These

when the pioneers pushed into the Watauga region. colonies on the Watauga river resulted from the extension The settlement

of frontier settlements of Virginia.

16

was due to the Southwestward movement of the Scotch-Irish After the battle of the Alamance,

from Pennsylvania.

17

in 1771, many of the followers of the regulators poured 18 The route they followed was

into the Watauga district.

up the Yadkin river, and through the passes of the Blue 19

Ridge to the headwaters of the Watauga. The political history of Tennessee begins with these settlers who, in The Watauga

20

1772, organized the Watauga Association.
settlers were trespassers on Cherokee lands, but the
Indians did not seem to object as long as they made no
further encroachments. The settlers were practically

21

tenants at the will of the Indians.

22

Since the Proclama

tion of 1763 forbid individuals from purchasing lands from the Indians, the Watauga group formed a government of their

16. Paxson, p. 25.

17. G. F. Milton, "East Tennessee in Colonial Days", in Sewanee Review, III (1894), p. 296.

18. Paxson, p. 25.

19. Stephen B. Weeks, "Tennessee: A Discussion on the Sources of Its Population and the Lines of Immigration, in Tennessee Historical Magazine, II (1916), p. 251.

20. A. V. Goodpasture, "The Watauga Association", in American Historical Magazine, III (1898), p. 103.

21. Ibid., p. 112.

James Robertson, one of the outstanding

pioneers in Tennessee, was responsible for the second imthe Cumberland Col

portant settlement in Tennessee,

ony.

24

Prior to this, the Transylvania speculation of 1775 was of special significance; Judge Richard Henderson purchased a tract of land South of the Ohio River, but Virginia refused to recognize the purchase treaty of Sycamore Shoals, and in 1776, created Kentucky County.25 North Carolina followed Virginia's policy and created the 26 county of Washington, west of the mountains, in 1777. Both Henderson and Robertson were interested in the group settlement on the bend of the Cumberland. This settlement differed from the Watauga in that it was cut loose from the other settled communities, and was completely surrounded by Indian country. From the Watauga region to the bend of the Cumberland was a long dangerous trip. The pioneers floated down the Holston and Tennessee rivers in flat-boats, and pushed up the Ohio and Cumberland rivers to the present site of Nashville, covering a distance of

over seven hundred miles.

27

Overland routes were later

23. Goodpasture, p. 112.

24. Paxson, p. 27.

25. Ibid., p. 30.

26. Milton, p. 302.