Early Tennessee History

Long Hunters and Watauga

Early explorations

• People began crossing the Appalachians in the 1700s.

• Long hunters came first – people who traveled long distances in search of food and furs.– Daniel Boone – opened the Cumberland Gap and

the Wilderness Road– They returned with stories of the great land they

had seen and inspired others to come west to settle.

Then came the settlers. . .

• William Bean – first English settler in Tennessee – the settlement around his home was called Watauga.

• Thomas Sharp Spencer – first English settler in Middle Tennessee – was one of the original settlers at Nashville.

• Dr. Thomas Walker – surveyed the North Carolina-Virginia line in 1780 – this is now the northern border of Tennessee.

Watauga

• William Bean was quickly followed by others who moved to upper East Tennessee.

• Among these was James Robertson, who would later be one of the founders of Nashville and Cumberland Furnace.

• The settlers created the Watauga Association – the first constitution written west of the Appalachians.

Dealings with Indians

• The Watauga settlers had a few problems with Native Americans

• The Transylvania Purchase, 1775– Richard Henderson of North Carolina negotiated a

treaty with the Cherokee to purchase parts of Kentucky and northern Middle Tennessee.

– Cherokee chief Little Carpenter was involved in the negotiations.

Richard Henderson Little Carpenter (Attakullakulla)

– His son, Dragging Canoe, was not happy with the sale.

– He said that the land would be a “dark and bloody ground”, meaning that some of the Cherokee would fight the settlers.