Watauga Association

Watauga Association
Watauga Association
	DAR monument in Elizabethton, Tennessee, recalling the establishment of the Watauga Association
	Location of the Watauga settlement on modern map of Tennessee
	Coordinates: 36°20′33″N 82°25′21″W / 36.34250°N 82.42250°W
Articles of the Watauga Association	1772–April 1775
Seat	Sycamore Shoals
Government
• Type	Semi-autonomous colony
• Body	five-member court

The Watauga Association (sometimes referred to as the Republic of Watauga) was a semi-autonomous government created in 1772 by frontier settlers living along the Watauga River in what is now Elizabethton, Tennessee. Although it lasted only a few years, the Watauga Association provided a basis for what later developed into the state of Tennessee and likely influenced other western frontier governments in the trans-Appalachian region. North Carolina annexed the Watauga settlement area, by then known as the Washington District, in November 1776. Within a year, the area was placed under a county government, becoming Washington County, North Carolina, in November 1777.^[1] This area covers the present day Washington County, Carter County, and other areas now located in the northeast part of the state of Tennessee.

While there is no evidence that the Watauga Association ever claimed to be outside the sovereign territory of the British Crown, historians have often cited the Association as the earliest attempt by American-born colonists to form an independent democratic government. In 1774, Virginia governor Lord Dunmore called the Watauga Association a "dangerous example" of Americans forming a government "distinct from and independent of his majesty's authority."^[2] President Theodore Roosevelt later wrote that the Watauga settlers were the "first men of American birth to establish a free and independent community on the continent."^[3] While no copy of the settlers' compact, known as the Articles of the Watauga Association, has ever been found, related documents tend to imply that the Watauga settlers still considered themselves British subjects, even after the initial hostilities of the American Revolution had commenced.^[4]

^ Samuel Cole Williams, William Tatham, Wataugan (Johnson City, Tenn.: The Watauga Press, 1947), pp. 11–28.
^ Samuel Cole Williams, "The Admission of Tennessee Into the Union." Tennessee Historical Quarterly Vol. IV, no. 4 (December 1945), p. 291.
^ Paul Fink, "Some Phases of the History of the State of Franklin." Tennessee Historical Quarterly Vol. XVI, no. 3 (1957), p. 195.
^ Cite error: The named reference dickinson was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[williams1-1] Samuel Cole Williams, William Tatham, Wataugan (Johnson City, Tenn.: The Watauga Press, 1947), pp. 11–28.

[williams2-2] Samuel Cole Williams, "The Admission of Tennessee Into the Union." Tennessee Historical Quarterly Vol. IV, no. 4 (December 1945), p. 291.

[3] Paul Fink, "Some Phases of the History of the State of Franklin." Tennessee Historical Quarterly Vol. XVI, no. 3 (1957), p. 195.

[dickinson-4] Cite error: The named reference dickinson was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

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