Tennessee used to be the “State of Franklin”.

In fact, Franklin (named for Benjamin Franklin) was just 2 votes away from officially becoming a state in the United States. In 1785, they fell short of the â..." majority of the Continental Congress required by the Articles of Confederation to be admitted as a state. Unfortunately, even their namesake, Benjamin Franklin, refused to advocate for their statehood.

Franklin started off as territory owned by North Carolina that North Carolina had ceded to the U.S. government to help pay off the Revolutionary War debt. North Carolina later reclaimed the land, but its inhabitants seceded from the state of o North Carolina. After failing to gain statehood, Franklin briefly operated as an independent republic until it collapsed. Then North Carolina reclaimed it, ceded it back to the United States government, who finally admitted it to the U.S. as “Tennessee”.