The Washington District of North Carolina was in a remote area west of the

Appalachian Mountains The Appalachian Mountains, often called the Appalachians, are a mountain range in eastern to northeastern North America. The term "Appalachian" refers to several different regions associated with the mountain range, and its surrounding terrain ...

, officially existing for only a short period (November 1776 – November 1777), although it had been

self-proclaimed Self-proclaimed describes a legal title that is recognized by the declaring person but not necessarily by any recognized legal authority. It can be the status of a noble title or the status of a nation. The term is used informally for anyone declar ...

and functioning as an independent governing entity since the spring of 1775. The district was the bureaucratic successor to the Watauga Association, a group of Virginian settlers that colonized the area in 1769, originally believing themselves to be in trans-Appalachian Virginia territory. When the settlement's application to be united with Virginia was denied, they asked

North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

to annex the settlement, which occurred in November, 1776.John Finger, Tennessee Frontiers: Three Regions in Transition (Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University Press, 2001), pp. 43-64. After the

American Revolution The American Revolution (1765–1783) was a colonial rebellion and war of independence in which the Thirteen Colonies broke from British America, British rule to form the United States of America. The revolution culminated in the American ...

, the now informal district saw a huge growth of the area it encompassed, eventually stretching to the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the main stem, primary river of the largest drainage basin in the United States. It is the second-longest river in the United States, behind only the Missouri River, Missouri. From its traditional source of Lake Ita ...

. At the time of North Carolina's final cession of the area to the

Federal Government A federation (also called a federal state) is an entity characterized by a political union, union of partially federated state, self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a #Federal governments, federal government (federalism) ...

(1790), it had grown to include the seven "Overmountain Counties": Washington, Greene, Davidson, Sullivan, Hawkins,

Sumner Sumner may refer to: Places Antarctica * Mount Sumner, a mountain in the Rare Range, Antarctica * Sumner Glacier, southern Graham Land, Antarctica Australia * Sumner, Queensland, a suburb of Brisbane New Zealand * Sumner, New Zealand, a seasi ...

and

Tennessee Tennessee (, ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina t ...

. These lands would become a large part not only of the subsequent extra-legal

State of Franklin The State of Franklin (also the Free Republic of Franklin, Lost State of Franklin, or the State of Frankland) was an unrecognized proposed U.S. state, state located in present-day East Tennessee, in the United States. Franklin was created in ...

, but of the

Southwest Territory The Territory South of the River Ohio, more commonly known as the Southwest Territory or the old Southwest Territory, was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from May 26, 1790, until June 1, 1796, when it was ...

(1790–1796) and the State of Tennessee (after 1796) as well.

History

Watauga Association

In May 1772, several years after arriving in the area, the settlers created their own government charter, a "written association and articles for the management of general affairs", and elected a self-governing body (considered by

The Crown The Crown is a political concept used in Commonwealth realms. Depending on the context used, it generally refers to the entirety of the State (polity), state (or in federal realms, the relevant level of government in that state), the executive ...

to be an extra-legal entity at best, in light of the

Royal Proclamation of 1763 The Royal Proclamation of 1763 was issued by British King George III on 7 October 1763. It followed the Treaty of Paris (1763), which formally ended the Seven Years' War and transferred French territory in North America to Great Britain. The ...

) and set up a courthouse and jail. This government became known as the " Watauga Association" (or, sometimes, "Watauga Republic").

Washington District

Shortly after the outbreak of the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was the armed conflict that comprised the final eight years of the broader American Revolution, in which Am ...

(April 1775), the members of the Watauga Association organized themselves into the extra-legal "Washington District", a separate region "...loyal to the united colonies...". They promptly formed a Committee of Safety to oversee it. In the Spring of 1776, seeking additional security for its inhabitants, the Washington District Committee of Safety drafted a

petition A petition is a request to do something, most commonly addressed to a government official or public entity. Petitions to a deity are a form of prayer called supplication. In the colloquial sense, a petition is a document addressed to an officia ...

asking the

Colony of Virginia The Colony of Virginia was a British Empire, British colonial settlement in North America from 1606 to 1776. The first effort to create an English settlement in the area was chartered in 1584 and established in 1585; the resulting Roanoke Colo ...

annex Annex or annexe may refer to: Places * The Annex, a neighbourhood in downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. * The Annex (New Haven), a neighborhood of New Haven, Connecticut, United States. * Annex, Oregon, a census-designated place in the United ...

the district. After Virginia refused, the Committee drafted a similar petition (dated July 5, 1776) asking the

Assembly to annex the area. In November of that year, North Carolina granted the petition, and the Washington District was admitted to

and designated Washington County, although the district technically remained in existence until the formal adoption as a North Carolina county almost a full year later. Thereafter, "Washington District" was used to refer to North Carolina's holdings west of the Appalachian Mountains. Immediately after the news of the second petition was made known, the

Cherokee The Cherokee (; , or ) people are one of the Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, they were concentrated in their homelands, in towns along river valleys of what is now southwestern ...

—from whom the district had originally leased the settlement's land, but who had now allied themselves with the

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

—launched an all-out invasion against the district, but were soundly defeated. In 1777, the Cherokee signed the Treaty of Long Island, effectively ceding control of the Watauga and Nolichucky valleys to North Carolina. Chief Dragging Canoe (eventual leader of the Chickamauga Cherokee), and his followers, however, vowed to continue to fight.

The Watauga Petition

The petition requesting annexation to North Carolina (often referred to as the "Watauga Petition") was drawn up by the Washington District Committee of Safety and was signed by the district's thirteen elected

commissioners A commissioner (commonly abbreviated as Comm'r) is, in principle, a member of a commission or an individual who has been given a Wiktionary: commission, commission (official charge or authority to do something). In practice, the title of commissi ...

.Tennessee GenWeb: Pre-1796 pages
/ref> These were: * William Bean *Jacob Brown *John Carter *Zachary Isbell *John Jones *Robert Lucs *Charles Robertson * James Robertson *George Russell *

John Sevier John Sevier (September 23, 1745 September 24, 1815) was an American soldier, frontiersman, and politician, and one of the founding fathers of the State of Tennessee. A member of the Democratic-Republican Party, he played a leading role in Tennes ...

*James Smith *William Tatham *Jacob Womack

References

External links