Because of poor roads, Tennesseans relied mainly on rivers to move their crops to market. Most types of manufacturing, like spinning cloth, soap-making, and forging tools, were done in the farm household. Household chores were mostly divided by gender. Women were generally responsible for preserving food, cooking, producing cloth and clothing, and caring for children.
Men cleared fields, planted crops, forged tools, and cared for animal herds. Children performed many chores such as gathering eggs, milking cows, and working alongside their parents.
Some families ran businesses to process farm products. Grist mills ground corn and wheat into meal and flour. Sawmills cut lumber, and tanneries processed animal hides. Distilleries turned corn into whiskey. The one true industry in early Tennessee was ironmaking. Frontier ironworks were constructed in upper East Tennessee by men who had immigrated from Pennsylvania. James Robertson built the first ironworks, called the Cumberland Furnace, in Middle Tennessee in Soon Middle Tennessee ironmasters built many furnaces and forges to take advantage of the abundant iron ores of the western Highland Rim region.
These were complicated enterprises that used both slaves and freemen to dig the ore, cut the wood for charcoal, and operate the furnace. The early Tennessee iron industry supplied blacksmiths, mill owners, and farmers with the metal they needed and laid the groundwork for future industrial development. The hardworking settlers had little time for recreation. As a result, the settlers found ways to combine work and recreation.
All able-bodied men were required to serve in the militia. The days when the militia mustered , or gathered for duty, served as festive social occasions for the whole county. There was little opportunity for organized religious services in the early days and few ministers to preach. Instead, itinerant, or traveling, ministers held camp meetings. Because travel was so difficult, frontier families would camp near the meeting site for several days.
The Methodists and Baptists gained many converts through the camp meetings. Presbyterianism insisted on an educated clergy, which led to the development of many schools in early Tennessee. Academies chartered by the state were supposed to receive part of the proceeds from the sale of state lands, but this rarely happened. While state support for education languished, ministers and private teachers took the lead in setting up schools across the state.
Relations between whites and Native Americans were relatively peaceful after , although trespassing on Indian land was common, and life continued to be hazardous for settlers in remote areas. However, as Tennesseans pushed west and south toward the Tennessee River, they began to press upon Creek territory, and fighting resumed. The Creeks were the most formidable tribe on the Tennessee borders, and they were widely believed to be under the influence of hostile British and Spanish agents.
In , Tecumseh and his brother, the Prophet, succeeded in creating a confederacy , or alliance, of tribes in the Ohio Valley. Tecumseh wanted to roll back white settlement. Tecumseh visited the Creek Nation in to urge the southern tribesmen to join his movement. Let your creativity run wild! When Tennessee became a state on June 1, , it was the end of a long process.
When the British were in control, the land was reserved for Native American peoples only. No one else was allowed to settler here. So what happened when the British lost the American Revolution? The state of North Carolina claimed all the land between the mountains and the Mississippi River. People began to move in almost right away. Many broke treaties and settled on Native American lands. This resulted in years of warfare.
Conestoga Wagon — Tennessee State Museum collection. These new settlers complained that North Carolina was not doing a good job protecting them. They needed to pay off debts from the Revolutionary War. The settlers were excited.
They decided to make their own state. The State of Franklin read more about that here was the first attempt at making a state on the western side of the mountains. But there was a problem. Instead, it decided to give the lands back to North Carolina and would not let Franklin become a state.
Even though the State of Franklin went on for four years , it never really became a state. Map of Tennessee printed in — Tennessee State Museum collection. Early governance of the territory focused on treaty-making and securing settlers from Indian attacks while raising land values and encouraging settlement.
Between and , warfare with Native tribes increased until strikes led by James Robertson and John Sevier eliminated the threat of Native raids against the East Tennessee and Cumberland settlements. In Governor Blount called for a constitutional convention in Knoxville to begin the process of joining the Union.
The delegates converted the territory to a state with an organized government and constitution before applying to Congress for admission to the Union. Tennessee was the first Federal territory to apply for statehood to Congress.
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