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Reviewed by:
  • The Lost State of Franklin: America’s First Secession
  • Samuel M. Otterstrom
The Lost State of Franklin: America’s First Secession, Kevin T. Barksdale. 2008. University Press of Kentucky. 280 pp. Illustration, maps. $50.00 paper (ISBN: 978-0-8131-2521-3).

As I am not an expert in Southern History, I undertook the task of reviewing Kevin Barksdale’s book, The Lost State of Franklin: America’s First Secession, from my more comfortable perspective as a historical geographer interested in settlement development in the United States. This being said, I was pleased to have an opportunity to learn about this obscure early political movement and its subsequent failure. The Lost State of Franklin is a fresh attempt to summarize the factors that led two 1780s fractious groups from western trans-Appalachian North Carolina to contend for a new state on one hand and to vigorously oppose the idea on the other. Barksdale’s book, as he readily admits in his introduction, is not breaking new ground in topic, as many other studies have tread this same subject using a variety of historical perspectives over almost the past two centuries. Instead his approach [End Page 178] is aimed to “find Franklin’s historical middle ground” (p. 5). Barksdale contends that other approaches have either vilified or romanticized the efforts of those in support or opposed to the creation of an independent Franklin. The book is written in an understandable, straightforward style, and it is well-documented. Barksdale’s thorough and even-handed approach to the rise and demise of Franklin is educational and informative.

The Lost State of Franklin begins with an introduction that both summarizes the main historical threads surrounding the state of Franklin and recounts how this period of eastern Tennessee history has been remembered and analyzed within the regional community and by interested scholars. Barksdale efficiently leads us through two centuries of shifting historical views of the Franklin statehood movement. He finishes with the intriguing argument that “The state of Franklin’s ruinous failure reminds us of the extraordinary and fragile nature of America’s independence,” (p. 17). I believe it would have been beneficial to readers to explore this argument a little more thoroughly.

Following the introduction are eight topical chapters that follow a rough chronological order, although Barksdale’s approach is a combination of linear and topical history. What I mean by this is that the overall structure of the book follows a definite time line, but the topics of each chapter tend to overlap somewhat in time. There are advantages and disadvantages to this way of writing a history. A positive aspect of this structure is that anyone with a little knowledge of the background of Franklin can jump in and read any single chapter and come away with a fairly holistic package of historical knowledge. A disadvantage is that when one reads straight through the text, some sections repeat material from previous chapters more than seems necessary.

The first chapter highlights the early settlement of trans-Appalachian North Carolina by whites that began in about 1769 and continued through the 1870s. It didn’t take very long for the new settlers to find their way into this isolated, but potentially economically valuable region. The people were willing to take their chances with putting down roots in an area that was in close proximity to Cherokees who claimed the territory. Barksdale illustrates how the agriculturally based economy developed in this frontier region and shows the key importance of transportation links over the Appalachians and political attachment to North Carolina.

Barksdale continues in the second chapter by delving more into the origin of the settlers of the upper Tennessee Valley and the development of social and legal institutions there. The centrally important issue of the magnitude of “land speculation and ownership” among the elite of the society is highlighted. This is a vital part of the explanation for later conflict among the factions for and against Franklin statehood. What becomes apparent at this point is that the physical geography of the Franklin region (and especially the Appalachian barrier) is also an integral part of the conflict. This perhaps could be elaborated on even...

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