Tennessee State

From the acclaimed academic programs and state-of-the-art facilities to MTSU campus life and our thriving Blue Raider athletic programs, there are thousands of reasons Middle Tennessee State University might be the perfect college choice for you.

Tennessee is rooted in the Watauga Association, a 1772 frontier pact generally regarded as the first constitutional government west of the Appalachian Mountains.[11] Its name derives from Tanasi (), a Cherokee town in the eastern part of the state that existed before the first European American settlement.[12] Tennessee was initially part of North Carolina, and later the Southwest Territory, before its admission to the Union as the 16th state on June 1, 1796. It earned the nickname "The Volunteer State" early in its history due to a strong tradition of military service.[13] A slave state until the American Civil War, Tennessee was politically divided, with its western and middle parts supporting the Confederacy and the eastern region harboring pro-Union sentiment. As a result, Tennessee was the last state to secede and the first readmitted to the Union after the war.[14]

Tennessee State

DOWNLOAD 🔥 https://urloso.com/2y3Ike 🔥

During the 20th century, Tennessee transitioned from a predominantly agrarian society to a more diversified economy. This was aided in part by massive federal investment in the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) and the city of Oak Ridge, which was established during World War II to house the Manhattan Project's uranium enrichment facilities for the construction of the world's first atomic bombs. After the war, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory became a key center of scientific research. In 2016, the element tennessine was named for the state, largely in recognition of the roles played by Oak Ridge, Vanderbilt University, and the University of Tennessee in its discovery.[15] Tennessee has also played a major role in the development of many forms of popular music, including country, blues, rock and roll, soul, and gospel.

Tennessee has diverse terrain and landforms, and from east to west, contains a mix of cultural features characteristic of Appalachia, the Upland South, and the Deep South. The Blue Ridge Mountains along the eastern border reach some of the highest elevations in eastern North America, and the Cumberland Plateau contains many scenic valleys and waterfalls. The central part of the state is marked by cavernous bedrock and irregular rolling hills, and level, fertile plains define West Tennessee. The state is twice bisected by the Tennessee River, and the Mississippi River forms its western border. Its economy is dominated by the health care, music, finance, automotive, chemical, electronics, and tourism sectors, and cattle, soybeans, corn, poultry, and cotton are its primary agricultural products.[16] The Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the nation's most visited national park, is in eastern Tennessee.[17]

Tennessee derives its name most directly from the Cherokee town of Tanasi (or "Tanase", in syllabary: ) in present-day Monroe County, Tennessee, on the Tanasi River, now known as the Little Tennessee River. This town appeared on British maps as early as 1725. In 1567, Spanish explorer Captain Juan Pardo and his party encountered a Native American village named "Tanasqui" in the area while traveling inland from modern-day South Carolina; however, it is unknown if this was the same settlement as Tanasi.[b] Recent research suggests that the Cherokees adapted the name from the Yuchi word Tana-tsee-dgee, meaning "brother-waters-place" or "where-the-waters-meet".[19][20][21] The modern spelling, Tennessee, is attributed to Governor James Glen of South Carolina, who used this spelling in his official correspondence during the 1750s. In 1788, North Carolina created "Tennessee County", and in 1796, a constitutional convention, organizing the new state out of the Southwest Territory, adopted "Tennessee" as the state's name.[22]

Spanish conquistadors who explored the region in the 16th century encountered some of the Mississippian peoples, including the Muscogee Creek, Yuchi, and Shawnee.[27][28] By the early 18th century, most Natives in Tennessee had disappeared, most likely wiped out by diseases introduced by the Spaniards.[27] The Cherokee began migrating into what is now eastern Tennessee from what is now Virginia in the latter 17th century, possibly to escape expanding European settlement and diseases in the north.[29] They forced the Creek, Yuchi, and Shawnee out of the state in the early 18th century.[29][30] The Chickasaw remained confined to West Tennessee, and the middle part of the state contained few Native Americans, although both the Cherokee and the Shawnee claimed the region as their hunting ground.[31] Cherokee peoples in Tennessee were known by European settlers as the Overhill Cherokee because they lived west of the Blue Ridge Mountains.[32] Overhill settlements grew along the rivers in East Tennessee in the early 18th century.[33]

Three counties of the Washington District broke off from North Carolina in 1784 and formed the State of Franklin.[64] Efforts to obtain admission to the Union failed, and the counties, now numbering eight, rejoined North Carolina by 1788.[65] North Carolina ceded the area to the federal government in 1790, after which it was organized into the Southwest Territory on May 26 of that year.[66] The act allowed the territory to petition for statehood once the population reached 60,000.[66] Administration of the territory was divided between the Washington District and the Mero District, the latter of which consisted of the Cumberland Association and was named for Spanish territorial governor Esteban Rodrguez Mir.[67] President George Washington appointed William Blount as territorial governor.[68] The Southwest Territory recorded a population of 35,691 in the first United States census that year, including 3,417 slaves.[69]

As support for statehood grew among the settlers, Governor Blount called for elections, which were held in December 1793.[70] The 13-member territorial House of Representatives first convened in Knoxville on February 24, 1794, to select ten members for the legislature's upper house, the council.[70] The full legislature convened on August 25, 1794.[71] In June 1795, the legislature conducted a census of the territory, which recorded a population of 77,263, including 10,613 slaves, and a poll that showed 6,504 in favor of statehood and 2,562 opposed.[72][73] Elections for a constitutional convention were held in December 1795, and the delegates convened in Knoxville on January 17, 1796, to begin drafting a state constitution.[74] During this convention, the name Tennessee was chosen for the new state.[22] The constitution was completed on February 6, which authorized elections for the state's new legislature, the Tennessee General Assembly.[75][76] The legislature convened on March 28, 1796, and the next day, John Sevier was announced as the state's first governor.[75][76] Tennessee was admitted to the Union on June 1, 1796, as the 16th state and the first created from federal territory.[77][78]

As settlers pushed west of the Cumberland Plateau, a slavery-based agrarian economy took hold in these regions.[88] Cotton planters used extensive slave labor on large plantation complexes in West Tennessee's fertile and flat terrain after the Jackson Purchase.[89] Cotton also took hold in the Nashville Basin during this time.[89] Entrepreneurs such as Montgomery Bell used slaves in the production of iron in the Western Highland Rim, and slaves also cultivated such crops as tobacco and corn throughout the Highland Rim.[88] East Tennessee's geography did not allow for large plantations as in the middle and western parts of the state, and as a result, slavery became increasingly rare in the region.[90] A strong abolition movement developed in East Tennessee, beginning as early as 1797, and in 1819, Elihu Embree of Jonesborough began publishing the Manumission Intelligencier (later The Emancipator), the nation's first exclusively anti-slavery newspaper.[91][92]

At the onset of the American Civil War, most Middle and West Tennesseans favored efforts to preserve their slavery-based economies, but many Middle Tennesseans were initially skeptical of secession. In East Tennessee, most people favored remaining in the Union.[93] In 1860, slaves composed about 25% of Tennessee's population, the lowest share among the states that joined the Confederacy.[94] Tennessee provided more Union troops than any other Confederate state, and the second-highest number of Confederate troops, behind Virginia.[95][14] Due to its central location, Tennessee was a crucial state during the war and saw more military engagements than any state except Virginia.[96]

During the Chattanooga campaign, Confederates attempted to besiege the Army of the Cumberland into surrendering, but reinforcements from the Army of the Tennessee under the command of Grant, William Tecumseh Sherman, and Joseph Hooker arrived.[108] The Confederates were driven from the city at the battles of Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge in November 1863.[109] Despite Unionist sentiment in East Tennessee, Confederates held the area for most of the war. A few days after the fall of Chattanooga, Confederates led by James Longstreet unsuccessfully campaigned to take control of Knoxville by attacking Union General Ambrose Burnside's Fort Sanders.[110] The capture of Chattanooga allowed Sherman to launch the Atlanta campaign from the city in May 1864.[111] The last major battles in the state came when Army of Tennessee regiments under John Bell Hood invaded Middle Tennessee in the fall of 1864 in an effort to draw Sherman back. They were checked by John Schofield at Franklin in November and completely dispersed by George Thomas at Nashville in December.[112] On April 27, 1865, the worst maritime disaster in American history occurred when the Sultana steamboat, which was transporting freed Union prisoners, exploded in the Mississippi River north of Memphis, killing 1,168 people.[113] 2351a5e196