The State of Franklin, known also as the Free Republic of Franklin or the State of Frankland (the latter being the name submitted to the Continental Congress when it considers the territory's application for statehood, is an unrecognized autonomous United States territory created in 1784 from part of the territory west of the Appalachian Mountains that had been offered, by North Carolina, as a cession to the federal government (to help pay off debts related to the American Revolutionary War).
Its first capital is Jonesborough.
Later, the area legally becomes, once again, part of North Carolina.
Franklin encompasses what ultimately comprises a large share of the Tennessee Eastern Division of the Southwest Territory.
Franklin is never admitted into the United States — falling two votes short for admission.
The extralegal state exists for only about four and a half years, ostensibly as a republic, before largely being abandoned.After the summer of 1785, the government of Franklin (which is by this time based in Greeneville), rules as a "parallel government" running alongside (but not harmoniously with) a re-stablished North Carolina bureaucracy.
The creation of Franklin is novel, in that it results from both a cession (an offering from North Carolina to Congress) and a secession (seceding from North Carolina, when its offer is not acted upon, and the original cession is rescinded).
