Franklin

Franklin, unofficial state (1785–90) of the United States of America, comprising the eastern portion of what is now Tennessee and extending to “unclaimed” lands to the west. The short-lived state was established mainly as a result of North Carolina’s cession of its western lands to the United States. Settlers in the isolated mountain wilderness, deserted and largely ignored, formed an association that would make and administer laws. They also required an active militia because they...