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This week, episode 335, The State of Franklin.

Now, last time we covered the Continental Congress's focus on setting up some form of governance

for what would be called the Northwest Territory. Now, there were, however, some other

Western territories whose fate was still undecided. And this week we're going to talk about

another of those Western territories that was proclaimed the state of Franklin. A North Carolina had some basis for a land claim that

reached all the way to the Mississippi River. Most of its population, however, live near the coast.

Settlers had moved as far west as the Appalachian Mountains, but few had crossed those mountains

into what was regarded as Cherokee territory.

Like all new states, North Carolina was deeply in debt from the costs of fighting the war.

The Continental Congress was encouraging states to cede Western lands as a way of providing an asset to pay off old war debt.

The North Carolina legislature, though, had a different idea.

They argued that the Cherokee had given up any legal claims to the land since they backed

the British during the war. In April, 1783, the legislature opened up millions of acres of

...