Tennessee
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| Official language(s) | English | ||||||||
| Capital Largest city |
Nashville Memphis |
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| Area | Ranked 36th | ||||||||
| - Total | 42,169 sq. mi. (109,247 km²) |
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| - Width | 120 miles (195 km) | ||||||||
| - Length | 440 miles (710 km) | ||||||||
| - % water | 2.2 | ||||||||
| - Latitude | 35°N to 36°41'N | ||||||||
| - Longitude | 81°37'W to 90°28'W | ||||||||
| Population | Ranked 16th | ||||||||
| - Total (2000) | 5,689,283 | ||||||||
| - Density | 138.0/sq. mi. 53.29/km² (19th) |
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| Elevation | |||||||||
| - Highest point | Clingmans Dome 6,643 feet (2,026 m) |
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| - Mean | 900 feet (280 m) | ||||||||
| - Lowest point | 178 feet (54 m) | ||||||||
| Admission to Union | June 1, 1796 (16th) | ||||||||
| Governor | Phil Bredesen (D) | ||||||||
| U.S. Senators | Bill Frist (R) Lamar Alexander (R) |
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| Time zone(s) | Eastern: UTC-5/-4 (eastern) Central: UTC-6/-5 (central and western) |
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| Abbreviations | TN US-TN | ||||||||
| Web site | www.tennessee.gov | ||||||||
Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. In 1796, it became the sixteenth state to join the union.[1] Tennessee is known as the "Volunteer State", a nickname it earned during the War of 1812, in which volunteer soldiers from Tennessee played a prominent role.[2]
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Geography
Tennessee lies adjacent to 8 other states: Kentucky and Virginia to the north; North Carolina on the east; on the south by Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi; and on the west by Arkansas and Missouri. The state is trisected by the Tennessee River. The highest point in the state is the peak of Clingmans Dome at 6,643 feet (2,025 m), which lies on Tennessee's eastern border. The geographical center of the state is located several miles east of Murfreesboro on Old Lascassas Pike and is marked by a roadside monument.
The state of Tennessee is traditionally divided into three Grand Divisions: East Tennessee, Middle Tennessee, and West Tennessee.
Tennessee features six principal geographic regions: the Blue Ridge, the Appalachian Ridge and Valley Region, the Appalachian Plateau, the Highland Rim, the Nashville Basin, and the Gulf Coastal Plain.
The Blue Ridge area lies on the eastern edge of Tennessee, on the border of North Carolina. This region of Tennessee is characterized by high mountains, including the Great Smoky Mountains, the Chilhowee Mountains, and the Snowbird Mountains. The average elevation of the Blue Ridge area is 5,000 feet (1,500m) above sea level. Clingman's Dome is located in this region.
Stretching west from the Blue Ridge for approximately 55 miles (88 km) is the Appalachian Ridge and Valley Region. This area of Tennessee is covered by fertile valleys separated by wooded ridges. The western section of the Appalachian Ridge and Valley Region, where the valleys become broader and the ridges become lower, is called the Great Valley.
To the west of the Appalachian Ridge and Valley Region lies the Appalachian Plateau. Also called the Cumberland Plateau, this area is covered with flat-topped mountains separated by sharp valleys. The elevation of the Appalachian Plateau rises to 1,500 to 1,800 feet (450 to 550 m) above sea level. Lookout Mountain, southwest of Chattanooga and in the southern section of plateau, provides views of seven states.
To the west of the Appalachian Plateau lies the Highland Rim, an elevated plain that surrounds the Nashville Basin. The northern section (in Kentucky) of the Highland Rim is sometimes called the Pennyroyal Plateau.
Surrounded by the steep slopes of the Highland Rim is the Nashville Basin. The Nashville Basin is characterized by rich, fertile farm country.
West of the Highland Rim and Nashville Basin lies the Gulf Coastal Plain, which includes the Mississippi embayment. The Gulf Coastal Plain is, in terms of area, the predominant land region in Tennessee. It is part of the large geographic land area that begins at the Gulf of Mexico and extends north into southern Illinois. In Tennessee, the Gulf Coastal Plain is divided into three sections that extend from the Tennessee River, in the east, to the Mississippi River in the west. The easternmost section consists of hilly land that runs along the western bank of the Tennessee River. This section of the Gulf Coastal Plain is about 10 miles (16 km) wide. To the west of this narrow strip of land is a wide area of rolling hills and streams that stretches all the way to Memphis. This area is called the Tennessee Bottoms or bottom land. In Memphis, the Tennessee Bottoms end in steep bluffs overlooking the Mississippi River. To the west of the Tennessee Bottoms is the Mississippi Alluvial Plain, less than 300 feet (90 m) above sea level. This area of lowlands, flood plains, and swamp land is sometimes referred to as The Delta region.
Areas under the control and management of the National Park Service include:
- Andrew Johnson National Historic Site in Greeneville
- Appalachian National Scenic Trail
- Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area
- Fort Donelson National Battlefield and Fort Donelson National Cemetery near Dover
- Great Smoky Mountains National Park
- Natchez Trace Parkway
- Obed Wild and Scenic River near Wartburg
- Overmountain Victory National Historic Trail
- Shiloh National Cemetery and Shiloh National Military Park near Shiloh
- Stones River National Battlefield and Stones River National Cemetery near Murfreesboro
- Trail of Tears National Historic Trail
Twenty-three state parks, covering some 132,000 acres (53,420 ha) as well as parts of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and Cherokee National Forest, and Cumberland Gap National Historical Park are in Tennessee. Sportsmen and visitors are attracted to Reelfoot Lake, originally formed by an earthquake; stumps and other remains of a once dense forest, together with the lotus bed covering the shallow waters, give the lake an eerie beauty.
See also: List of Tennessee counties, List of Tennessee state parks
History
The area now known as Tennessee was first settled by Paleo-Indians nearly 11,000 years ago. The names of the cultural groups that inhabited the area between first settlement and the time of European contact are unknown, but several distinct cultural phases have been named by archaeologists, including Archaic, Woodland, and Mississippian whose chiefdoms were the cultural predecessors of the Muscogee people who inhabited the Tennessee River Valley prior to Cherokee migration into the river's headwaters.
When Spanish explorers first visited the area, led by Hernando de Soto in 1539??43, it was inhabited by tribes of Muscogee and Yuchi people. Possibly because of European diseases devastating the Native tribes, which would have left a population vacuum, and also from expanding European settlement in the north, the Cherokee moved south from the area now called Virginia. As European colonists spread into the area, the native populations were forcibly displaced to the south and west, including all Muscogee and Yuchi peoples, including the Chickasaw and Choctaw. From 1838 to 1839, nearly 17,000 Cherokees were forced to march from Eastern Tennessee to Indian Territory west of Arkansas. This came to be known as the Trail of Tears, as an estimated 4,000 Cherokees died along the way.1
Tennessee was admitted to the Union in 1796 as the 16th state; it was created by taking the north and south borders of North Carolina and extending them with only one small deviation to the Mississippi River, Tennessee's western boundary.
The American Civil War to a large extent was fought in Tennessee. It was the last border state to secede from the Union when it joined the Confederate States of America on June 8, 1861. Many battles were fought in the state??most of them Union victories. Ulysses S. Grant and the U.S. Navy captured control of the Cumberland and Tennessee rivers in February 1862, and held off the Confederate counterattack at Shiloh in April. Capture of Memphis and Nashville gave the U.S. control of the western and middle sections, and was confirmed at the battle of Murfreesboro in early January 1863. But the Confederates held East Tennessee despite the strength of Unionist sentiment there, with the exception of extremely pro-Confederate Sullivan County. The Confederates besieged Chattanooga in early fall 1863, but were driven off by Grant in November. The last major battles came when the Confederates invaded in November 1865 and were checked at Franklin, then totally destroyed by George Thomas at Nashville, in December. Meanwhile Andrew Johnson, a civilian appointed by Lincoln, was the military governor, and slavery was abolished.
After the war, Tennessee adopted a new constitution that abolished slavery (February 22, 1865), ratified the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution on July 18, 1866, and was the first state readmitted to the Union (July 24 of the same year). Because it ratified the Fourteenth Amendment, Tennessee was the only state that seceded from the Union that did not have a military governor during Reconstruction.
The Nashville Republican Banner on January 4, 1868, published an editorial calling for a counter-revolutionary movement to unseat Republican rule and restore the racial subjugation of the region's blacks. "In this State," the paper argued, "reconstruction has perfected itself and done its worst. It has organized a government which is as complete a close corporation as may be found, it has placed the black man over the white as the agent and prime-move of domination; it has constructed a system of machinery by which all free guarantees, privileges and opportunities are removed from the people.... The impossibility of casting a free vote in Tennessee short of a revolutionary movement ... is an undoubted fact." The Banner in conclusion urged readers to ignore the presidential election and instead put energies into building "a local movement here at home" that would end Republican rule. [cited in Harcourt 2005]
In 1897, the state celebrated its centennial of statehood (albeit one year late) with a great exposition.
The need to create work for the unemployed during the Great Depression, the desire for rural electrification, and the desire to control the annual spring floods on the Tennessee River drove the creation of the Tennessee Valley Authority, the nation's largest public utility, in 1933.
During World War II, Oak Ridge was selected as a U.S. Department of Energy national laboratory, one of the principal sites for the Manhattan Project's production and isolation of weapons-grade fissile material.
Tennessee celebrated its bicentennial in 1996 after a yearlong statewide celebration entitled "Tennessee 200" by opening a new state park (Bicentennial Mall) at the foot of Capitol Hill in Nashville.
Demographics
| Historical populations | |
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| Census year |
Population |
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| 1790 | 35,691 |
| 1800 | 105,602 |
| 1810 | 261,727 |
| 1820 | 422,823 |
| 1830 | 681,904 |
| 1840 | 829,210 |
| 1850 | 1,002,717 |
| 1860 | 1,109,801 |
| 1870 | 1,258,520 |
| 1880 | 1,542,359 |
| 1890 | 1,767,518 |
| 1900 | 2,020,616 |
| 1910 | 2,184,789 |
| 1920 | 2,337,885 |
| 1930 | 2,616,556 |
| 1940 | 2,915,841 |
| 1950 | 3,291,718 |
| 1960 | 3,567,089 |
| 1970 | 3,923,687 |
| 1980 | 4,591,120 |
| 1990 | 4,877,185 |
| 2000 | 5,689,283 |
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, as of 2005, Tennessee has an estimated population of 5,962,959, which is an increase of 69,661, or 1.2%, from the prior year and an increase of 273,697, or 4.8%, since the year 2000. This includes a natural increase since the last census of 117,203 people (that is 414,305 births minus 297,102 deaths) and an increase from net migration of 159,680 people into the state. Immigration from outside the United States resulted in a net increase of 49,973 people, and migration within the country produced a net increase of 109,707 people.
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The racial makeup of the state (as of 2000) is:
In the 2000 Census, when Tennesseans were asked to name their "ancestry or ethnic origin" the five most common responses were: American (17.3%), African American (13.0%), Irish (9.3%), English (9.1%), and German (8.3%).[1] |
African-Americans once made up one-fourth of the state's population and are 16.4 percent today. The state's African-American population is concentrated mainly in Western and Middle Tennessee and the cities of Memphis, Nashville, Clarksville, Chattanooga, and Knoxville.
6.6% of Tennessee's population were reported as under 5 years of age, 24.6% under 18, and 12.4% were 65 or older. Females made up approximately 51.3% of the population.
Religion
The religious affiliations of the people of Tennessee are:
- Christian ?? 82%
- Baptist ?? 39%
- Methodist ?? 10%
- Church of Christ ?? 6%
- Presbyterian ?? 3%
- Roman Catholic ?? 6%
- Other Christian ?? 18%
- Other Religions ?? 3%
- Non-Religious ?? 9%
Source: American Religious Identification Survey (2001)
Economy
According to U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, in 2003 Tennessee's gross state product was $199,786,000,000, 1.8% of the total Gross Domestic Product. In 2003, the per capita personal income was $28,641, 36th in the nation, and only 91% of the national per capita personal income of $31,472. Total earnings were $167,414,793,000.
Major outputs for the state include textiles, cotton, cattle, and electrical power.
The Tennessee income tax does not apply to salaries and wages, but most income from stocks, bonds and notes receivable is taxable. All taxable dividends and interest which exceed the $1,250 single exemption or the $2,500 joint exemption are taxable at the rate of 6 percent. Generally, the state's sales and use tax rate is 7 percent. Food is taxed at 6 percent, but candy, dietary supplements and prepared food are taxed at the increased 7-percent rate. Local sales taxes also are collected and those rates vary from 1.5 percent to 2.75 percent (bringing the total to between 8.5% and 9.75% sales tax, one of the highest in the nation). Intangible personal property is assessed on the shares of stock of stockholders of any loan company, investment company, insurance company or for-profit cemetery companies. The assessment ratio is 40 percent of the value multiplied by the tax rate for the jurisdiction. Tennessee imposes an inheritance tax on decedents' estates that exceed maximum single exemption limits.
Tennessee is a right to work state.
Transportation
Interstate highways
Interstate 40 crosses nearly the entire state in an east-west orientation. Its branch interstate highways include I-240 in Memphis; I-440 and I-840 in Nashville; and I-140 and I-640 in Knoxville. I-24 and I-26 are the other east-west interstates crossing Tennessee.
In a north-south orientation are highways I-55, I-65, I-75, and I-81. Interstate 65 crosses the state through Nashville, while Interstate 75 serves Knoxville and Interstate 55 serves Memphis. Interstate 81 enters the state at Bristol and terminates a its junction with I-40 near Jefferson City. I-181 is a continuation of I-26 from its junction with I-81 to the border with Virginia, and I-155 is a branch highway from I-55.
Airports
Major airports within the state include Nashville International Airport (BNA), Memphis International Airport (MEM), McGhee Tyson Airport (TYS) in Knoxville, and Tri-City Regional Airport (TRI).
Law and government
The state of Tennessee is constitutionally divided into three culturally distinct Grand Divisions: East, Middle, and West Tennessee. The Tennessee River is generally considered the dividing line between Middle and West Tennessee. The Cumberland Plateau is generally considered the dividing line between East and Middle Tennessee.
Tennessee's governor holds office for a four year term and may serve a maximum of two terms. The governor is the only official who is elected statewide, making him one of the more powerful chief executives in the nation. The state does not elect the lieutenant-governor directly, contrary to most other states.
The Tennessee General Assembly, the state legislature, consists of the 33-member Senate and the 99-member House of Representatives. Senators serve four year terms, and House members serve two year terms. Each chamber chooses its own speaker. The speaker of the state Senate also holds the title of lieutenant-governor. Most executive officials are elected by the legislature.
The highest court in Tennessee is the state Supreme Court. It has a chief justice and four associate justices. No more than two justices can be from the same Grand Division. The Court of Appeals has 12 judges. The Court of Criminal Appeals has nine judges.
Tennessee's current state constitution was adopted in 1870. The state had two earlier constitutions. The first was adopted in 1796, the year Tennessee joined the union, and the second was adopted in 1834.
Politics
Tennessee politics, like that of most U.S. States, revolves around the Democratic and Republican Parties. Democrats are very strong in metropolitan Memphis, Nashville, and Chattanooga. The Democratic Party is also relatively strong in most of Middle Tennessee and West Tennessee north of Memphis.
The Republicans have the most strength in East Tennessee, one of the few areas of the South with a Republican voting history that predates the 1960s. Much of this region has not elected a Democrat to Congress since the Civil War. In contrast, the Democrats dominated politics in the rest of the state until the 1960s. The Republicans also have much strength in Memphis and Nashville's suburbs.
Federally, Tennessee sends nine members to the House of Representatives. Currently, the delegation consists of five Democrats and four Republicans.
See also: List of Tennessee Governors, U.S. Congressional Delegations from Tennessee
Important cities and towns
- See also: List of cities and towns in Tennessee
The current capital is Nashville, though Knoxville, Kingston, and Murfreesboro have all served as state capitals. Memphis has the largest population of any city in the state, but Nashville has a larger metropolitan area. Chattanooga and Knoxville, both in the eastern part of the state near the Great Smoky Mountains, each has approximately a third of Memphis or Nashville's population. The city of Clarksville is the fifth significant population center, some 45 miles (70 km) northwest of Nashville. The Johnson City-Kingsport-Bristol metropolitan area (known as Northeast Tennessee and "Tri-Cities") is the state's fourth largest metropolitan area and is located in the extreme northeastern part of the state.
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Major cities |
Secondary cities |
Education
Colleges and universities
Professional sports teams
Miscellaneous topics
Name origin
The earliest variant of the name that became Tennessee was recorded by Captain Juan Pardo, the Spanish explorer, when he and his men passed through a Native American village named "Tanasqui" in 1567 while traveling inland from South Carolina. European settlers later encountered a Cherokee town named Tanasi (or "Tanase") in present-day Monroe County, Tennessee. The town was located on a river of the same name (now known as the Little Tennessee River). It is not known whether this was the same town as the one encountered by Juan Pardo.
The meaning and origin of the word are uncertain. Some accounts suggest it is a Cherokee modification of an earlier Yuchi word. It has been said to mean "meeting place", "winding river", or "river of the great bend".[2][3]
The modern spelling, Tennessee, is attributed to James Glen, the governor of South Carolina, who used this spelling in his official correspondence during the 1750s. In 1788, North Carolina named the third county to be established in what is now Middle Tennessee "Tennessee County". When a constitutional convention met in 1796 to organize a new state out of the Southwest Territory, it adopted "Tennessee" as the name of the state.
Trivia
- The State of Tennessee has seven State Songs [4].
- On August 18, 1920, Tennessee became the thirty-sixth and clinching state to ratify the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which allowed women the right to vote.
- USS Tennessee: Four ships of the United States Navy (and two ships of the Confederate States Navy) have been named in honor of Tennessee.
See also
- List of bands from Tennessee
- List of people from Tennessee
- List of Governors of Tennessee
- Tennessee State Flag
- Seal of Tennessee
- Music of Tennessee
- Scouting in Tennessee
References
- ^ Hale, Will T. (1913). A History of Tennessee and Tennesseans: The Leaders and Representative Men in Commerce, Industry and Modern Activities. Chicago: Lewis Publishing Company.
- ^ Brief History of Tennessee in the War of 1812 from the Tennessee State Library and Archives. Retrieved April 30, 2006.
- Bontemps, Arna. William C. Handy: Father of the Blues: An Autobiography. Macmillan Company: New York, 1941.
- Brownlow, W. G. Sketches of the Rise, Progress, and Decline of Secession: With a Narrative of Personal Adventures among the Rebels (1862)
- Satz, Ronald. Tennessee's Indian Peoples. Knoxville, TN: University of Tennessee Press, 1979. ISBN 0870492853
- Schaefer, Richard T. "Sociology Matters". New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 2006. ISBN 0072997753
Further reading
- Norton, Herman. Religion in Tennessee, 1777-1945. University of Tennessee Press, 1981.
- Lamon, Lester C. Blacks in Tennessee, 1791-1970. University of Tennessee Press, 1980.
- Van West, Carroll, ed. The Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture. 1998.
- Van West, Carroll. Tennessee history: the land, the people, and the culture University of Tennessee Press, 1998.
- Bergeron, Paul H. Antebellum Politics in Tennessee. University of Kentucky Press, 1982.
- Cartwright, Joseph H. The Triumph of Jim Crow: Tennessee??s Race Relations in the 1880s. University of Tennessee Press, 1976.
- Cimprich, John. Slavery's End in Tennessee, 1861-1865 University of Alabama, 1985.
- Honey, Michael K. Southern Labor and Black Civil Rights: Organizing Memphis Workers. University of Illinois Press, 1993.
External links
Dictionary definitions from Wiktionary
Textbooks from Wikibooks
Quotations from Wikiquote
Source texts from Wikisource
Images and media from Commons
News stories from Wikinews
- Tennessee Encyclopedia Online
- State Government Website
- Tennessee Literary Figures from the Southern Literary Review
- Oak Ridge National Laboratory
- U.S. Census Bureau
- GenealogyBuff.com - Tennessee Library of Files
- Tennessee Blue Book - All things Tennessee
- Timeline of Modern Tennessee Politics


