Frontier counties break from North Carolina, declare themselves the State of Franklin

North Carolina had just voted to hand its western lands to Congress, then changed its mind months later. Frontier settlers were left unsure whose government they lived under. On August 23, 1784, delegates from Washington, Sullivan, Spencer, and Greene counties met at Jonesborough and declared their lands independent of North Carolina altogether. They elected John Sevier governor, Landon Carter speaker of the Senate, William Cage speaker of the House, and David Campbell judge of the Superior Court. Congress never admitted the new state, and it would survive only about four and a half years…