Tennessee is one of the 50 states of the United States. What is now Tennessee was initially part ofNorth Carolina, and later part of theSouthwest Territory. It wasadmitted to the Union on June 1, 1796, as the 16th state. Tennessee earned the nickname "The Volunteer State" during theWar of 1812, when many Tennesseans helped with the war effort, especially during the American victory at theBattle of New Orleans in 1815. The nickname became even more applicable during theMexican–American War in 1846, after the Secretary of War asked the state for 2,800 soldiers, and Tennessee sent over 30,000 volunteers.[1]
Tennessee was the last state to formally leave theUnion and join theConfederacy at the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861. WithNashville occupied by Union forces from 1862, it was the first state to be readmitted to the Union duringReconstruction. During the Civil War, Tennessee furnished the second most soldiers for the Confederate Army, behindVirginia. Tennessee supplied moreunits of soldiers for theUnion Army than any other state within the Confederacy, withEast Tennessee being mostly aSouthern Unionist stronghold. During theReconstruction era, the state had competitive party politics, but a Democratic takeover in the late 1880s resulted in passage ofdisenfranchisement laws that excluded most blacks and many poor whites from voting, with the exception of Memphis. This sharply reduced competition in politics in the state until after passage of civil rights legislation in the mid-20th century.
After 1900, Tennessee transitioned from an agrarian economy based on tobacco and cotton, to a more diversified economy. This was aided in part by massive federal investment in theTennessee Valley Authority created in the 1930s by theNew Deal, helping the TVA become the nation's largestpublic utility provider. The huge electricity supply made possible the establishment of the city ofOak Ridge to house theManhattan Project's uranium enrichment facilities, helping to build theworld's first atomic bombs. In 2016, the elementtennessine was named for the state, largely in recognition of the roles played by Oak Ridge,Vanderbilt University, and theUniversity of Tennessee in the element's discovery.[2]
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Paleo-Indians are believed to have hunted and camped in what is now Tennessee as early as 12,000 years ago. Along with projectile points common for this period, archaeologists inWilliamson County have uncovered a 12,000-year-oldmastodon skeleton with cut marks typical of prehistoric hunters.[3]
The most prominent knownArchaic period (c. 8000 – 1000 BC) site in Tennessee is theIcehouse Bottom site located just south ofFort Loudoun inMonroe County. Excavations at Icehouse Bottom in the early 1970s uncovered evidence of human habitation dating to as early as 7,500 BC.[4] Other archaic sites include Rose Island, located a few miles downstream from Icehouse Bottom, and theEva site inBenton County. The Archaic peoples first domesticated dogs and created the first villages in the state, but were largely hunter-gatherers confined to smaller territories than their predecessors.[5]
Tennessee is home to two majorWoodland period (1000 BC – 1000 AD) sites: thePinson Mounds inMadison County and theOld Stone Fort inCoffee County, both built c. 1–500 AD. The Pinson Mounds are the largest Middle Woodland site in the Southeastern United States, consisting of at least 12 mounds and a geometric earthen enclosure.[6] The Old Stone Fort is a large ceremonial structure with a complex entrance way, situated on what was once a relatively inaccessible peninsula.[7]
Mississippian (c. 1000 – 1600) villages are found along the banks of most of the major rivers in Tennessee. The most well-known of these sites includeChucalissa nearMemphis;Mound Bottom inCheatham County;Shiloh Mounds in Hardin County; and theToqua site in Monroe County.[8][9] Excavations at theMcMahan Mound Site inSevier County and more recently atTownsend inBlount County have uncovered the remnants ofpalisaded villages dating to 1200.[10][11]
In the 16th century, threeSpanish expeditions passed through what is now Tennessee.[12] TheHernando de Soto expedition entered theTennessee Valley via theNolichucky River in June 1540, rested for several weeks at the village ofChiaha (near the modernDouglas Dam), and proceeded southward to theCoosa chiefdom in northernGeorgia.[13][14] De Soto spent the winter of 1540-41 in camp on Pontotoc Ridge in extreme northern Mississippi. He may have entered Tennessee and gone west to the Mississippi at or near present-day Memphis. In 1559, the expedition ofTristán de Luna, which was resting at Coosa, entered theChattanooga area to help the Coosa chief subdue a rebellious tribe known as the Napochies.[14][15] In 1567, thePardo expedition entered the Tennessee Valley via theFrench Broad River, rested for several days at Chiaha, and followed a trail to the upperLittle Tennessee River before being forced to turn back.[14][16] At Chiaha, one of Pardo's subordinates, Hernando Moyano de Morales, established a short-lived fort called San Pedro. It, along with five other Spanish forts across the region, was destroyed by natives in 1569, thereby opening the area to other European colonization.[17][18][19]
Chronicles of the Spanish explorers provide the earliest written accounts regarding the Tennessee Valley's 16th-century inhabitants. Most of the valley, including Chiaha, was part of the Coosa chiefdom's regional sphere of influence. Inhabitants spoke a dialect of theMuskogean language, and lived in complex agrarian communities centered around fortified villages.[14]Cherokee-speaking people lived in the remote reaches of theAppalachian Mountains, and may have been at war with the Muskogean inhabitants in the valley. The village of Tali, visited by De Soto in 1540, is believed to be the Mississippian-period village excavated at the Toqua site in the 1970s.[20] The villages of Chalahume and Satapo, visited by Pardo in 1567, were likely predecessors (and namesakes for) the later Cherokee villages ofChilhowee andCitico, which were located near the modernChilhowee Dam.[14]
As of the 17th century, Tennessee was the middle ground for several different native peoples. Along the Mississippi River was theChickasaw &Choctaw peoples, and inland of them were theCoushatta—all three were part of theMuskogean language family. Before European contact, they were supposedly all a loose collection of Mississippian culture city-states with their own leaders, but upon contact with Europeans, they merged into larger nations, spread out and adopted a European lifestyle, earning many of them the title of the "Civilized Tribes."[21] During the height of the Mississippians, hundreds of walled cities extended throughout the American south from Louisiana to the east coast, up the Mississippi into Wisconsin & a few fringe cities along larger rivers on the Great Plains. They had complex society & agriculture. They did not build with stone, but made plenty of examples of sculpture work in clay, stone & copper. Most of what remains of these cities, however, are large, pyramidal, earthen hills (upon which chiefs & upper-classmen would build their homes) and artful burial mounds. These people did not develop the Mississippian culture, however, but adopted it from the Caddo people west of the Mississippi River.[22][23]
To the east were theYuchi & IroquoianCherokee, divided along the Tennessee River. In the north-central region of the state were the AlgonquianCisca.[24] They later moved northeast and merged with theShawnee, but were briefly replaced with a second native nation known as the Maumee, orMascouten[25] which were driven south during theBeaver Wars (1640-1680) from southern Michigan. They later merged with the Miami of Indiana & were, once again, replaced by the Shawnee. The Shawnee controlled most of the Ohio River Region until the Shawnee Wars (1811-1813).[26][27]
In 1673, English derAbraham Wood sent an expedition led by James Needham and Gabriel Arthur fromFort Henry in theColony of Virginia into Overhill Cherokee territory in modern-day northeastern Tennessee.[28] Needham was killed during the expedition and Arthur was taken prisoner for more than a year.[29][30] That same year, a French expedition led by missionaryJacques Marquette and traderLouis Jolliet explored the Mississippi River and became the first Europeans to map the Mississippi Valley.[29][28]
French explorers and traders, led byRobert de La Salle, entered the region in 1682 atFort Prudhomme. France briefly (1739–1740) established a presence atFort Assumption during theChickasaw Wars.[12][31] In 1714, a group of French traders under Charles Charleville's command established a settlement at the present location of downtown Nashville near the Cumberland River, which became known as French Lick.[32] These settlers quickly established an extensive fur trading network with the local Native Americans, but by the 1740s the settlement had largely been abandoned.[33] In 1739, the French constructedFort Assumption underJean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville on the Mississippi River at the present-day location of Memphis, which they used as a base against the Chickasaw during the1739 Campaign of theChickasaw Wars. It was abandoned the next year after the Chickasaw took hostage French troops stationed at the fort.[34]
TheCherokee eventually moved south from the area now calledVirginia. As European colonists spread into the area, the native populations were forcibly displaced to the south and west, including theMuscogee,Yuchi,Chickasaw andChoctaw peoples. Then, from 1838 to 1839, the US government forced the Cherokee to leave the eastern United States. Nearly 17,000 Cherokee were forced to march from eastern Tennessee to theIndian Territory west of theArkansas Territory. This came to be known as theTrail of Tears, as an estimated 4,000 Cherokee died along the way.[35] In theCherokee language, the event is calledNunna daul Isunyi—"The Trail Where We Cried".
In the 1750s and 1760s,longhunters from Virginia explored much of East and Middle Tennessee.[36] In 1756, British soldiers from theColony of South Carolina builtFort Loudoun near present-dayVonore, the first British settlement in what is now Tennessee.[37] Fort Loudoun was the westernmost British outpost to that date, and was designed byJohn William Gerard de Brahm and constructed by forces under Captain Raymond Demeré.[38] Shortly after its completion, Demeré relinquished command of the fort to his brother, Captain Paul Demeré.[39] Hostilities erupted between the British and the Overhill Cherokees into an armed conflict that became known as theAnglo-Cherokee War, and asiege of the fort ended with its surrender in 1760.[40] The next morning, Paul Demeré and a number of his troops were killed in an ambush nearby, and most of the rest of the garrison was taken prisoner.[41] After the end of theFrench and Indian War, Britain issued theRoyal Proclamation of 1763, which forbade settlements west of theAppalachian Mountains in an effort to mitigate conflicts with the Natives.[42] Despite this proclamation, migration across the mountains continued, and the first permanent European settlers began arriving in the northeastern part of the state in the late 1760s.[43][44]William Bean, a longhunter who settled in a log cabin near present-dayJohnson City in 1769, is traditionally accepted as the first permanent European American settler in Tennessee.[45][46] Most 18th-century settlers were English or of primarilyEnglish descent, but nearly 20% of them wereScotch-Irish.[47]
During 1772, the Watauga Association met with, and leased lands belonging to, theCherokee atSycamore Shoals (in the present day area ofElizabethton, Tennessee). In 1775, Sycamore Shoals was the site of the Transylvania purchase, conducted between the Cherokee and North Carolina land baron, Richard Henderson.
The Treaty of Sycamore Shoals, more popularly referred to as the Transylvania Purchase (after Henderson's Transylvania Company, which had raised money for the endeavor), consisted of two parts. The first, known as the "Path Grant Deed", regarded the Transylvania Company's purchase of lands in southwest Virginia (including parts of what is nowWest Virginia) and northeastern Tennessee. The second part, known as the "Great Grant," acknowledged the Transylvania Company's purchase of some 20,000,000 acres (81,000 km2) of land between theKentucky River andCumberland River, which included a large portion of modern Kentucky and a significant portion of Tennessee north of present day Nashville. The Transylvania Company paid for the land with 10,000pounds sterling of trade goods. After the treaty was signed, frontier explorerDaniel Boone came northward to blaze theWilderness Road, connecting the Transylvania Purchase lands with the Holston and Watauga settlements.
Both the lease and the sale were considered illegal by the Crown Government, as well as by the warring Cherokee faction known as theChickamauga, led by the war-chief,Dragging Canoe. The Chickamauga violently contested the westward expansion by European settlers across Tennessee throughout theCherokee–American wars (1776–1794).
In April 1775, the Watauga Association was reorganized as the "Washington District," allied with the colonies that were declaring independence from Great Britain. The Washington District annexation petition was first rejected by Virginia in the spring of 1776, but a similar annexation petition presented by the district to the North Carolina legislature was approved in November 1776.
In the days before statehood, Tennesseans struggled to gain a political voice and suffered for lack of the protection afforded by organized government. Six counties—Washington,Sullivan, andGreene inEast Tennessee; andDavidson,Sumner, andTennessee County inMiddle Tennessee—had been formed as western counties ofNorth Carolina between 1777 and 1788.
In 1780, the newly formedCumberland Association, under theCumberland Compact, establishedFort Nashborough on theCumberland River, opening up a second frontier of settlement within present-day Tennessee. The Cumberland River settlements were separated from those in the east by a substantial enclave ofCherokee territory that was not formally acquired from them until 1805.
After theAmerican Revolutionary War, North Carolina did not want the trouble and expense of maintaining such distant settlements, embroiled as they were with hostile tribesmen during the Cherokee–American wars, and needing roads, forts, and open waterways. Nor could the far-flung settlers look to the national government; for under the weak, loosely constitutedArticles of Confederation, it was a government in name only.
In 1775,Richard Henderson negotiated a series of treaties with the Cherokee to sell the lands of the Watauga settlements atSycamore Shoals on the banks of theWatauga River in present-dayElizabethton. An agreement to sell land for theTransylvania Colony, which included the territory in modern-day Tennessee north of theCumberland River, was also signed.[48] Later that year,Daniel Boone, under Henderson's employment, blazed a trail fromFort Chiswell in Virginia through theCumberland Gap, which became part of theWilderness Road, a major thoroughfare for settlers into Tennessee and Kentucky.[49]
The first permanent settlement in Tennessee,Bean Station, was established in 1776, but was explored by pioneersDaniel Boone andWilliam Bean one year prior on alonghunting excursion.[45] The duo first observed Bean Station after crossing the gap atClinch Mountain along a southern expansion of theWilderness Road from theCumberland Gap, one of the main thoroughfares into Tennessee.[45] After fighting in theAmerican Revolutionary War one year later, Bean was awarded 3,000 acres (12 km2) in the area he previously surveyed for settlement during his excursion with Boone.[45] Bean would later construct a four-room cabin at this site, which served as his family's permanent home, and as an inn for prospective settlers,fur traders, and longhunters, thus establishing the first permanent settlement in Tennessee.[50] The settlement was situated at the intersection of theWilderness Road, that roughly followed what is present-dayU.S. Route 25E, and theGreat Indian Warpath, an east–west pathway that roughly followed what is nowU.S. Route 11W.[51][46][52] This heavily traffickedcrossroads location made Bean Station an important stopover betweenWashington, D.C. andNew Orleans for early American travelers entering Tennessee, with taverns and inns operating by the 1800s.[51]
The westerners' two main demands—protection from the Indians and the right to navigate theMississippi River—went mainly unheeded during the 1780s. North Carolina's insensitivity led frustratedEast Tennesseans in 1784 to form the breakawayState of Franklin.
John Sevier was named governor, and the fledgling state began operating as an independent, though unrecognized, government. At the same time, leaders of theCumberland settlements made overtures for an alliance with Spain, which controlled the lower Mississippi River and was held responsible for inciting the Indian raids. In drawing up the Watauga and Cumberland Compacts, early Tennesseans had already exercised some of the rights of self-government and were showing signs of a willingness to take political matters into their own hands.
Such stirrings of independence caught the attention of North Carolina, which began to reassert control over its western counties. These policies and internal divisions among East Tennesseans doomed the short-lived State of Franklin, which passed out of existence by early 1789.
When North Carolina ratified theConstitution of the United States in 1789, it also ceded its western lands, the "Tennessee country", to the Federal government. North Carolina had used these lands as a means of rewarding its Revolutionary War soldiers. In theCession Act of 1789, it reserved the right to satisfy further land claims in Tennessee.
Congress designated the area as the "Territory of the United States South of the River Ohio", more commonly known as theSouthwest Territory. The territory was divided into three districts—two forEast Tennessee and one for the Mero District on the Cumberland—each with its own courts, militia and officeholders. PresidentGeorge Washington appointedWilliam Blount, a prominent North Carolinian politician with extensive holdings in the western lands, territorial governor.
In 1795, a territorial census revealed a sufficient population for statehood. A referendum showed a three-to-one majority in favor of joining the Union. Governor Blount called for aconstitutional convention to meet inKnoxville, where delegates from all the counties drew up a model stateconstitution and democraticbill of rights.
The voters chose Sevier as governor. The newly elected legislature voted for Blount andWilliam Cocke asSenators, andAndrew Jackson asCongressman.
Tennessee leaders thereby converted the territory into a new state, with organized government and constitution, before applying to Congress for admission. Since the Southwest Territory was the first Federal territory to present itself for admission to the Union, there was some uncertainty about how to proceed, and Congress was divided on the issue.
Nonetheless, in a close vote on June 1, 1796, Congress approved the admission of Tennessee as the sixteenth state of the Union. They drew its borders by extending the northern and southern borders of North Carolina, with a few deviations, to theMississippi River, Tennessee's western boundary.
In terms of voting patterns in the closely divided state during theSecond Party System, theWhig Party attracted wealthier commercial farmers who lived in places with easy access to markets while theDemocratic Party attracted poorer subsistence farmers with less access to markets.[53]
In the early years of settlement, planters brought African slaves with them from Kentucky and Virginia. These slaves were first concentrated in Middle Tennessee, where planters developed mixed crops and bred high-quality horses and cattle, as they did in the Inner Bluegrass region of Kentucky. East Tennessee had more subsistence farmers and few slaveholders. During the early years of state formation, there was support for emancipation. At the constitutional convention of 1796, "free negroes" were given the right to vote if they met residency and property requirements. Efforts to abolish slavery were defeated at this convention and again at the convention of 1834. The convention of 1834 also marked the state's retraction of suffrage for most freed slaves. By 1830 the number of African Americans had increased from less than 4,000 at the beginning of the century to 146,158. This was chiefly related to the invention of thecotton gin in 1793 and the development of large plantations and transportation of numerous enslaved people to the Cotton Belt inWest Tennessee, in the area of theMississippi River.[54][55]
Tennessee's economy was heavily agricultural, with the state serving as a "breadbasket" to the cotton plantations in the Deep South. Tennessee farmers grew a variety of crops, including corn, wheat, and tobacco, and raised a significant number of hogs, mules, and other livestock. While much commerce still relied on rivers, the period saw a boom in railroad construction. By 1860, over 1,200 miles of railroad track had been laid, primarily in East and Middle Tennessee. This new infrastructure connected different regions of the state and provided a vital link to the rest of the country, particularly to the markets of the Deep South and Virginia. This economic development, however, also deepened the economic differences between the regions of the state.[56][57][58]
By 1860 the slave population had nearly doubled to 283,000, with only 7,300 free African Americans in the state. While much of the slave population was concentrated in West Tennessee, planters in Middle Tennessee also used enslaved African Americans for labor. According to the 1860 census, African slaves comprised about 25% of the state's population of 1.1 million before the Civil War.[59] Rich white men increasingly invested their profits in adding more slaves.[60]
Most Tennesseans initially showed little enthusiasm for breaking away from a nation whose struggles it had shared for so long. There were small exceptions such asFranklin County, which borders Alabama in southern Middle Tennessee; Franklin County formally threatened to secede from Tennessee and join Alabama if Tennessee did not leave the Union. Franklin County withdrew this threat when Tennessee did eventually secede. In 1860, Tennesseans had voted by a slim margin for theConstitutional UnionistJohn Bell, a native son and moderate who continued to search for a way out of the crisis.
In February 1861, fifty-four percent of the state's voters voted against sending delegates to a secession convention. With the attack onFort Sumter in April, however, followed by PresidentAbraham Lincoln's call for 75,000 volunteers to coerce the seceded states back into line, public sentiment turned dramatically against the Union.
Historian Daniel Crofts wrote: "Unionists of all descriptions, both those who became Confederates and those who did not, considered the proclamation calling for seventy-five thousand troops 'disastrous.' Having consulted personally with Lincoln in March, Congressman Horace Maynard, the unconditional Unionist and future Republican from East Tennessee, felt assured that the administration would pursue a peaceful policy. Soon after April 15, a dismayed Maynard reported that 'the President's extraordinary proclamation' had unleashed 'a tornado of excitement that seems likely to sweep us all away.' Men who had 'heretofore been cool, firm and Union loving' had become 'perfectly wild' and were 'aroused to a phrenzy[sic] of passion.' For what purpose, they asked, could such an army be wanted 'but to invade, overrun and subjugate the Southern states.' The growing war spirit in the North further convinced southerners that they would have to 'fight for our hearthstones and the security of home.'[61]
GovernorIsham Harris began military mobilization, submitted anordinance ofsecession to theGeneral Assembly, and made direct overtures to theConfederate government.[62] In a June 8, 1861, referendum, East Tennessee held firm against separation, whileWest Tennessee returned an equally heavy majority in favor. The deciding vote came inMiddle Tennessee, which went from 51 percent against secession in February to 88 percent in favor in June.
Having ratified by popular vote its connection with the fledglingConfederacy, Tennessee became the last state to officially withdraw from the Union.
People inEast Tennessee were firmly against Tennessee's move to leave the Union; as were many in other parts of the Union, particularly in historically Whig portions of West Tennessee.[63] This was primarily due to the distribution of slavery throughout the state; Of the state's entire slave population, nearly 40% of West Tennessee and about 20% of Middle Tennessee's were slaves, but in East Tennessee, slaves made up only 8% of the population.[64] TheEast Tennessee Convention, which met at Knoxville in May 1861 and at Greeneville in June 1861, consisted of 29 East Tennessee counties and one Middle Tennessee county (Scott County) that resolved to secede from Tennessee and form a separate state aligned with the Union. They petitioned the state legislature in Nashville, which denied their request to secede and sent Confederate troops underFelix Zollicoffer to occupy East Tennessee and prevent secession. Many East Tennesseans engaged inguerrilla warfare against state authorities byburning bridges, cutting telegraph wires, and spying.[65] The Union-backingState of Scott was also established at this time and remained ade facto enclave of the United States throughout the war.
Tennessee provided more Union troops than any other Confederate state; more than 51,000 soldiers in total, more than 20,000 of whom wereBlack.[66] Tennessee also provided 135,000 Confederate troops, the second-highest number after Virginia.
Many battles were fought in the state – most of them Union victories.Ulysses S. Grant and theUnited States Navy captured control of the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers in February 1862 and held off theConfederate counterattack atShiloh in April of the same year. Capture ofMemphis andNashville gave the Union control of the Western and Middlesections. Control was confirmed at theBattle of Stones River atMurfreesboro in early January 1863.
After Nashville was captured (the first Confederate state capital to fall),Andrew Johnson, an East Tennessean fromGreeneville, was appointed military governor of the state by Lincoln. The military government abolishedslavery in the state and Union troops occupied much of the state through the end of the war.
The Confederates continued to hold East Tennessee despite the strength of Unionist sentiment there, with the exception of pro-ConfederateSullivan County. The Confederates besiegedChattanooga in early fall 1863 but were driven off by Grant in November. Many of the Confederate defeats can be attributed to the poor strategic vision of GeneralBraxton Bragg, who led theArmy of Tennessee fromShiloh to Confederate defeat at Chattanooga.
The last major battles came when the Confederates invaded in November 1864 and were checked atFranklin, then totally destroyed byGeorge Thomas at Nashville in December.
After the war, Tennessee adopted the Thirteenth amendment forbidding slave-holding or involuntary servitude on February 22, 1865; ratified theFourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution on July 18, 1866, Under Republican governorParson Brownlow it was the first Southern state readmitted to the Union on July 24, 1866.
Because it had ratified theFourteenth Amendment, Tennessee was the only state that seceded from the Union that did not have a military governor duringReconstruction. "Proscription" was the policy of disqualifying as many ex-Confederates as possible. In 1865 Tennessee disfranchised upwards of 80,000 ex-Confederates.[67]
There were only two or three African Americans in the Tennessee legislature during Reconstruction, though others served as state and city officers. With increased participation on the Nashville City Council, African Americans then held one-third of the seats.[68]
In 1870,Southern Democrats regained control of the state legislature, and quickly reversed many of the reforms of theParson Brownlow administration.[69] In the political campaign of 1888, the Democrats waged a political battle and gained majorities in both houses of the legislature. The disenfranchising acts sailed through the 1889 general assembly, and GovernorRobert Love Taylor signed them into law. These laws instituted apoll tax, required early voter registration, allowedsecret ballots, and required separate ballot boxes for state and federal elections.[70] The key provision was a poll tax. It was voluntary--the only penalty for not paying it was inability to vote in that year's election. In Memphis and Knoxville local bosses paid the poll tax and gave the receipts without charge to their Black supporters so they could vote without paying anything. Elsewhere Black voting declined precipitously in rural areas and small towns. The poll tax worked against poor whites as well until it was finally abolished in 1953.[71][72]
Between 1877 and 1950, 236lynchings of Black people in Tennessee have been documented, including hangings of Black politicians, journalists, businessmen and teachers.[73][74] Lynchings were a form ofsocial control whereby a victim's family, friends, and other community members were forced to adopt a public code of silence about the lynching or fear for their own lives. The identity of lynchers was almost always known, with local police often facilitating the act, and the local press praising it.[75]
Tennessee divided three ways: the Democratic Party was in power in the Middle and Western sections; the Eastern mountain section was Republican based on its Unionist leanings before and during the war. In statewide elections the Democrats usually won unless factionalism split their supporters over issues like the prohibition of liquor.[76][77]
In 1897, the state celebrated itscentennial of statehood (albeit one year late) with a greatexposition in Nashville. The Tennessee Centennial Exposition was the ultimate expression of theGilded Age in the Upper South—a showcase of industrial technology and exotic papier-mâché versions of the world's wonders. The NashvilleParthenon, a full-scale replica of theParthenon in Ancient Athens, Greece, was built in plaster, wood and brick. Rebuilt of concrete in the 1920s, it remains one of the city's attractions. During its six-month run atCentennial Park, the Exposition drew nearly two million visitors to see its dazzling monuments to the South's recovery. GovernorRobert Taylor observed, "Some of them who saw our ruined country thirty years ago will certainly appreciate the fact that we have wrought miracles."[78]
During theFirst World War (1914–1918), Tennessee provided the most celebrated American soldier,Alvin C. York, ofFentress County, Tennessee. He was a formerconscientious objector who, in October 1918, subdued an entire Germanmachine gun regiment in theArgonne Forest. Besides receiving theMedal of Honor and assorted French decorations, York became a powerful symbol ofpatriotism in the press andHollywood film.
Tennessee became the focus of national attention during the campaign for women's voting rights. Like thetemperance movement,women's suffrage was an issue with its roots in middle-class reform efforts of the late 19th century.
The organized movement came of age with the founding of the Tennessee Equal Suffrage Association in 1906, which gave the movement at least one national leader inSue Shelton White fromHenderson. There was a determined (and largely female) opposition, championed by theChattanooga Times, theNashville Banner and theJonesboro Herald and Tribune. To overcome the opposition the Tennessee suffragists were moderate in their tactics and gained limited voting rights before the national question arose.[79]
In August 1920, GovernorAlbert H. Roberts called a special session of theGeneral Assembly to consider ratification of theNineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Leaders of the rival groups flooded into Nashville to lobby the General Assembly. In a close House vote, the suffrage amendment won passage when an East Tennessee legislator,Harry Burn, switched sides after receiving a telegram from his mother encouraging him to support ratification.[citation needed] On August 9, 1920, during a special session of the Sixty-First General Assembly, Tennessee's vote in favor of ratifying the Nineteenth Amendment,[80] made it the pivotal state in the ratification process. Women immediately made their presence felt by swinging Tennessee toWarren Harding in the 1920 presidential election. It was the first time since 1868 that the state had voted for aRepublican presidential candidate.
National attention came Tennessee's way during the trial ofJohn T. Scopes, also called theScopes Trial. In 1925, the General Assembly, as part of a general education bill, passed a law that forbade the teaching ofevolution in the public schools. Some local boosters inDayton, Tennessee concocted a scheme to have Scopes, a high school biology teacher, violate the law and stand trial as a way of drawing publicity and visitors to the town.
Their plan worked all too well, as theRhea County Courthouse was turned into a circus of national and even international media coverage. Thousands flocked to Dayton to witness the high-powered legal counsels,William Jennings Bryan for the prosecution, andClarence Darrow for the defense, argue their case.
Tennessee was ridiculed in thenortheast andWest Coast press as the "Monkey State," even as a wave of revivals defending religious fundamentalism swept the state. The trial was also given the name "Monkey Trial" by the same reporters. The legal outcome of the trial was inconsequential. Scopes was convicted and fined $100, a penalty later rescinded by the state court of appeals. The law itself remained on the books until 1967.
At the very time that Tennessee's rural culture was under attack by urban critics, its music found a national audience.
In 1925,WSM, a powerful Nashville radio station, began broadcasting a weekly program of live music which soon was dubbed the "Grand Ole Opry." Such music came in diverse forms:banjo-and-fiddle string bands fromAppalachia; family gospel singing groups; and country vaudeville acts (such as Murfreesboro nativeUncle Dave Macon). As of 2014, the longest-running radio program in American history, the Opry used the new technology of radio to tap into a huge market for "old timey" or "hillbilly" music.
Two years after the Opry's opening, in a series oflandmark sessions atBristol, Tennessee, field scoutRalph Peer of theVictor Company recordedJimmie Rodgers and theCarter Family to produce the first nationally popular rural records. Tennessee emerged as the heartland of traditional country music—home to many of the performers as well as the place from which it was broadcast to the nation.
The need to create work for the unemployed during theGreat Depression, the desire for rural electrification, and the desire to control the annual spring floods on theTennessee River drove the federal government's creation of theTennessee Valley Authority, the nation's largest public utility, in 1933. The TVA affected the lives of nearly all Tennesseans. The agency was created mainly through the persistence of SenatorGeorge Norris ofNebraska. Headquartered in Knoxville, it was charged with the task of planning the total development of theTennessee River Valley. TVA sought to do this by building hydroelectric dams, constructing 20 between 1933 and 1951, as well as electricity-producingcoal-fired power plants.
Inexpensive and abundant electrical power was the main benefit the TVA brought to Tennessee, particularly to rural areas that previously did not have electrical service. TVA brought electricity to about 60,000 farm households across the state. By 1945, TVA was the largest electrical utility in the nation, a supplier of vast amounts of power whose presence in Tennessee attracted large industries to relocate near one of its dams or steam plants. This incentive contributed to important economic development in the state.
Tennesseans participated in all phases of the war—from combat to civilian administration to military research. Dissent was minimal. The National policy emphasized production to help the Allies, and the state played its role while it recovered from depression and unemployment. Tennessee's home front experienced profound changes that transformed the state's economic landscape and social structure through several interconnected themes. The impact began in 1939, when President Franklin Roosevelt. made supplying the Allies in their fight against Germany and Japan a high priority. By the time the United States entered the war in December 1941, Most of the deleterious impact of the Great Depression had ended. Factories quickly retooled, shifting from civilian products to military supplies and equipment. Realizing that the draft that began in 1940 would eventually drain away most young men, companies hired as fast as they could, and government contracts paid the full wage bill. As a result, large numbers of previously underemployed women and blacks obtained good jobs. A third of the state's workers were women by 1945. Industrial Tennessee received war orders amounting to $1.25 billion. In chemicals key players includedDu Pont, andEastman Chemical Company. The new TVA operated at full blast to meet the immense power demands of war industries. It built or upgraded numerous dams and generating stations, which not only provided electricity but also improved navigation on the Tennessee River.[81] A giant shell-loading plant was built atMilan. TheVultee Aircraft works in Nashville plant builtO-49 observation planes andA-35 Vengeance dive bombers, and parts for theP-38 Lightning fighters. TVA projects also expanded in East Tennessee. The establishment of military bases and training facilities across Tennessee created massive economic benefits for local communities.[82][83][84]
The war catalyzed significant social transformations throughout Tennessee. As men departed for military service, women and African Americans assumed positions in industries previously dominated by white males, embodying the "Rosie the Riveter" phenomenon. The new employment patterns generated social friction and adjustment challenges. Tennessee civilians actively supported the war effort through organized home front activities. Rationing required families to manage limited supplies of essential items including sugar, meat, and fuel using government-issued ration books. Communities organized extensive collection campaigns for metal, rubber, and paper materials needed for military production. Families cultivatedVictory Gardens to supplement food supplies and save money.[85][86]
A tenth of the population --315,501 in all--served in the armed services. Farmers were exempt from the draft and worked to maximize agricultural output. Middle Tennessee residents played host to 28 Army divisions that swarmed over the countryside on maneuvers preparing for theD-Day invasion Tennessee military personnel served with distinction in every theatre; 5,731 died during the war.[87]
Very few at the time knew that Tennessee's greatest role was theManhattan Project, the military's top secret project to build anatomic bomb. Research and production work for the first A-bombs were conducted at the huge scientific/industrial installation atOak Ridge, Tennessee, a new community that was entirely a creation of the war. In four years it grew from empty woods in 1941 to a city of 70,000 (Tennessee's fifth largest).[88]
With increased industrialization of the state's economy, the labor movement in the state gained momentum.[89] It was already strong in the coal mines, but thereJohn L. Lewis called a series of wartime strikes that deeply alienated public opinion.[90]
In Washington,Cordell Hull wasSecretary of State 1933 to 1944. He received theNobel Peace Prize in recognition of America's leadership in creating theUnited Nations. However all major foreign policy decisions were made in the White House, which rarely consulted Hull.[91]
The war accelerated the state's industrialization and the state led the nation in industrial growth rates between 1955 and 1965. By the 1950s, tens of thousands of Tennesseans left farms for Memphis, Nashville, Knoxville, and Chattanooga and smaller cities, and for the first time in its history, the state had more urban than rural dwellers. The post-warbaby boom further acerated growth.[92]
In 1950, workers at anAmerican Enka Company factory nearMorristown went on strike. Violence against strikebreakers forced GovernorGordon Browning to dispatch National Guard troops to restore order. By the end of the strike, the event had become the location of on-site congressional hearings and helped shape the nationwide image of troubled labor relations.[93][94]
A moderate wing of the Southern Democrats gained influence, represented by GovernorFrank G. Clement SenatorAlbert Gore Sr., and especially SenatorEstes Kefauver. They welcomed labor unions and gave enough support to civil rights for Blacks as to anger the conservatives.[95][96]
Sun Studio cut its firstrock and roll recording in 1952, launching a cultural phenomenon that made Memphis the capital of a new music genre.[97]
Disenfranchising legislation of the late 19th century had affected poor whites as well as blacks. The $2 poll tax was optional and few poor people paid it, and so they could not vote. Some county officers encouraged voting by providing easy opportunities to pay the tax (as they did in Knoxville). Other discouraged voting by making payment as difficult as possible. Crump in Memphis raised cash to buy blocks of poll tax receipts and distributed them to his supporters who could thereby vote.[98] Anti-poll tax reformers had no success until in 1943 the legislature rescind the poll tax. However the Tennessee Supreme Court declared that action unconstitutional. It was not until 1953 that a new constitutional convention finally removed provisions for the poll tax.[99]
Tennessee played an important and prominent role during theCivil Rights Movement. Many national civil rights leaders, such asMartin Luther King Jr., received training in methods of nonviolent protest at theHighlander Folk School in Monteagle, Tennessee. The same nonviolent methods whichMahatma Gandhi had used were taught here.
In the spring of 1960, after decades of segregation, Tennessee'sJim Crow laws were challenged by an organized group of Nashville college students fromFisk University,American Baptist Theological Seminary, andVanderbilt University. The students, led by Jim Farmer,John Lewis, and ministers of local African-American churches, used methods of non-violent protest in anticipation of a planned and concerted effort to desegregate Nashville's downtown lunch counters through a series ofsit-ins. Although many were harassed and beaten by vigilantes and arrested by the Nashville police, none of the students retaliated with violence[citation needed].
TheNashville sit-ins reached a turning point when the house ofZ. Alexander Looby, a prominent African-American attorney and leader, was bombed. Although no one was killed, thousands of protesters spontaneously marched to Nashville City Hall to confront MayorBen West. Meeting the mass of protesters outside city hall, West informally debated with them and concluded by conceding that segregation was immoral. The bombing, the march, and Mayor West's statement helped convince downtown lunch counters to desegregate. Although segregation and Jim Crow were by no means over, the episode served as one of the first successful events of mostly nonviolent protest.
The community leadership and activism of African Americans in the Civil Rights Movement across the South gained passage of the national Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. African Americans gained more civil rights and the power to exercise their voting rights. Voting rights for all races were protected by provisions of the Voting Rights Act.
In contrast to the successes of the movement in Tennessee, the 1968assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., inMemphis was perceived as symbolic of hatred in the state. King was in the city to support a strike by black sanitary public works employees ofAFSCME Local 1733. The city quickly settled the strike on favorable terms to the employees. Riots and civil unrest erupted in African-American areas in numerous cities across the country, resulting in widespread injuries and millions of dollars in property damages. In Memphis the long-term result was a systematic improvement in the political and economic position of the Blacks community.[100][101]
In 1953, voters approved eight amendments to the state constitution, which extended the governor's term from two to four years, prohibiting two successive terms, and outlawed the poll tax.[102]
In the years following World War II, Tennessee's economy continued to industrialize, and demand for energy grew faster than ever before. TVA built additional dams and coal-fired power plants in the state during the postwar years.[103][104]
By the 1960s and onward, the state experienced economic growth due to the construction of theInterstate Highway System. Most of the state's interstates were completed by the mid-1970s. The construction ofInterstate 40 through Memphis became a national talking point on the issue ofeminent domain andgrassroots lobbying, when theTennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) attempted to acquireOverton Park from the city of Memphis for the highway'sright-of-way. Alocal activist group spent many years contesting the project and filed a series of lawsuits to stop the construction through the park. The case made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court in the 1971landmark caseCitizens to Preserve Overton Park v. Volpe. The court sided in favor of the activist group, and established the framework forjudicial review of government agencies.[105]
In 1977, a state constitutional convention was held that recommended 13 amendments to the state's constitution, 12 of which votes approved the next year. The changes allowed governors to serve two consecutive terms, required the General Assembly to balance the state's annual budget, reformed county legislative bodies, and removed provisions that had been invalidated by federal legislation and court cases during the Civil Rights Movement.[106]
TVA's construction of theTellico Dam in Loudon County became the subject of national controversy in the 1970s when the endangeredsnail darter fish was reported to be affected by the project. After lawsuits by environmental groups, the debate was decided by the U.S. Supreme Court caseTennessee Valley Authority v. Hill in 1978, leading to amendments of theEndangered Species Act that same year.[107]
The1982 World's Fair was held in Knoxville.[108] Also known as the Knoxville International Energy Exposition, the fair's theme was "Energy Turns the World". The exposition was one of the most successful, and the last world's fair to be held in the United States as of 2021.[109] In 1986, Tennessee held a yearlong celebration of the state's heritage and culture called "Homecoming '86". As part of the celebration, citizens of individual communities throughout the state researched their history, set future goals, conducted projects to preserve, promote, or enhance the quality of their respective communities, and organized other celebratory events.[110][111]
Tennessee celebrated its bicentennial in 1996 after a yearlong statewide celebration entitled "Tennessee 200" by opening a new state park—theBicentennial Mall—at the foot of Capitol Hill in Nashville.
In 2002,Phil Bredesen became the 48thgovernor, and Tennessee amended thestate constitution to allow for the establishment of alottery. In 2006, Tennessee saw the only freshman Republican,Bob Corker, elected to theUnited States Senate in the midst of the2006 midterm elections and the Constitution was amended to rejectsame-sex marriage. In January 2007,Ron Ramsey became the first Republican to become Speaker of theState Senate sinceReconstruction. In 2010, during the historic2010 midterm elections,Bill Haslam succeeded Bredesen, who was term-limited, to become the 49th Governor of Tennessee.
In April and May 2010,flooding in Middle Tennessee devastated Nashville and other parts of Middle Tennessee.[112] In April 2011, parts ofEast Tennessee, includingHamilton andBradley counties, were devastated by the2011 Super Outbreak, the largest and costliesttornado outbreak in history.[113]
On 10 October 2025,an explosion occurred at a military explosives handler inHickman County, killing multiple workers and leaving over a dozen others unaccounted for.
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