How the Southwest Territory Became A State, the One We Know As Tennessee

I’ve been hanging out with that truly strange fellow, Andrew Jackson, whom, no matter what, I have a hard time finding a good word for.

My 'fun' bit out of this (no one has ever accused King Andrew of being 'fun') is how the Southwest Territory became the state of Tennessee. Territorial administrator-in-chief, Blount (young Jackson’s mentor, handler and father-figure), politician (and land speculator) extraordinaire, had a finely honed machine which ran the Southwest Territory just as they liked. Rather than having ambitions to join the U.S.A., Blount and fellows wanted to keep the U.S. gummit as far away from them as possible, for as long as possible. But then, there were the Indians. Settlers in the territory kept pushing into Indian lands, which Blount and Company were delighted by – they could sell the lands, administer titles, etc. all for hefty fees.

Nevermind that these lands were Indian lands by treaty etc. By god, where in hell is the U.S. army to protect our white settlers settling illegally on the lands we illegally sold them? Armies and militias are expensive in time and equipment. Damnit, what to do?

We know! Waving hands wildly! We solved the goddammit problem! We will become a state and then we can get OUR hands on that U.S. federal military money AND soldiers to drive the Indians out (and somehow manage to have a lot of some of it stick to our wildly waving hands).

They rushed through a census because a territory needed 66,000 free white citizens in order to qualify for statehood. Tennessee had 77,000 – nearly 9 thousand slave and nearly a thousand free people of color. They rushed through a referendum to become a state and won in the west though the east wasn’t so keen. They rushed through elections for governor – Blount, astoundingly won that office– for the two senators, and the single rep to which they were entitled, who happened to be from the east and be Blount’s fair-haired boyo, Jackson. Off they went to Philadelphia, then the Capital.

Hai! here we r. We r state now 2! We sit down in senate and house with u. Give us monies and soldiers to kill Indians!

O, rilly? says the Senate and the House. We never received a statehood request. We never had a discussion on yur ratification. U r not state. U can't sit with us. Srsly.

Srsly? Dayem! Request Statehood? Ratification? Who knew?

Srsly dudes. kbaiugohomenaonothnx.

They didn’t go home. They hung around and were handsome, courtly and impressive, especially Jackson. O, and did more land deals and speculations.

There was heated debate regarding the ratification of Tennessee statehood, because of slavery, and because of representation, including for electoral votes, particularly by the Federalists, who still existed then. But it didn't take that long before deals were cut and, thanks in part to Aaron Burr, the Southwest Territory entered the Union in 1796 as the state of Tennessee (choosing the state’s name is also a charming story).