The Carter Journals

by Shane Phipps

  After supper, Cody sat down in the parlor with Uncle Landon and prepared to make some notes on their conversation. He wanted to know the story of Franklin from the beginning.

  “Tell me a little bit about why Franklin split away from North Carolina, if you don’t mind,” Cody requested.

  “Sure,” Landon answered. “I suppose you were a little too young to be following politics then, weren’t you? You know how the Watauga settlements and the other white settlements out here, west of the mountains, are so isolated? You know how it sometimes feels like we are left to fend for ourselves? People here have built up a little resentment during the years when North Carolina never seemed to deem us important enough to offer much support. Well, once the war with Britain was won, and the United States was able to back up our claim of independence, the federal government was in terrible debt. In 1784 North Carolina offered to give the Congress of Confederation all its land between the Alleghenies and the Mississippi River. Now, that sounds like a mighty generous thing to do, but once again, we settlers out here felt like we were being completely overlooked. Our state just turned its back on us and gave us away! It didn’t sit well with us—not one bit. We had worked hard to try to establish ourselves here. We opened this area up and improved it. We had no idea what the federal government planned to do with this land. For all we knew, they might have sold it to Spain or France to make some fast money.”

  “Well, after a few months, word reached us that North Carolina had withdrawn their offer to give our land to the federal government. Maybe we should have let well enough alone when we learned that, but by that time, we had gotten ourselves all worked up with our own spirit of independence. We certainly didn’t feel like we could trust North Carolina to have our best interests anymore. So, on August 23, 1784, settlements from Washington, Sullivan, and Greene Counties sent delegates to Jonesborough. We met to discuss our options, and it was decided that we would declare our independence from North Carolina. It took us a few months to hammer out a constitution and government. By the spring of 1785, we felt ready to apply for statehood. We called our state Frankland at that time. On May 16, delegates from Frankland delivered a petition to the Continental Congress for admission to the United States of America. We got a majority—seven of the states voted to accept us, but under the Articles of Confederation, approval required a two-thirds majority, so we came up a little short. Someone got the idea to rename our state in honor of Benjamin Franklin in order to sort of butter him up to get him to use his influence to sway a few more votes. We changed the name to Franklin, but Mr. Franklin politely declined to offer us his help. So we have been an entity all our own ever since—a country unto ourselves. As you know, that has not been easy.”

  As Landon finished his explanation, Cody felt the familiar swimming sensation in his head and things began to go dark. Suddenly, he found himself back in his bedroom.

  Chapter 10

  Cody glanced at his alarm clock and saw it was early afternoon. He felt a little annoyed and unnerved after just experiencing a journal trip in the person of a girl, but he was learning some information he had never known. He looked out his window and saw that it was raining steadily, washing away any plans for outdoor fun. Disappointed, he headed downstairs and popped a couple of waffles in the toaster and poured a glass of milk. As he watched TV and ate his snack, he decided he might as well read a little more from Annie’s journal. It was strange being a girl, but he mustered the courage to dive back in and hope for the best.

  After returning to his room, Cody found the spot in the journal where he had last been and began to read….

  Just as Uncle Landon had finished relating the history of the beginning of the government of Franklin, we were interrupted by a horse and rider outside the house. It was George Finchum and he was distraught.…

  Again Cody’s insides were full of butterflies. When he opened his eyes this time, he found himself standing by the front door of the Carter home. Uncle Landon was with Nancy and David, and they had all rushed to the door to see about the commotion outside. A squat, portly, middle-aged man was dismounting from his horse and seemed agitated. “Evenin’ folks. Sorry to bother you, but I have the watch tonight and I am right sure there are Cherokee afoot nearby. I seen one a’sneakin’ around about a mile upstream from the shoals. Where there’s one, there’s bound to be more. I’m ridin’ around to warn folks in the area. You might be well advised to stay over at Fort Watauga tonight,” said the man.

  “Thank you kindly, Mr. Finchum,” replied Landon. “We will head that way.”

  The group began to make their way toward the fort, which was less than a mile away. Both Annabelle’s father and uncle carried a rifle. It seemed to Cody as if this was a well-practiced drill. The only conversation that took place on the short walk came from Landon. He walked and spoke like a man who was feeling defeated. “I am afraid we aren’t going to be able to stand up to much more of this,” he said. “It is a miracle that we have withstood so many assaults as it is. If only we had gotten the needed votes to be added to the United States, we would have much better protection, federal protection. We were so close.”

  Cody understood now what Landon meant. As an independent state on the isolated western frontier, Franklin was vulnerable and exposed to all manner of assaults by Indians. As he considered this, the fort came into view. By now it was a familiar sight to Cody, since he had just experienced the Cherokee raids there in 1776. It looked very much the same, only the logs of the palisades had turned gray over the years, and there were a few more outbuildings.

  It was apparent that most of the Watauga settlers had received the warning about the Indians in the vicinity. No one seemed overly concerned. In fact, it looked a bit like a social gathering. Cody saw little groups of men talking here and little groups of women there, and then his eyes caught sight of another group gathering inside the walls of the fortification. It was a small group of young people, most of whom appeared to be in their teens. There were, by Cody’s quick count, four girls and three boys gathered.

  One of the girls saw Cody and waved him over. “Hello, Annie!” she said. “It seems like the only time we get to see each other is when we are called into the fort on account of Indians. I wish things would settle down, and they would be able to build us a proper school.”

  Cody wasn’t sure what to say, but he nodded in agreement.

  “Papa says that we are going to have to give in and rejoin North Carolina soon,” the girl went on. “Perhaps that will be good for us. Maybe that will give us the stability we need.”

  Cody knew not all the settlers felt like the girl’s father. “I don’t know,” he replied. “My Uncle Landon tells me that North Carolina isn’t very pleased with us and never has been all that supportive.”

  Cody suddenly had a very strange feeling that he was being watched. He slowly turned to steal a glance over his right shoulder. Sure enough, just as he looked, he saw one of the teenage boys shyly turn away as if he had been caught staring.

  “I see you noticed James Talbot’s attention,” said the girl. “He is sweet on you, you know. We overheard him telling the other boys as you were walking this way.”

  Now, this is too much, thought Cody. His worst fears about this journal now were beginning to be played out before him.

  Then things got even worse, as Cody sensed James approaching him. “H-H-Hello Annie,” James managed to stutter out nervously, unable to make direct eye contact. “It’s n-n-nice to see you. That is a real p-p-pretty d-dress.”

  Oh, brother, this guy is really smooth, thought Cody, although he could relate well to James’s nervousness, having never been very comfortable talking to girls himself. Still, he thought Annie would probably be polite.

  “Good evening, James,” Cody replied. “It’s so nice to see you again.” Cody really wanted to tell the boy to get lost.

  “I-I was w-wondering if you would like to go for a walk with me sometime, maybe do a little fishing?” James nervously inqu
ired.

  “That sounds like fun,” Cody replied, wanting to cut out his tongue before he could say anything else that might get him deeper into this hole.

  James blushed and returned awkwardly to his friends, who, Cody could tell, began to immediately poke fun at him. It was a scene Cody had been a part of many times at school, only now he found himself on the opposite side of it. Cody turned back around to join the other girls.

  “Annie, you are so lucky,” said one of the other two girls. “James Talbot is just about the most handsome boy in the Watauga settlements.” The other girls giggled in embarrassment.

  “Oh, now stop it,” Cody retorted. “He only asked me to go fishing!”

  With that, all the girls burst out in laughter. Cody felt sick. Ugh, if my friends could see me now, he thought.

  Cody was relieved to hear Landon calling to him. “Annie, did you want to continue our little history lesson?” Landon asked.

  “Yes, let’s,” said Cody eagerly. He followed Landon into one of several little cabins built into the inside walls of the fort. It was a single room with bunks built into the walls and a table and chairs in the middle. He noticed several small holes cut into the outside wall of the cabin, holes just large enough to peer out of and perhaps stick a gun barrel through. He recognized it as the meeting room where Landon had sat with his father, John, and John Sevier on the day the report came of the attacks on Eaton’s Station back in 1776.

  Landon pulled out a chair for Cody to sit in, then sat across the table from Cody.

  “I don’t expect too much to come of this,” Landon said. “This doesn’t feel like a raid to me. It’s probably just a small scouting party or maybe a hunting party. But it is better to be safe than sorry. This little fort has protected the settlers in these parts from some pretty big Indian raids before. We’ll be safe here.”

  “The last we talked, we left off with Franklin failing to get the two-thirds majority of the states to vote in favor of us joining the Union,” Cody said.

  “Right,” replied Landon. “Well, there wasn’t much we could do at that point; the votes were counted, and we were short. The delegates returned home, and we were left with some big decisions to make. Since we had seceded from North Carolina, we had no real protection from Indian attack, save whatever militia we could muster for ourselves. The legislature was elected. Officially, we met for the first time, in Greeneville, in December of 1785. You know a lot of the leaders of the government. Of course, John Sevier was governor, I was speaker of the Senate, and your friend James Talbot’s father, Thomas, was clerk.”

  As Landon made that last remark about James Talbot, he had paused at the word “friend” and gave a sly little wink that made Cody feel embarrassed and angry.

  North Carolina Governor Alexander Martin issued a manifesto condemning the establishment of the state of Franklin in 1785. The first page of the manifesto includes the names of John Sevier and Landon Carter. (Governors Papers, Governor Alexander Martin, North Carolina Office of Archives and History, Raleigh, North Carolina)

  Landon continued. “We got as much accomplished as we could over the next months. We worked out a couple of treaties with Indian tribes over land use. We set up a court system to handle cases of those accused of crimes. But there were many challenges that we had a hard time overcoming—and we still haven’t found a way. We just don’t have enough of an economy established to get a good foothold. As you know, we don’t even have any official currency. We accept all manner of things for barter. Tobacco, corn, whiskey, deer hides, and even foreign currency are traded for items. Even Governor Sevier is paid in bucks. It’s not the best way to grow your economy. It has been hard for us to overcome these challenges.”

  There it was again, thought Cody, bucks. The governor was paid in deerskins instead of money. Cody could understand how an economy based on this system would be hard pressed to compete with better-established governments with real treasuries.

  “I fully support Governor Sevier,” Landon continued. “He and his wife, Bonnie Kate, have been some of my dearest friends for many years.” So John Sevier ended up marrying the woman he saved from the Indians, Cody realized.

  “He is a man who has been caught up in circumstances that were beyond his control. His intentions have been nothing but the best from the beginning,” Landon went on. “But North Carolina was not going to stand by and let us just up and leave without trying to get us back. They still claimed sovereignty over us and still expected us to pay taxes to them as well. To enforce this, they sent some military over the mountains to convince us that we had made a big mistake. Colonel John Tipton led troops over here, and that was what all the fighting was about back in February of this year. Folks around here call it the Battle of Franklin. The battle broke out between Tipton’s North Carolina troops and Sevier’s Franklin militia. Tipton’s army was just too large. It is the only battle that John Sevier ever lost, as far as I know.”

  Colonel John Tipton (1730–1813) was against the establishment of the state of Franklin and led the rallying cry in 1787 for its return to North Carolina sovereignty. (Indiana Historical Society)

  “At any rate, that just left us even weaker. These continued Indian scares certainly don’t help matters, either. Governor Sevier felt trapped between a rock and a hard place. He felt he had no place else to turn, so he met with representatives from Spain and tried to arrange for a loan. Some people loyal to North Carolina also claimed he inquired about Franklin coming under control of the Spanish government, but I don’t think that was ever seriously considered by either side. North Carolina ordered that Governor Sevier be arrested for treason. He turned himself in. Thankfully, the authorities were lenient with him, and he was released after swearing allegiance to North Carolina.”

  “Well, Annie, that brings us up to date. It looks certain that within the coming months, we will be forced to rejoin North Carolina—we simply have no other choice. We have tried to make a go of it alone, but it has proven to be unworkable,” finished Landon.

  As Landon completed his history, Cody felt himself being pulled out of the journal. When he opened his eyes, he was back in his bedroom.

  Cody sat thinking back about this most recent journal experience. It had been a strange trip, but he was glad to have learned of the state of Franklin, even if he had to wear a dress to learn it.

  Going over to his computer, Cody did a quick Internet search and found that indeed there once was a state of Franklin that later became the northeastern portion of Tennessee. Tennessee became a new state in 1796, just eight years after Cody had been there. He also learned that his grandfather’s farm, in Hawkins County, would have been a part of the state of Franklin, if it had continued to exist.

  Part Five

  The Journal of Martin Carter

  Fort Knox (Vincennes), Indiana Territory, 1811

  Chapter 11

  The next several days were busy ones for Cody. He had little spare time for reading, and, truth be told, after his unnerving experience as a girl in the last journal, he was ready for a break. School occupied most of Cody’s thoughts as he was being bombarded daily with review work.

  In Mr. Foster’s history class on Monday, the review assignment was to write an essay on any topic from the list of those that would be covered on the final exam. Cody looked over the list and saw a topic called the “American Spirit of Independence.” Something immediately told him that was the topic he should choose to write about.

  Cody got out some paper and a pen, and before he even realized it, he had begun writing. The words trailing from the end of Cody’s pen seemed to be flowing from a stream of consciousness that he had little control over—it was as if he was simply reading the words as they appeared before him.

  His essay began with an explanation of how America was started by people who were inherently distrustful of governments—people who valued their freedom above all else. He wrote about the Pilgrims and Puritans and the struggles they had in trying to worship God in t
he way that they wanted to. He wrote of how they ultimately decided to risk everything and to uproot themselves to make a perilous three-thousand-mile journey west across a raging ocean to a strange wilderness filled with hardships and danger just to have an opportunity for the freedoms they sought. Their spirit of independence, wrote Cody, traveled with them every mile.

  Cody continued his essay by detailing how independence and freedom were valued as the American colonies grew and expanded. He wrote of the colonists’ continued cautious attitudes when it came to government control. He wrote that while the distance in miles between the mother country, England, and her American offspring did not change over the generations, the mental and emotional distance grew wider and wider with each passing year. He pointed out that Americans began to see themselves as a separate entity. He argued that the English king’s failure to offer them a representative voice in their own government had only helped strengthen the colonists’ independent spirit and drive them to become more unified.

  Cody went on to detail the events that had caused the American spirit of independence to grow—the French and Indian War, the Proclamation of 1763, the Stamp Act, the Sugar Act, the Townshend Acts, the Boston Massacre, the Tea Act, the Boston Tea Party, the Intolerable Acts, among others—all of which were done without Americans having any official say about any of it. As Cody put it, the always-present spirit of independence in America was fertilized so much over the years by the short-sighted British government’s actions that it grew out of control, and by 1776 it bore fruit in the form of the Declaration of Independence.