State of Franklin

The State of Franklin (Frankland)
Extra-Legal States and Territories Historic Regions of the United States
August 1784 – December 1788
The state of Franklin highlighted on a map of Tennessee
Capital	Jonesborough (August 1784 – December 1785) Greeneville (December 1785 – 1788)
Area
• Coordinates	36°10′N 82°49′W / 36.167°N 82.817°W / 36.167; -82.817
Government
• Type	Republic / Organized, extralegal territory
"Governor" (President)
• December 1784 – December 1788	President/Governor Col. John Sevier
Speaker of the Senate
• December 1784 – December 1788	Landon Carter
• Speaker of the House August 1784 – June 1785	William Cage
• Speaker of the House June 1785 – December 1788	Col. Joseph Hardin
Legislature	Congress of Greeneville
• Upper house	Senate
• Lower House	House of Representatives
Historical era	post American Revolution
• North Carolina cedes the Washington District to federal government	April 1784
• Secedes from North Carolina and blocks federal government claims; Franklin proclaimed	August 23, 1784
• Petition for Frankland statehood sent to Congress	May 16, 1785
• Provisional name changed to "Franklin"	December 24, 1785
• Disbanded; and area re-acquired by North Carolina	March–September 1788 1788
• Area is designated part of the Southwest Territory	1790
Political subdivisions	Counties
Preceded by Succeeded by North Carolina North Carolina
Today part of	East Tennessee, United States

The State of Franklin (also the Free Republic of Franklin, Lost State of Franklin, or the State of Frankland)^[a] was an unrecognized proposed state located in present-day East Tennessee, in the United States. Franklin was created in 1784 from part of the territory west of the Appalachian Mountains that had been offered by North Carolina as a cession to Congress to help pay off debts related to the American War for Independence. It was founded with the intent of becoming the 14th state of the new United States.

Franklin's first capital was Jonesborough. After the summer of 1785, the government of Franklin (which was by then based in Greeneville), ruled as a "parallel government" running alongside (but not harmoniously with) a re-established North Carolina bureaucracy. Franklin was never admitted into the union. The extra-legal state existed for only about four and a half years, ostensibly as a republic, after which North Carolina reassumed full control of the area.

The creation of Franklin is novel, in that it resulted from both a cession (an offering from North Carolina to Congress) and a secession (seceding from North Carolina, when its offer to Congress was not acted upon and the original cession was rescinded).
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