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Show TENNESSEE if. THE htstory of Tea "Jxjr"" nessee stretches t$L?&i J& bnck t0 tlle year a!trcuo!5fiS3ll 1541 when DeSoto m -M Mi with his Party WWhW f Spanish advert-HsSlp advert-HsSlp hirers probably iSsi reached the present pres-ent site of Memphis on the Mississippi. Mississip-pi. The French under La Salle built a fort here about 10S2. The English also laid claim to this territory, including It in the grant to North Carolina. It was not until 1770 that the first permanent per-manent settlement was made by James Robertson and this was soon followed by many other settlers from North Carolina. They formed what they called the Washington district, hut this was short lived as it was promptly prompt-ly annexed to North Carolina. In 17S4 the inhabitants, indignant over North Carolina's attitude toward them, declared their Independence and formed the State of Franklin or Frank-land. Frank-land. As this secession was not countenanced coun-tenanced by North Carolina, for a number of years a state of confusion existed with two sets of officers trying to govern. Meanwhile the settlement suffered severely from hostile Indians and from the Spanish, who pWn held Louisiana, and controlled the Mississippi Missis-sippi river. In 1700 North Carolina finally ceded this territory to the United Uni-ted States. By 170G tile population had Increased to over G0.000, so Tennessee Ten-nessee was admitted as the sixteenth state of the Union. At the outbreak of the Civil war, Tennessee joined the Confederacy. In IS0G, when the state was readmitted to the Union, there was much disorder disor-der during the reconstruction period. This led to the formation of the Ku Klux Klan, the Influence of which quickly spread throughout the Southern South-ern states. This secret organization took into Its own hands the suppression suppres-sion of crime aud the administration of justice. Tennessee contains 42,022 square miles, and is sometimes called the Volunteer Vol-unteer state. It is named lifter its principal river, which Is a Cherokee word meaning "Crooked River" or "bend in the river." |