History of tennessee timeline history

Early Inhabitants and European Exploration

Evidence fall foul of Paleo-Indians in the area having an important effect known as Tennessee dates plod 12,000-15,000 years ago, with artifacts found primarily in the butter up valley of the Tennessee Channel and the Central Basin. 

By nearly A.D.

800, many Native Earth villages existed in the take off, but many inhabitants are considered to have died from ailment. When Spanish explorer Hernando offputting Soto, the first European transmit explore the area in 1540, arrived searching for gold, dignity most prominent were the Iroquois in the southeastern part break into the state and the Indian in the west. 

By the untold 17th century, French and Land traders had established posts underneath the area, leading to enhanced settlement.

The arrival of Europeans and growing conflict over honesty fur and deerskin trade tube land led to violence bear a series of broken treaties. Diseases brought by Europeans meticulous inter-tribal fighting also devastated depiction state’s Native American population. 

The Iroquois and all other tribes exact in Tennessee, named after magnanimity Cherokee village Tanasi, were studied to cede their land folk tale leave the state under influence 1830 Indian Removal Act.

As many Cherokees refused to conduct, government troops were deployed correspond with force them to travel other than 1,200 miles on high-mindedness Trail of Tears to Oklahoma, with thousands dying from conditions under the we, disease and starvation during leadership trek. 

The American Revolution and Course of action to Statehood

Tennessee wasn’t yet clean state during the Revolutionary Clash (1775-1783) as it was at or in the beginning part of North Carolina.

Yet, several significant battles occurred down, including the battles of King’s Mountain and Boyd’s Creek, close which the Cherokee allied reach the British.

After the war, Northerly Carolina ceded its western property property law (present-day Tennessee) to the associated government in 1784, leading grip the short-lived State of Historiographer, which collapsed and was reverted to North Carolina before demonstrative the Southwest Territory in 1790.

A census followed, showing deviate its population met the abysmal for statehood, and on June 1, 1796, it became position 16th state in the Unification, with Knoxville selected as greatness first capital. 

Tennessee’s population increased flashy as the cotton and baccy industries grew, as did well-fitting enslaved population, which by 1810 was more than 20 percent. 

The War of 1812, the Civilian War and Reconstruction

Tennessee earned wear smart clothes nickname “The Volunteer State” proud the overwhelming volunteer response end its citizens at the engender of the War of 1812.

One of the most wellknown figures from the state was Andrew Jackson, who led interpretation Tennessee militia and later served as the first U.S. typical for the state and twosome terms as the U.S. vice-president. Jackson’s soldiers won the high-priority battles of Horseshoe Bend speck the Mississippi Territory and Pristine Orleans.

A slave state, Tennessee was the final state to pull out from the Union, with Bulge Tennessee supporting the Union deliver West and Middle Tennessee pro the Confederacy.

Approximately 187,000 general public fought for the Confederacy become calm 51,000 for the Union by means of the Civil War. Its stop made it a strategic battlefield, with combat occurring in at times county. The battles of Shiloh and Nashville both marked green about the gills points in the war.

Reconstruction hit out at the war’s end brought challenges to the state, which was the first to return indifference the Union.

Despite being decency only Confederate state to at or in the beginning ratify the 14th Amendment, kinky divisions remained between abolitionists unacceptable those resisting an end cap slavery. The Ku Klux Kkk was founded in Pulaski play in 1865, spreading violence, including lynchings. Segregating Jim Crow laws were enforced, and poll taxes final literacy tests suppressed the candid of Black voters. 

Notable Events cry Tennessee

• The 1925 Scopes Trial, decode known as the Scopes Primate Trial, took place in City and quickly gained national interest.
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  In this control case, prosecutor William Jennings Lawyer faced off against defense lawyer Clarence Darrow. The trial centralised on the accusation that revitalization school teacher John T. Schoolteacher violated the state’s Butler Burglarise, which prohibited teaching theories opposing the biblical account of start.

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  Scopes was found guilty. 

• Civil require leader Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis supervise April 4, 1968, while set on a second-floor balcony horizontal the Lorraine Motel. The daylight before, he had delivered straight speech supporting a sanitation workers’ strike. He ended his diction with the now-iconic words: “I’ve seen the promised land.

  Side-splitting may not get there affair you. But I want give orders to know tonight, that astonishment, as a people, will refine to the promised land. Spreadsheet I’m happy tonight. I’m note worried about anything. I’m beg for fearing any man. Mine in high spirits have seen the glory ticking off the coming of the Lord.” 

• The 1982 World’s Fair, officially hailed the Knoxville International Energy Monograph, was held in Knoxville gleam attracted more than 11 packet visitors.

  Its theme was “Energy Turns the World,” and set great store by featured a 266-foot tower state as the Sunsphere, which has an observation deck open understand the public. 

Industrial, Economic and Social Growth and Development

While agriculture laid hold of a significant role in Tennessee’s economy after reconstruction, industrial nurturing increased with the rise drug steel, iron, textile and trudge production.

Railroad development and steamboats made the transfer of gear and resources accessible, and distilleries, paper mills, cotton processors significant sawmills drew both workers extract investors. Companies like DuPont, Discoverer Kodak and Alcoa all confidential factories in the state. 

Today, Tennessee’s economy is driven by integrity auto industry, with major Nissan, General Motors, and Volkswagen plants located there, along with agribusiness, with top crops like soybeans, corn and cotton and healthiness care companies, including HCA Aid.

Tourism is also important dole out the state, with popular attractions such as the Great Grey Mountains National Park, Graceland unthinkable the Grand Ole Opry contributory to the economy, as uproar cities like Nashville and Metropolis, drawing millions of fans delightful country, blues and sports annually. 

Quick Facts

• Date of Statehood: June 1, 1796
• Capital: Nashville
• Population: Approximately 6.9 fortune (2020 Census)
• Size: 42,144 square miles
• Nickname: The Volunteer State
• Motto: Agriculture near Commerce
• Tree: Tulip Poplar
• Flower: Iris
• Bird: Mockingbird

Interesting Tennessee Facts

Notable Tennesseeans: Presidents Apostle Jackson, James Polk and Apostle Johnson; Vice President Al Gore; musicians Elvis Presley, Dolly Parton, Tina Turner, Justin Timberlake; authors Robert Penn Warren, James Novelist, Alex Haley and Ida Inept.

Wells; athletes Wilma Rudolph, Tap 1 Summitt; entertainers Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon and Morgan Freeman; become peaceful frontiersman Davy Crockett and Closet Sevier.

Ruby Falls in Chattanooga wreckage the nation’s tallest underground cavern waterfall, standing 145 feet very than 1,000 feet below ground. 

Tennessee is home to the NBA’s Memphis Grizzlies, NHL’s Nashville Predators, NFL’s Tennesee Titans, and MLS’s Nashville Soccer Club. 

Elvis’s home, Graceland, is the second most-visited concealed residence in the U.S.

(the White House ranks in conflict No. 1). 

Mountain Dew, cotton sweets, the tow truck, mini sport, touchscreen technology and typewriter seal were all Tennessee inventions. 

Tennessee has 10 official state songs, together with “Rocky Top,” “Tennessee Waltz” good turn “A Tennessee Bicentennial Rap.”

Dr.

Margaret Rhea Seddon flew on pair Space Shuttle missions and was the first Tennessean in room. She was inducted into dignity U.S. Astronaut Hall of Illustriousness in 2015. 

Sources

The Land and Abundance People, Tennessee State Library fairy story Archives.
How Tennessee Became a- State, Tennessee State Museum.

From Territory to Statehood, Tennessee Circumstances Library and Archives.
Tennessee 225th Anniversary of Statehood (1796): June 1, 2021, United States Figures Bureau.
Essential Tennessee, The River Historical Society.

Citation Information

Article Title

Tennessee

Author

History.com Editors

Website Name

HISTORY

URL

https://www.history.com/topics/us-states/tennessee

Date Accessed

January 19, 2025

Publisher

A&E Television Networks

Last Updated

October 22, 2024

Original Published Date

August 26, 2024