The True Story of the Short-Lived State of Franklin

"As the story of the lost State of Franklin shows, the American Revolution left some western communities in complicated circumstances.

After the war was won, communities west of the Appalachian Mountains and east of the Mississippi didn't default to becoming part of the United States. "It was never assumed," writes Jason Farr in The Tennessee Historical Quarterly. Instead, those communities “had the option of creating jurisdictions within existing states, forming new states within the union, or creating their own sovereign republics.” The residents of Franklin chose the middle option, feeling, as George Washington himself feared, that they had become “a distinct people” from those in the Atlantic states who fought for independence. The story of Franklin highlights how uncertain the early Union was and the rocky relationship between the original 13 Atlantic states and the West.

“There was little concern for western political and economic interests during the Confederation era,” Farr writes, “especially among the northeastern elite. Some even assumed that frontier communities would remain outside the union.” But when Franklin officially declared independence, as it did in 1784 starting with a conference on this day, it showed that the Founders had to pay more attention to the west...."
State of Franklin