Early Republic : The State Of Franklin, 1784–1788, Kevin Barksdale

Kevin T. Barksdale

In December 1784, a small contingent of upper Tennessee Valley political leaders met in Washington County, North Carolina's rustic courthouse to discuss the uncertain postrevolutionary political climate that they believed threatened their regional political hegemony, prosperity and families. The Jonesboro delegates fatefully decided that their backcountry communities could no longer remain part of their parent state and that North Carolina's westernmost counties (at the time Washington, Sullivan and Greene counties) must unite and form America's fourteenth state.


“Facing East” From Iberian America: Postrevolutionary Spanish Policies In The Southwestern Backcountry, 1783-1792, Kevin T. Barksdale Aug 2012

“Facing East” From Iberian America: Postrevolutionary Spanish Policies In The Southwestern Backcountry, 1783-1792, Kevin T. Barksdale

Kevin T. Barksdale

Following the American Revolution, the new United States government and its citizenry greedily cast their eyes westward across the expansive trans-Appalachian frontier. The contest between the region’s native peoples, Anglo-American westerners, and Spanish colonists for the trans-Appalachian West began long before the first shots of the Revolution were fired at Lexington & Concord. From the near perpetual regional Indian warfare to the diplomatic maneuverings of Euroamerican backcountry leaders, the struggle to control the land the Indians called the “western waters” defined borderland relations for most of the 18th century. Historians have devoted a great deal of scholarly energy to chronicling …