WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.580 Welcome back to the Deep Dive. Our mission, as 00:00:02.580 --> 00:00:04.540 always, is to take the sources you've shared 00:00:04.540 --> 00:00:07.019 with us, the historical texts, the economic data, 00:00:07.160 --> 00:00:09.839 all of it, and really unpack what's going on. 00:00:09.960 --> 00:00:13.779 And today, we're tasseling a massive one. The 00:00:13.779 --> 00:00:15.859 state of Tennessee. Yeah, and it's a state that 00:00:15.859 --> 00:00:19.359 just, it defies any easy label you try to put 00:00:19.359 --> 00:00:22.039 on it. You might think, okay, Music City, Elvis, 00:00:22.359 --> 00:00:24.539 the Grand Ole Opry. Right, the cultural stuff. 00:00:24.820 --> 00:00:27.449 Exactly, but... The sources we've gone through 00:00:27.449 --> 00:00:32.030 paint a picture of a place forged by just intense 00:00:32.030 --> 00:00:35.270 conflict, world -changing scientific secrecy, 00:00:35.270 --> 00:00:38.429 and these deep, deep geographical divides that, 00:00:38.450 --> 00:00:40.649 you know, still shape everything there today. 00:00:40.890 --> 00:00:42.810 It's the ultimate American crossroads state, 00:00:42.869 --> 00:00:44.840 I think. Geographically, it's sitting right at 00:00:44.840 --> 00:00:47.520 this intersection of Appalachia, the upland south, 00:00:47.659 --> 00:00:49.659 and then you get over to the western part, and 00:00:49.659 --> 00:00:51.100 it starts to feel a lot like the deep south. 00:00:51.259 --> 00:00:53.079 That internal tension, that's what makes it so 00:00:53.079 --> 00:00:55.500 fascinating to dig into. For sure. And just to 00:00:55.500 --> 00:00:58.039 start with a staggering geographical fact you 00:00:58.039 --> 00:01:00.439 might not know, Tennessee is completely landlocked. 00:01:00.439 --> 00:01:03.520 Right, no coastline. No coastline, yet it borders 00:01:03.520 --> 00:01:07.140 eight other states. Eight. The only other state 00:01:07.140 --> 00:01:10.280 that does that is Missouri. Wow. Which just highlights 00:01:10.280 --> 00:01:12.439 its historical role. It wasn't just a place. 00:01:12.459 --> 00:01:16.340 It was a critical corridor connecting the East 00:01:16.340 --> 00:01:19.159 Coast to the Midwest and the South. Eight states. 00:01:19.299 --> 00:01:21.959 That's just incredible connectivity. And it was 00:01:21.959 --> 00:01:24.239 admitted to the Union fairly early on, right? 00:01:24.299 --> 00:01:28.019 The 16th state? 1796. But you're right. Its identity 00:01:28.019 --> 00:01:30.840 was really cemented in conflict. I'm always struck 00:01:30.840 --> 00:01:33.310 by that nickname, the volunteer state. It's not 00:01:33.310 --> 00:01:35.390 just some quaint saying. It sounds like it was 00:01:35.390 --> 00:01:37.569 earned the hard way. It was. It comes primarily 00:01:37.569 --> 00:01:41.209 from two early conflicts. First, the War of 1812, 00:01:41.250 --> 00:01:43.969 where just massive numbers of Tennesseans volunteered 00:01:43.969 --> 00:01:46.390 to fight, especially in the campaigns led by 00:01:46.390 --> 00:01:48.370 Andrew Jackson. And then it happened again during 00:01:48.370 --> 00:01:50.469 the Mexican -American War. The federal government 00:01:50.469 --> 00:01:53.209 put out a call for volunteers, and the state's 00:01:53.209 --> 00:01:55.829 quota was, I think, about 2 ,800. And they exceeded 00:01:55.829 --> 00:01:57.689 it? They exceeded it by a lot. Something like 00:01:57.689 --> 00:02:00.670 30 ,000 Tennesseans showed up to volunteer. It 00:02:00.670 --> 00:02:03.280 just cemented that reputation. That history of 00:02:03.280 --> 00:02:07.159 action is so clear. But before we get into all 00:02:07.159 --> 00:02:09.939 that, let's go even further back. The name itself, 00:02:10.360 --> 00:02:14.520 Tennessee. Where on earth did that come from? 00:02:14.639 --> 00:02:16.400 It's a great question because the name is actually 00:02:16.400 --> 00:02:18.819 older than the state. It's not something the 00:02:18.819 --> 00:02:20.620 settlers came up with. Okay, so it's a native 00:02:20.620 --> 00:02:23.360 name. It is. It derives most directly from a 00:02:23.360 --> 00:02:26.300 Cherokee town. The town was called Tanasi. Tanasi? 00:02:26.659 --> 00:02:29.759 Kanasit in the Cherokee syllabary. It was located 00:02:29.759 --> 00:02:32.090 in what's now Monroe County. right there on the 00:02:32.090 --> 00:02:34.310 little Tennessee River. We often just assume 00:02:34.310 --> 00:02:36.610 these place names are Cherokee, but I saw in 00:02:36.610 --> 00:02:38.569 the linguistic research that the root might go 00:02:38.569 --> 00:02:40.969 even deeper than that. It does, and this is what's 00:02:40.969 --> 00:02:44.349 so fascinating. The Cherokee likely adapted the 00:02:44.349 --> 00:02:47.770 name from an even earlier group. The evidence 00:02:47.770 --> 00:02:50.449 points to the Yuchi people, who speak a completely 00:02:50.449 --> 00:02:52.370 different language. Language isolate. Exactly. 00:02:52.550 --> 00:02:55.569 And the proposed Yuchi term is Tanezi -ji. Okay, 00:02:55.610 --> 00:02:57.550 what does that mean? Well, the literal translation 00:02:57.550 --> 00:03:00.169 is something like Brother Water's Place. But 00:03:00.169 --> 00:03:02.930 a more, you know, a more lyrical way to put it 00:03:02.930 --> 00:03:04.870 is where the waters meet. Where the waters meet. 00:03:04.969 --> 00:03:06.849 I mean, considering the state is cut into three 00:03:06.849 --> 00:03:10.169 parts by these massive river systems, the Tennessee, 00:03:10.409 --> 00:03:12.770 the Cumberland, the Mississippi, that is just 00:03:12.770 --> 00:03:15.930 a profoundly perfect description of the land 00:03:15.930 --> 00:03:18.090 itself. The geography is baked right into the 00:03:18.090 --> 00:03:21.430 name. And the modern spelling Tennessee, that 00:03:21.430 --> 00:03:23.870 gets standardized a bit later, it's usually attributed 00:03:23.870 --> 00:03:25.889 to the governor of South Carolina, James Glenn. 00:03:26.050 --> 00:03:28.939 When was this? In the 1750s, he started using 00:03:28.939 --> 00:03:31.439 that spelling in his official letters, and it 00:03:31.439 --> 00:03:33.539 just sort of stuck. It became the common name 00:03:33.539 --> 00:03:35.539 for the whole region, which would then become 00:03:35.539 --> 00:03:38.860 the Southwest Territory, and finally, in 1796, 00:03:39.340 --> 00:03:41.810 the state of Tennessee. The story of this land, 00:03:41.990 --> 00:03:44.469 even before Europeans showed up, it's one of 00:03:44.469 --> 00:03:46.889 just constant movement, constant redefinition. 00:03:47.030 --> 00:03:48.889 So let's trace that back to the very beginning. 00:03:49.050 --> 00:03:51.370 We have to go back about 12 ,000 years. That's 00:03:51.370 --> 00:03:53.830 when we see the first evidence of paleo -Indians 00:03:53.830 --> 00:03:56.169 in the area. These were hunter -gatherers, you 00:03:56.169 --> 00:03:58.310 know, following the migrating game herds at the 00:03:58.310 --> 00:04:00.409 end of the last ice age. And Middle Tennessee 00:04:00.409 --> 00:04:03.610 specifically was a hotspot for them. An ecological 00:04:03.610 --> 00:04:07.710 gold mine. It was incredibly rich with mega fauna. 00:04:07.710 --> 00:04:10.849 We're talking mastodons, giant sloths. That made 00:04:10.849 --> 00:04:13.389 it a really crucial and highly valued hunting 00:04:13.389 --> 00:04:16.170 ground for thousands of years. And as the climate 00:04:16.170 --> 00:04:19.689 warms up and stabilizes, you see human societies 00:04:19.689 --> 00:04:22.170 start to evolve. The sources break it down into 00:04:22.170 --> 00:04:24.730 these distinct cultural phases. Absolutely. So 00:04:24.730 --> 00:04:26.990 after the Paleo -Indian period, you get the Archaic 00:04:26.990 --> 00:04:28.550 period. This is where people started settling 00:04:28.550 --> 00:04:30.589 down a bit more, developing more sophisticated 00:04:30.589 --> 00:04:32.990 hunting and gathering techniques. And then comes 00:04:32.990 --> 00:04:35.230 the Woodland period. Right. And the Woodland 00:04:35.230 --> 00:04:37.620 period is the big shift. This is where agriculture 00:04:37.620 --> 00:04:40.420 begins. We see the first cultivation of crops 00:04:40.420 --> 00:04:43.540 like squash, corn, gourds. This is a total change 00:04:43.540 --> 00:04:46.519 in how people live. A revolutionary change. And 00:04:46.519 --> 00:04:48.839 with that subtle lifestyle comes another development. 00:04:48.959 --> 00:04:51.660 They start building the first ceremonial and 00:04:51.660 --> 00:04:54.259 burial mounds that you still see across the region 00:04:54.259 --> 00:04:56.720 today. Which leads directly into the most sophisticated 00:04:56.720 --> 00:04:59.360 of these pre -contact cultures, the Mississippian 00:04:59.360 --> 00:05:03.399 period. This period, roughly from 800 to 1600 00:05:03.399 --> 00:05:07.000 A .D., is the peak. You see the rise of these 00:05:07.000 --> 00:05:10.100 complex, highly organized chiefdoms. These were 00:05:10.100 --> 00:05:12.240 not small bands of people. They were structured 00:05:12.240 --> 00:05:15.920 societies building enormous, elaborate ceremonial 00:05:15.920 --> 00:05:18.379 centers, like the Pinson Mounds or the Old Stone 00:05:18.379 --> 00:05:21.259 Fort. It shows a really significant level of 00:05:21.259 --> 00:05:23.970 social organization. And then in the 16th century, 00:05:24.089 --> 00:05:26.829 everything changes. The Spanish arrive. You have 00:05:26.829 --> 00:05:29.189 figures like Hernando de Soto, Tristan de Luna, 00:05:29.350 --> 00:05:31.750 Juan Pardo. They're all marching through this 00:05:31.750 --> 00:05:34.089 territory. What are they looking for? Gold. Gold, 00:05:34.129 --> 00:05:37.050 glory, a route to Mexico. They encounter groups 00:05:37.050 --> 00:05:39.269 like the Muscogee Creek, the Yuchi, the Shawnee. 00:05:39.689 --> 00:05:41.990 But the immediate devastating effect of their 00:05:41.990 --> 00:05:46.180 arrival. wasn't conquest. It was disease. Catastrophic 00:05:46.180 --> 00:05:48.699 disease. The sources are so clear on this. Smallpox, 00:05:48.899 --> 00:05:50.899 measles, influenza, these viruses just ripped 00:05:50.899 --> 00:05:53.259 through the native trade networks. So by the 00:05:53.259 --> 00:05:56.040 early 1700s, before widespread Anglo -American 00:05:56.040 --> 00:05:58.980 settlement even really began, much of the original 00:05:58.980 --> 00:06:01.519 population had been wiped out or scattered. So 00:06:01.519 --> 00:06:03.519 when the Cherokees start moving into East Tennessee, 00:06:03.759 --> 00:06:06.000 they're migrating into a region that's, in a 00:06:06.000 --> 00:06:09.620 way, partially empty. Precisely. The group known 00:06:09.620 --> 00:06:12.459 as the Overhill Cherokee moved into East Tennessee 00:06:12.459 --> 00:06:15.779 from Virginia and the Carolinas in the late 17th 00:06:15.779 --> 00:06:18.699 century. They were likely being pushed by pressures 00:06:18.699 --> 00:06:21.100 from European settlements on the coast and, you 00:06:21.100 --> 00:06:23.519 know, seeking new, safer lands. And that led 00:06:23.519 --> 00:06:25.379 to conflict with the groups that were still there. 00:06:25.600 --> 00:06:28.720 Fierce territorial conflict. In the early 18th 00:06:28.720 --> 00:06:30.779 century, they fought and eventually expelled 00:06:30.779 --> 00:06:33.740 the Muscogee Creek, the Yuchi, and the Shawnee 00:06:33.740 --> 00:06:36.199 from most of the area. The Chickasaw, however, 00:06:36.569 --> 00:06:39.129 maintained a really strong presence in West Tennessee 00:06:39.129 --> 00:06:42.490 and stayed largely out of that particular conflict. 00:06:42.730 --> 00:06:45.110 This political void, especially in Middle Tennessee, 00:06:45.329 --> 00:06:47.509 basically opens the door for the colonial frontier 00:06:47.509 --> 00:06:50.310 to push in, and the French get there first. The 00:06:50.310 --> 00:06:52.810 French were masters of the river systems. They 00:06:52.810 --> 00:06:55.110 saw the strategic value immediately. They set 00:06:55.110 --> 00:06:57.769 up a fur trading post at Assault Lake in 1714, 00:06:57.790 --> 00:06:59.990 which they called French Lake. The future site 00:06:59.990 --> 00:07:02.939 of Nashville. The very spot. And they also built 00:07:02.939 --> 00:07:05.620 a fort on the Mississippi River Bluffs in 1739, 00:07:05.819 --> 00:07:07.620 Fort Assumption, which is modern -day Memphis. 00:07:08.160 --> 00:07:10.439 They were trying to control the trade and counter 00:07:10.439 --> 00:07:12.600 the influence of the Chickasaw. And the British 00:07:12.600 --> 00:07:15.139 had to respond to that. They did. Their counter 00:07:15.139 --> 00:07:19.319 move was Fort Lewden, built in 1756. This was 00:07:19.319 --> 00:07:21.740 a massive undertaking. At the time, it was the 00:07:21.740 --> 00:07:24.259 westernmost British outpost in all of North America. 00:07:24.439 --> 00:07:27.079 But it didn't last long. No. Tensions with their 00:07:27.079 --> 00:07:29.420 Cherokee allies over land and resources just 00:07:29.420 --> 00:07:32.579 boiled over. The Cherokee laid siege to the fort 00:07:32.579 --> 00:07:35.920 and it surrendered in 1760. A lot of the soldiers 00:07:35.920 --> 00:07:38.339 were killed shortly after. It was a disaster 00:07:38.339 --> 00:07:41.120 for the British. And after that, the British 00:07:41.120 --> 00:07:43.620 crown tried to put a stop to this westward push, 00:07:43.759 --> 00:07:46.439 right? The proclamation of 1763. They tried. 00:07:46.620 --> 00:07:49.199 The proclamation forbade any settlement west 00:07:49.199 --> 00:07:51.019 of the Appalachians, but you just couldn't stop 00:07:51.019 --> 00:07:53.509 it. The long hunters, the land speculators, the 00:07:53.509 --> 00:07:55.350 settlers, they kept pouring into the valleys 00:07:55.350 --> 00:07:57.569 of East Tennessee anyway. This movement of these 00:07:57.569 --> 00:08:00.129 fiercely independent, self -starting people leads 00:08:00.129 --> 00:08:02.449 us to a really crucial moment in American history, 00:08:02.610 --> 00:08:05.589 one that I think often gets overlooked, the Watauga 00:08:05.589 --> 00:08:07.870 Association. This is where it gets really interesting 00:08:07.870 --> 00:08:11.529 for anyone studying American governance. By 1772, 00:08:11.850 --> 00:08:14.509 you have these settlers, mostly Scotch -Irish, 00:08:14.629 --> 00:08:17.519 who have pushed so far west. They find themselves 00:08:17.519 --> 00:08:20.139 completely outside the jurisdiction of North 00:08:20.139 --> 00:08:22.339 Carolina or Virginia. They're in a lawless land. 00:08:22.540 --> 00:08:25.660 Essentially, yeah. And they realized they needed 00:08:25.660 --> 00:08:28.079 some kind of order. So they didn't just form 00:08:28.079 --> 00:08:30.839 a militia. They formed a government. A constitutional 00:08:30.839 --> 00:08:33.299 government. They wrote and adopted the Articles 00:08:33.299 --> 00:08:36.019 of the Watauga Association, which is now widely 00:08:36.019 --> 00:08:38.919 seen as the very first written constitutional 00:08:38.919 --> 00:08:41.039 government established by European Americans 00:08:41.039 --> 00:08:44.200 west of the Appalachian Mountains. It's a true 00:08:44.200 --> 00:08:46.600 act of political autonomy. They set up courts. 00:08:46.779 --> 00:08:48.860 They registered land deeds. They established 00:08:48.860 --> 00:08:51.340 rules for the common good. And this is all happening 00:08:51.340 --> 00:08:53.419 years before the Declaration of Independence. 00:08:53.419 --> 00:08:55.440 Years before. It's this incredible moment of 00:08:55.440 --> 00:08:58.080 frontier constitutionalism. Now, once the revolution 00:08:58.080 --> 00:09:00.419 started, they did attach themselves to North 00:09:00.419 --> 00:09:03.240 Carolina for protection. But the road from there 00:09:03.240 --> 00:09:05.940 to statehood was anything but smooth. It was 00:09:05.940 --> 00:09:10.929 a decade of political chaos. Total chaos. In 00:09:10.929 --> 00:09:14.649 1784, North Carolina temporarily ceded the land 00:09:14.649 --> 00:09:16.529 to the federal government to try and pay off 00:09:16.529 --> 00:09:19.169 its war debts. The settlers there did not want 00:09:19.169 --> 00:09:21.470 to wait around in limbo. So they took matters 00:09:21.470 --> 00:09:23.909 into their own hands again. They did. They declared 00:09:23.909 --> 00:09:25.929 themselves an independent state, the state of 00:09:25.929 --> 00:09:28.330 Franklin, named after Benjamin Franklin, and 00:09:28.330 --> 00:09:30.549 they petitioned Congress to join the Union. And 00:09:30.549 --> 00:09:32.710 Congress said no? Congress wasn't interested. 00:09:32.889 --> 00:09:35.230 The whole thing collapsed into about four years 00:09:35.230 --> 00:09:38.029 of internal skirmishes and governance failure. 00:09:38.169 --> 00:09:41.799 It was a mess. By 1788, the counties had rejoined 00:09:41.799 --> 00:09:44.340 North Carolina. So when did it finally become 00:09:44.340 --> 00:09:47.460 a U .S. territory? North Carolina finally ceded 00:09:47.460 --> 00:09:50.830 the land for good in 1790. Congress organized 00:09:50.830 --> 00:09:53.649 it as the Southwest Territory. And just six years 00:09:53.649 --> 00:09:57.370 later, in June of 1796, Tennessee was admitted 00:09:57.370 --> 00:10:00.669 as the 16th state. The census taken at that time 00:10:00.669 --> 00:10:03.350 showed a population that included over 10 ,000 00:10:03.350 --> 00:10:05.269 enslaved people. And that number right there 00:10:05.269 --> 00:10:07.789 immediately sets the stage for the defining conflict 00:10:07.789 --> 00:10:10.049 of the 19th century. And we have to focus on 00:10:10.049 --> 00:10:12.190 how the state's geography just poured gasoline 00:10:12.190 --> 00:10:14.870 on that fire. The whole antebellum era was shaped 00:10:14.870 --> 00:10:19.240 by one thing. Land acquisition. And the single 00:10:19.240 --> 00:10:21.740 most important event was the Jackson Purchase 00:10:21.740 --> 00:10:24.179 of 1818. Negotiated by Andrew Jackson. Andrew 00:10:24.179 --> 00:10:26.919 Jackson and Isaac Shelby. They negotiated a treaty 00:10:26.919 --> 00:10:30.179 that secured all of West Tennessee from the Chickasaw 00:10:30.179 --> 00:10:33.539 people. This opened up this massive, contiguous 00:10:33.539 --> 00:10:37.320 block of incredibly rich, flat, fertile land. 00:10:37.580 --> 00:10:41.259 So how did getting this new land just fundamentally 00:10:41.259 --> 00:10:44.659 change the state's power dynamics? It dramatically 00:10:44.659 --> 00:10:46.700 intensified the fracture that was already there. 00:10:46.990 --> 00:10:49.250 The new flatlands in West Tennessee, combined 00:10:49.250 --> 00:10:51.330 with the fertile river valleys of Middle Tennessee, 00:10:51.490 --> 00:10:53.870 were absolutely perfect for growing cash crops. 00:10:54.110 --> 00:10:57.110 Cotton. Cotton, tobacco, hemp. Crops that demanded 00:10:57.110 --> 00:10:59.889 massive enslaved labor forces. This created a 00:10:59.889 --> 00:11:02.409 powerful politically dominant planter class that 00:11:02.409 --> 00:11:04.049 aligned itself completely with the Deep South. 00:11:04.330 --> 00:11:07.169 The economy was slavery -based agrarianism, period. 00:11:07.429 --> 00:11:09.610 But East Tennessee, with the Appalachian Mountains, 00:11:09.769 --> 00:11:12.450 was completely different. A world apart. The 00:11:12.450 --> 00:11:14.409 geography there, the ridge and valley system, 00:11:14.529 --> 00:11:17.309 it just didn't support large scale plantation 00:11:17.309 --> 00:11:20.710 farming. The economy was mostly small subsistence 00:11:20.710 --> 00:11:23.289 farms and some small scale industry like iron 00:11:23.289 --> 00:11:25.490 production. And that led to a totally different 00:11:25.490 --> 00:11:28.169 political culture. A culture rooted in rugged 00:11:28.169 --> 00:11:31.440 individualism and crucially. a surprisingly strong 00:11:31.440 --> 00:11:33.500 early abolition movement. We're talking about 00:11:33.500 --> 00:11:35.940 abolitionists operating inside a slave state 00:11:35.940 --> 00:11:38.440 decades before the Civil War. Yes, and this is 00:11:38.440 --> 00:11:41.820 so important. A man named Elihu Embry, as early 00:11:41.820 --> 00:11:44.539 as 1819, was publishing a newspaper in Jonesboro 00:11:44.539 --> 00:11:47.039 called The Emancipator. It was the nation's very 00:11:47.039 --> 00:11:49.580 first newspaper dedicated exclusively to the 00:11:49.580 --> 00:11:51.779 abolition of slavery. The bravery of that is 00:11:51.779 --> 00:11:54.259 just staggering, publishing that in the heart 00:11:54.259 --> 00:11:56.360 of the upland South. It speaks volumes about 00:11:56.360 --> 00:11:58.519 the unique political defiance of East Tennessee. 00:11:59.019 --> 00:12:01.700 And this division, East versus Middle and West, 00:12:01.860 --> 00:12:05.000 it is the absolute key to understanding Tennessee 00:12:05.000 --> 00:12:07.659 in Civil War. And as the state deepened its commitment 00:12:07.659 --> 00:12:10.480 to slavery, the forced removal of the remaining 00:12:10.480 --> 00:12:13.500 Native populations reached its tragic end. The 00:12:13.500 --> 00:12:15.980 Trail of Tears, which happened mostly between 00:12:15.980 --> 00:12:19.980 1838 and 1839, is just a profound stain on American 00:12:19.980 --> 00:12:23.169 history. The Cherokee had tried everything. They 00:12:23.169 --> 00:12:25.429 adopted a written constitution. They tried to 00:12:25.429 --> 00:12:27.470 assimilate politically. It didn't matter. It 00:12:27.470 --> 00:12:29.409 didn't matter. The U .S. government forcibly 00:12:29.409 --> 00:12:31.570 removed thousands of Cherokees from their ancestral 00:12:31.570 --> 00:12:34.509 homes in southeastern Tennessee. And this included 00:12:34.509 --> 00:12:37.190 removing the thousands of black slaves the Cherokee 00:12:37.190 --> 00:12:40.009 themselves owned, as they too were a slave -holding 00:12:40.009 --> 00:12:43.029 society. And the human cost of that march? It 00:12:43.029 --> 00:12:45.350 was staggering. The best estimates are that around 00:12:45.350 --> 00:12:48.429 4 ,000 men, women, and children died on that 00:12:48.429 --> 00:12:51.500 brutal forced march to Oklahoma. And this final 00:12:51.500 --> 00:12:53.879 act of removal, of course, opened up even more 00:12:53.879 --> 00:12:56.059 land for Anglo -American settlement and cotton 00:12:56.059 --> 00:12:59.700 planting. So by 1860, that economic and cultural 00:12:59.700 --> 00:13:02.179 split brings the state to a breaking point. The 00:13:02.179 --> 00:13:04.220 sources describe Tennessee as a house divided 00:13:04.220 --> 00:13:06.580 against itself. A political catastrophe waiting 00:13:06.580 --> 00:13:08.759 to happen. West and middle Tennessee, with their 00:13:08.759 --> 00:13:10.700 economies completely tied to cotton in the deep 00:13:10.700 --> 00:13:13.340 south, they overwhelmingly favored secession. 00:13:13.460 --> 00:13:15.600 But East Tennessee was staunchly pro -union. 00:13:15.919 --> 00:13:18.600 This internal fight is why Tennessee was so late 00:13:18.600 --> 00:13:21.179 to secede. Exactly. It was the very last state 00:13:21.179 --> 00:13:23.799 to leave the Union, only joining the Confederacy 00:13:23.799 --> 00:13:27.539 in June of 1861, and only after a second statewide 00:13:27.539 --> 00:13:30.340 referendum. What changed between the first and 00:13:30.340 --> 00:13:32.940 second vote? Lincoln's call for federal troops 00:13:32.940 --> 00:13:34.980 to put down the rebellion after Fort Sumter. 00:13:35.460 --> 00:13:37.779 That pushed a lot of conditional Unionists in 00:13:37.779 --> 00:13:40.159 Middle Tennessee over the edge, and they flipped 00:13:40.159 --> 00:13:43.090 their vote. But even after seceding, a huge number 00:13:43.090 --> 00:13:45.409 of Tennesseans fought for the Union. Tennessee 00:13:45.409 --> 00:13:47.850 provided more soldiers for the Union Army than 00:13:47.850 --> 00:13:50.750 any other Confederate state. It was just a deeply, 00:13:50.870 --> 00:13:53.450 painfully fractured place. And despite being 00:13:53.450 --> 00:13:55.870 late to the game, the state became one of the 00:13:55.870 --> 00:13:58.669 most critical theaters of the entire war. It 00:13:58.669 --> 00:14:00.950 saw more military engagements than any other 00:14:00.950 --> 00:14:04.009 state except Virginia. Its rivers and its railroad 00:14:04.009 --> 00:14:06.330 network made it strategically vital for both 00:14:06.330 --> 00:14:09.129 sides. And the Union recognized that early on. 00:14:09.289 --> 00:14:12.210 Very early. General Ulysses S. Grant scored these 00:14:12.210 --> 00:14:15.389 crucial victories in February 1862, capturing 00:14:15.389 --> 00:14:17.789 Fort Henry and Fort Donaldson. That immediately 00:14:17.789 --> 00:14:19.950 opened up the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers 00:14:19.950 --> 00:14:22.429 to the Union Navy, giving them a highway deep 00:14:22.429 --> 00:14:24.529 into the South. That success was followed by 00:14:24.529 --> 00:14:26.590 the Battle of Shiloh, which was just unbelievably 00:14:26.590 --> 00:14:30.769 bloody. Shiloh, in April 1862, was a national 00:14:30.769 --> 00:14:33.570 trauma. It was one of the first truly massive 00:14:33.570 --> 00:14:36.389 battles, and at the time, it was the bloodiest 00:14:36.389 --> 00:14:38.960 single engagement in American history. It shocked 00:14:38.960 --> 00:14:41.019 everyone and proved this was going to be a long, 00:14:41.100 --> 00:14:43.519 brutal war. After Shiloh, the Union captures 00:14:43.519 --> 00:14:46.440 Memphis. Right. By June, Memphis falls, which 00:14:46.440 --> 00:14:48.059 secures the western border and the Mississippi 00:14:48.059 --> 00:14:51.299 River for the Union. The war then grinds on and 00:14:51.299 --> 00:14:53.799 the focus shifts to the strategic prize in the 00:14:53.799 --> 00:14:56.039 east. Chattanooga. Chattanooga. It was a critical 00:14:56.039 --> 00:14:58.379 railroad hub, the gateway to the deep south. 00:14:58.779 --> 00:15:02.379 The Chattanooga Campaign in late 1863 was a decisive 00:15:02.379 --> 00:15:04.919 Union victory, culminating in these dramatic 00:15:04.919 --> 00:15:07.179 battles at Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge. 00:15:07.419 --> 00:15:09.440 And capturing Chattanooga basically sealed the 00:15:09.440 --> 00:15:12.460 Confederacy's fate. It did. It allowed General 00:15:12.460 --> 00:15:15.519 William T. Sherman to use it as a base to launch 00:15:15.519 --> 00:15:19.179 his destructive march to the sea in 1864, which 00:15:19.179 --> 00:15:21.580 just crippled the Confederacy's ability to wage 00:15:21.580 --> 00:15:24.620 war. Tennessee's political status during the 00:15:24.620 --> 00:15:27.500 war was unique. because it was occupied by Union 00:15:27.500 --> 00:15:30.679 forces so early, and that led to a totally different 00:15:30.679 --> 00:15:33.679 path to abolition. This is a huge, often missed 00:15:33.679 --> 00:15:36.340 point. Because Union armies held large parts 00:15:36.340 --> 00:15:38.820 of the state, Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation 00:15:38.820 --> 00:15:41.279 didn't actually apply there. So how did slavery 00:15:41.279 --> 00:15:44.019 end? It was done by the state itself. The military 00:15:44.019 --> 00:15:46.480 governor, Andrew Johnson, a Unionist from East 00:15:46.480 --> 00:15:51.360 Tennessee, he declared slaves free in 1864. Then, 00:15:51.460 --> 00:15:54.159 in early 1865, the state legislature passed a 00:15:54.159 --> 00:15:56.379 state constitutional amendment to prohibit slavery, 00:15:56.659 --> 00:15:59.210 which the voters ratified. So Tennessee was the 00:15:59.210 --> 00:16:01.789 only southern state to abolish slavery on its 00:16:01.789 --> 00:16:04.129 own before the 13th Amendment was even ratified. 00:16:04.210 --> 00:16:06.309 Exactly. And they gave it a unique, though short 00:16:06.309 --> 00:16:09.169 -lived, advantage during Reconstruction. By ratifying 00:16:09.169 --> 00:16:11.090 the 14th Amendment quickly, it was the first 00:16:11.090 --> 00:16:13.029 Confederate state readmitted to the Union in 00:16:13.029 --> 00:16:16.389 1866. And crucially, it was the only one that 00:16:16.389 --> 00:16:18.440 didn't have to have a military governor. But 00:16:18.440 --> 00:16:20.960 that period of radical Republican control was 00:16:20.960 --> 00:16:24.460 very brief and the backlash was immediate and 00:16:24.460 --> 00:16:27.379 violent. The Ku Klux Klan was founded in December 00:16:27.379 --> 00:16:32.200 1865 in Pulaski, Tennessee. It started as a social 00:16:32.200 --> 00:16:35.059 club for Confederate veterans, but it very quickly 00:16:35.059 --> 00:16:37.159 morphed into a domestic terrorist organization 00:16:37.159 --> 00:16:40.679 focused on intimidating and murdering black citizens 00:16:40.679 --> 00:16:43.340 and their white allies. And the state government 00:16:43.340 --> 00:16:46.840 couldn't stop them. They tried briefly with martial 00:16:46.840 --> 00:16:49.279 law. But the Southern Democrats regained control 00:16:49.279 --> 00:16:52.279 of the legislature by 1870 and immediately began 00:16:52.279 --> 00:16:54.600 implementing the Jim Crow laws that would enforce 00:16:54.600 --> 00:16:56.980 rigid racial segregation for the next century. 00:16:57.120 --> 00:16:59.399 That violent atmosphere, combined with these 00:16:59.399 --> 00:17:02.240 clumsy attempts at industrialization, created 00:17:02.240 --> 00:17:04.440 even more conflict. We see this with the Coal 00:17:04.440 --> 00:17:06.799 Creek War. The Coal Creek War is this powerful, 00:17:06.920 --> 00:17:09.559 brutal story. The state was broke, so it started 00:17:09.559 --> 00:17:11.980 using a system called convict leasing. Leasing 00:17:11.980 --> 00:17:14.099 prisoners out as labor. Right. They leased out 00:17:14.099 --> 00:17:16.500 convicts. who were disproportionately black men, 00:17:16.599 --> 00:17:19.119 to private companies. And these companies used 00:17:19.119 --> 00:17:20.819 them as strike breakers in the coal mines up 00:17:20.819 --> 00:17:22.819 in the Cumberland Mountains. And the free miners, 00:17:22.980 --> 00:17:25.000 the workers who were on strike, they fought back. 00:17:25.240 --> 00:17:28.869 They did. With guns. Yeah. In 1891 and 1892, 00:17:29.130 --> 00:17:32.130 armed miners repeatedly attacked and burned the 00:17:32.130 --> 00:17:34.529 prison stockades, freeing the convicts to prevent 00:17:34.529 --> 00:17:37.150 them from breaking the strikes. It was an organized 00:17:37.150 --> 00:17:40.430 armed uprising against its incredibly exploitative 00:17:40.430 --> 00:17:43.349 system. Did it work? Ultimately, yes. The Coal 00:17:43.349 --> 00:17:45.710 Creek War was so violent and got so much attention 00:17:45.710 --> 00:17:48.430 that it helped force the state to finally end 00:17:48.430 --> 00:17:51.390 the practice of convict leasing. A tough, brutal 00:17:51.390 --> 00:17:53.910 end to the century. But to close this section, 00:17:54.009 --> 00:17:55.650 we have to talk about the decision that gave 00:17:55.650 --> 00:17:58.069 Nashville its famous nickname. The Athens of 00:17:58.069 --> 00:18:01.029 the South. That comes from the 1897 Tennessee 00:18:01.029 --> 00:18:04.470 Centennial Exposition. It was this huge World's 00:18:04.470 --> 00:18:07.029 Fair event, a moment of regional pride. And the 00:18:07.029 --> 00:18:09.509 centerpiece was the Parthenon. A full -scale, 00:18:09.529 --> 00:18:11.990 exact replica of the Parthenon in Athens. It 00:18:11.990 --> 00:18:14.190 was only supposed to be temporary, made of plaster. 00:18:14.369 --> 00:18:16.750 But it was so wildly popular that the city decided 00:18:16.750 --> 00:18:19.230 to rebuild it decades later in permanent concrete. 00:18:19.680 --> 00:18:22.480 It cemented Nashville's identity as a center 00:18:22.480 --> 00:18:25.299 for higher education and classical ideals. Okay, 00:18:25.339 --> 00:18:28.880 so moving into the 20th century, all these internal 00:18:28.880 --> 00:18:32.400 tensions, the rural versus urban, tradition versus 00:18:32.400 --> 00:18:35.980 modernity, they just explode onto the national 00:18:35.980 --> 00:18:39.160 stage, starting with huge social changes. Right. 00:18:39.240 --> 00:18:42.160 The early 20th century sees Jim Crow laws become 00:18:42.160 --> 00:18:44.980 fully entrenched. And this leads to the first 00:18:44.980 --> 00:18:48.480 big wave of the Great Migration. Thousands of 00:18:48.480 --> 00:18:50.880 black Tennesseans just left. Fleeing to the north. 00:18:51.019 --> 00:18:52.940 Fleeing to industrial cities in the north and 00:18:52.940 --> 00:18:56.140 Midwest, looking for jobs, but also just escaping 00:18:56.140 --> 00:18:58.079 the constant threat of violence and oppression. 00:18:58.619 --> 00:19:01.160 At the same time, you had this big internal migration 00:19:01.160 --> 00:19:04.140 of poor white families from rural East Tennessee 00:19:04.140 --> 00:19:07.160 into the groaning cities like Knoxville and Chattanooga. 00:19:07.259 --> 00:19:09.200 And while all this is happening, the temperance 00:19:09.200 --> 00:19:11.680 movement just has a death grip on state politics. 00:19:12.019 --> 00:19:14.240 Tennessee became a national leader in prohibition. 00:19:14.519 --> 00:19:16.619 Through a series of state laws, they became the 00:19:16.619 --> 00:19:18.920 first state to effectively ban the sale and production 00:19:18.920 --> 00:19:21.420 of alcohol, well before national prohibition 00:19:21.420 --> 00:19:23.299 even started. Which, of course, didn't stop people 00:19:23.299 --> 00:19:25.339 from drinking. It just drove it underground. 00:19:25.839 --> 00:19:29.019 And it fueled the moonshine economy. The geographic 00:19:29.019 --> 00:19:31.240 isolation of the East Tennessee mountains was 00:19:31.240 --> 00:19:34.019 the perfect cover for making and distributing 00:19:34.019 --> 00:19:36.480 illicit liquor. a tradition that was already 00:19:36.480 --> 00:19:38.839 deeply rooted there. Then in 1920, Tennessee 00:19:38.839 --> 00:19:40.960 finds itself playing the single most crucial 00:19:40.960 --> 00:19:43.339 role in the national suffrage movement. This 00:19:43.339 --> 00:19:46.380 is an incredible story. Tennessee was the pivotal 00:19:46.380 --> 00:19:50.019 36th and final state needed to ratify the 19th 00:19:50.019 --> 00:19:52.099 Amendment, which gave women the right to vote 00:19:52.099 --> 00:19:55.230 nationwide. The whole country was watching. And 00:19:55.230 --> 00:19:57.750 the vote in the legislature was razor thin. It 00:19:57.750 --> 00:20:00.869 was. Pro - and anti -suffrage lobbyists swarmed 00:20:00.869 --> 00:20:03.609 Nashville that summer. It all came down to a 00:20:03.609 --> 00:20:05.670 single vote from a young legislator from East 00:20:05.670 --> 00:20:07.890 Tennessee named Harry Byrne. And what made him 00:20:07.890 --> 00:20:10.009 change his vote? He got a note from his mother 00:20:10.009 --> 00:20:12.490 that morning urging him to be a good boy and 00:20:12.490 --> 00:20:15.029 vote for ratification. He changed his vote to 00:20:15.029 --> 00:20:18.589 yes at the last minute. Without that single vote. 00:20:18.829 --> 00:20:21.410 In that one state, the entire movement would 00:20:21.410 --> 00:20:23.329 have been delayed for who knows how long. Just 00:20:23.329 --> 00:20:25.930 five years later, the state is again the absolute 00:20:25.930 --> 00:20:28.829 focal point of a massive national culture war, 00:20:29.029 --> 00:20:32.410 the Scopes trial. The Scopes monkey trial. And 00:20:32.410 --> 00:20:34.809 this is no accident. It was deliberately set 00:20:34.809 --> 00:20:37.809 up by the ACLU to challenge a new state law, 00:20:38.049 --> 00:20:41.049 the Butler Act, which made it illegal to teach 00:20:41.049 --> 00:20:43.650 human evolution in public schools. So they found 00:20:43.650 --> 00:20:46.160 a teacher, John Scopes. Who was willing to be 00:20:46.160 --> 00:20:49.099 the test case. Exactly. And it became this huge 00:20:49.099 --> 00:20:51.680 spectacle, pitting two legal giants against each 00:20:51.680 --> 00:20:54.359 other. William Jennings Bryan, the three -time 00:20:54.359 --> 00:20:56.759 presidential candidate for the prosecution. And 00:20:56.759 --> 00:20:59.180 the famous defense attorney Clarence Darrow for 00:20:59.180 --> 00:21:02.259 the defense. The media circus. Darrow even called 00:21:02.259 --> 00:21:04.640 Bryan to the witness stand as an expert on the 00:21:04.640 --> 00:21:07.000 Bible and just cross -examined him into knots. 00:21:07.220 --> 00:21:09.859 It was an incredible theater. And while Scopes 00:21:09.859 --> 00:21:12.769 was technically found guilty. He was, though 00:21:12.769 --> 00:21:15.390 it was overturned on a technicality. The trial 00:21:15.390 --> 00:21:18.130 itself highlighted this deep, deep tension between 00:21:18.130 --> 00:21:21.170 modern scientific thought and rural traditional 00:21:21.170 --> 00:21:23.890 religious values that really defined the national 00:21:23.890 --> 00:21:26.630 perception of the South for decades. This cultural 00:21:26.630 --> 00:21:29.049 upheaval then transitions into a period of just 00:21:29.049 --> 00:21:31.390 radical federal intervention during the Great 00:21:31.390 --> 00:21:34.069 Depression. Let's really get into the TVA. The 00:21:34.069 --> 00:21:36.869 Tennessee Valley Authority. Created in 1933, 00:21:37.309 --> 00:21:39.410 it was one of the most ambitious and transformative 00:21:39.410 --> 00:21:42.730 parts of Roosevelt's New Deal. And it was so 00:21:42.730 --> 00:21:44.829 much more than just building power plants. It 00:21:44.829 --> 00:21:47.690 was a regional planning agency. A vast one. Its 00:21:47.690 --> 00:21:49.890 mission was to solve the endemic poverty and 00:21:49.890 --> 00:21:52.109 lack of infrastructure across a seven -state 00:21:52.109 --> 00:21:55.490 region. But its heart was in Tennessee. What 00:21:55.490 --> 00:21:59.140 was the scope beyond just electricity? It was 00:21:59.140 --> 00:22:01.039 immense. They were tasked with flood control, 00:22:01.180 --> 00:22:03.640 which meant building a massive system of dams. 00:22:03.759 --> 00:22:06.380 They were improving river navigation for commerce. 00:22:06.619 --> 00:22:08.839 They were developing new fertilizers to help 00:22:08.839 --> 00:22:12.220 farmers, reforesting the land, and, yes, electrifying 00:22:12.220 --> 00:22:14.980 the entire region, bringing cheap power to rural 00:22:14.980 --> 00:22:17.160 areas that had never had it before. But that 00:22:17.160 --> 00:22:19.799 modernization, that power, it came at a massive 00:22:19.799 --> 00:22:21.960 human cost for the people who lived along those 00:22:21.960 --> 00:22:24.140 rivers. That is the dark side of this incredible 00:22:24.140 --> 00:22:27.039 story. To create the vast reservoirs for the 00:22:27.039 --> 00:22:29.920 dams, the TVA used the power of eminent domain 00:22:29.920 --> 00:22:32.599 to forcibly displace thousands and thousands 00:22:32.599 --> 00:22:35.039 of families. They just flooded their homes. They 00:22:35.039 --> 00:22:37.940 flooded their homes, their farms, entire communities 00:22:37.940 --> 00:22:40.380 that had been there for generations. It was a 00:22:40.380 --> 00:22:43.680 tradeoff. Economic progress and safety from floods 00:22:43.680 --> 00:22:46.559 against profound local upheaval and the destruction 00:22:46.559 --> 00:22:49.380 of a traditional way of life. And that abundance 00:22:49.380 --> 00:22:51.799 of cheap TVA power then attracted the world's 00:22:51.799 --> 00:22:54.180 most secretive and consequential project, the 00:22:54.180 --> 00:22:57.019 Manhattan Project. Yes, the establishment of 00:22:57.019 --> 00:23:00.180 Oak Ridge. This was arguably the single most 00:23:00.180 --> 00:23:02.680 world -altering investment in Tennessee history. 00:23:02.940 --> 00:23:05.980 This city, this community, was built from scratch 00:23:05.980 --> 00:23:08.619 in total secrecy to house the Clinton Engineer 00:23:08.619 --> 00:23:11.220 Works. Which was for uranium enrichment. For 00:23:11.220 --> 00:23:13.099 enriching uranium for the first atomic bomb. 00:23:13.259 --> 00:23:16.099 At its peak... Oak Ridge had 75 ,000 residents, 00:23:16.319 --> 00:23:18.599 but it was deliberately left off all state maps. 00:23:18.839 --> 00:23:20.900 No one knew what was happening there. Why there? 00:23:21.000 --> 00:23:23.420 Why Tennessee? Three main reasons. First, the 00:23:23.420 --> 00:23:26.079 guaranteed almost limitless supply of cheap TVA 00:23:26.079 --> 00:23:28.180 electricity needed to run the massive enrichment 00:23:28.180 --> 00:23:31.880 facilities. Second, low population density to 00:23:31.880 --> 00:23:34.859 minimize risk and local knowledge. And third, 00:23:35.220 --> 00:23:37.640 its inland geography provided essential security 00:23:37.640 --> 00:23:40.230 from any potential enemy attack. After the war, 00:23:40.349 --> 00:23:42.630 that scientific infrastructure didn't just disappear. 00:23:42.930 --> 00:23:45.289 It transitioned seamlessly into the Cold War. 00:23:45.769 --> 00:23:48.410 The facilities became the Oak Ridge National 00:23:48.410 --> 00:23:52.650 Laboratory, or ORNL. It grew into one of the 00:23:52.650 --> 00:23:55.029 largest and most important national labs in the 00:23:55.029 --> 00:23:57.250 country. And it still is today. It anchors the 00:23:57.250 --> 00:24:00.849 entire Tennessee Technology Corridor near Knoxville. 00:24:01.130 --> 00:24:04.410 It's a global leader in material science, nuclear 00:24:04.410 --> 00:24:08.440 physics, supercomputing. It represents this unbelievable 00:24:08.440 --> 00:24:11.960 transformation from a mostly agrarian state to 00:24:11.960 --> 00:24:15.059 a high -tech research hub in barely 50 years. 00:24:15.240 --> 00:24:17.299 But that stunning progress didn't erase those 00:24:17.299 --> 00:24:19.720 old social divisions, which leads right into 00:24:19.720 --> 00:24:21.500 the civil rights battles of the mid -century. 00:24:21.700 --> 00:24:24.440 The tension was immediate. And interestingly, 00:24:24.720 --> 00:24:26.619 the first integration battles happened in those 00:24:26.619 --> 00:24:28.920 very modern, federally supported communities. 00:24:29.259 --> 00:24:31.640 Oak Ridge High School was the first in the state 00:24:31.640 --> 00:24:34.460 to integrate in 1955. But it wasn't always peaceful. 00:24:34.700 --> 00:24:37.029 No. When nearby Clinton High School integrated 00:24:37.029 --> 00:24:39.369 the next year, it required the National Guard 00:24:39.369 --> 00:24:42.009 to be called in to put down violent pro -segregationist 00:24:42.009 --> 00:24:44.089 riots. And the struggle quickly moved to the 00:24:44.089 --> 00:24:46.509 big cities, especially Nashville. The Nashville 00:24:46.509 --> 00:24:49.130 Student Movement sit -ins in 1960 are considered 00:24:49.130 --> 00:24:52.990 a master class in nonviolent direct action. Led 00:24:52.990 --> 00:24:55.509 by young leaders like John Lewis, they conducted 00:24:55.509 --> 00:24:58.190 these disciplined sit -ins at segregated downtown 00:24:58.190 --> 00:25:00.529 lunch counters. And they were met with violence. 00:25:00.809 --> 00:25:04.279 Often, yes. But they persisted, and by May of 00:25:04.279 --> 00:25:06.759 that year, Nashville became the first major southern 00:25:06.759 --> 00:25:09.640 city to begin desegregating its public facilities. 00:25:09.859 --> 00:25:12.480 It was a huge victory. The decade ends, though, 00:25:12.539 --> 00:25:14.940 with one of the movement's greatest tragedies. 00:25:15.059 --> 00:25:17.079 The assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 00:25:17.380 --> 00:25:20.660 in Memphis in 1968. He was there to support the 00:25:20.660 --> 00:25:22.799 striking African -American sanitation workers 00:25:22.799 --> 00:25:26.559 who were protesting just inhumane working conditions. 00:25:26.660 --> 00:25:29.279 His murder there is this brutal reminder of how 00:25:29.279 --> 00:25:31.789 persistent that injustice was. Beyond social 00:25:31.789 --> 00:25:34.009 justice, Tennessee's own political structure 00:25:34.009 --> 00:25:36.230 created several landmark Supreme Court cases 00:25:36.230 --> 00:25:38.829 that reshaped the entire country. Let's start 00:25:38.829 --> 00:25:41.410 with Baker v. Carr. This came about because Tennessee's 00:25:41.410 --> 00:25:43.710 state legislature had refused for decades to 00:25:43.710 --> 00:25:45.990 redraw its legislative districts. So the maps 00:25:45.990 --> 00:25:49.230 were totally out of date. Completely. Rural areas 00:25:49.230 --> 00:25:51.970 that had lost population for years were dramatically 00:25:51.970 --> 00:25:54.549 overrepresented compared to the booming cities 00:25:54.549 --> 00:25:58.029 like Memphis and Nashville. A vote in a rural 00:25:58.029 --> 00:26:00.150 county was worth far more than a vote in the 00:26:00.150 --> 00:26:02.299 city. And the Supreme Court stepped in. They 00:26:02.299 --> 00:26:05.880 did. In 1962, they ruled that this was unconstitutional, 00:26:06.059 --> 00:26:08.680 establishing the critical principle of one man, 00:26:08.819 --> 00:26:12.500 one vote. The case forced states all across America 00:26:12.500 --> 00:26:15.920 to redraw their political maps fairly. It profoundly 00:26:15.920 --> 00:26:18.430 changed American democracy. You also see these 00:26:18.430 --> 00:26:20.450 challenges to government power in environmental 00:26:20.450 --> 00:26:23.250 cases? Yes, like citizens to preserve Overton 00:26:23.250 --> 00:26:26.890 Park v. Volpe in 1971. Local activists in Memphis 00:26:26.890 --> 00:26:29.529 successfully sued to stop the federal government 00:26:29.529 --> 00:26:31.710 from building Interstate 40 right through the 00:26:31.710 --> 00:26:33.930 middle of their beloved city park. And that set 00:26:33.930 --> 00:26:36.670 a major precedent. A huge one. The court's ruling 00:26:36.670 --> 00:26:38.849 affirmed that citizens had the right to sue government 00:26:38.849 --> 00:26:41.430 agencies and that courts could review their decisions, 00:26:41.609 --> 00:26:43.430 which was a massive boost for the environmental 00:26:43.430 --> 00:26:45.519 movement. And then, of course, there's the famous 00:26:45.519 --> 00:26:48.000 showdown with the TVA itself. The snail darter 00:26:48.000 --> 00:26:52.119 case, TVA v. Hill in 1978. An almost finished 00:26:52.119 --> 00:26:55.019 TVA project, the Teleco Dam, was challenged because 00:26:55.019 --> 00:26:57.700 its completion would wipe out the only known 00:26:57.700 --> 00:27:01.140 habitat of a tiny endangered fish, the snail 00:27:01.140 --> 00:27:03.640 darter. And the Supreme Court halted the $100 00:27:03.640 --> 00:27:06.299 million project. They did. They sided with the 00:27:06.299 --> 00:27:09.599 fish. The case was so impactful, it forced Congress 00:27:09.599 --> 00:27:12.359 to amend the Endangered Species Act. It showed 00:27:12.359 --> 00:27:15.259 that even an agency as powerful as the TVA was 00:27:15.259 --> 00:27:17.559 now subject to environmental law. Closing out 00:27:17.559 --> 00:27:20.440 the century, the sources mentioned the 1982 World's 00:27:20.440 --> 00:27:22.539 Fair in Knoxville. Yeah, the theme was Energy 00:27:22.539 --> 00:27:24.859 Turns the World, which was a perfect fit, right? 00:27:24.920 --> 00:27:27.039 It was a really successful event that reinforced 00:27:27.039 --> 00:27:29.279 Tennessee's identity as this center of energy 00:27:29.279 --> 00:27:31.779 generation and R &D, connecting the legacy of 00:27:31.779 --> 00:27:34.240 TVA and Oak Ridge right to the national stage. 00:27:34.650 --> 00:27:37.250 Finally, a really sobering reminder of the risks 00:27:37.250 --> 00:27:40.009 of that energy reliance. The Kingston spill in 00:27:40.009 --> 00:27:42.710 2008. An environmental disaster on an immense 00:27:42.710 --> 00:27:45.470 scale. A dike at the TVA's Kingston fossil plant 00:27:45.470 --> 00:27:48.349 failed, releasing over a billion gallons of toxic 00:27:48.349 --> 00:27:50.710 coal ash slurry into the Emory River. A billion 00:27:50.710 --> 00:27:53.250 gallons. It was the largest industrial waste 00:27:53.250 --> 00:27:56.190 spill in U .S. history. The cleanup cost over 00:27:56.190 --> 00:27:58.970 a billion dollars, and it highlighted the ongoing 00:27:58.970 --> 00:28:01.869 environmental dangers associated with the state's 00:28:01.869 --> 00:28:04.869 reliance on fossil fuels, even as it championed 00:28:04.869 --> 00:28:07.829 its nuclear and hydropower. It's so clear that 00:28:07.829 --> 00:28:10.549 everything in Tennessee, the history, the economy, 00:28:10.630 --> 00:28:13.690 the politics, it's all dictated by the land itself. 00:28:14.410 --> 00:28:17.029 So let's really dive into that geography. The 00:28:17.029 --> 00:28:19.869 state is fundamentally split into the three grand 00:28:19.869 --> 00:28:22.549 divisions. And these divisions, they're more 00:28:22.549 --> 00:28:25.089 than just cultural regions. They are geographical, 00:28:25.430 --> 00:28:28.990 cultural, and unusually, they are legally mandated. 00:28:29.329 --> 00:28:31.849 Legally mandated? What does that mean? It's written 00:28:31.849 --> 00:28:33.930 into the state constitution. It's a direct reflection 00:28:33.930 --> 00:28:36.390 of that historical separation and rivalry. For 00:28:36.390 --> 00:28:38.849 example, the state Supreme Court has five justices, 00:28:38.849 --> 00:28:41.450 and the law mandates that no more than two of 00:28:41.450 --> 00:28:43.779 them can come from the same grand division. Wow. 00:28:43.880 --> 00:28:45.799 So they're constitutionally forced to maintain 00:28:45.799 --> 00:28:48.420 geographic balance on the highest court. Exactly. 00:28:48.420 --> 00:28:50.880 It's designed to mitigate those old political 00:28:50.880 --> 00:28:53.599 rivalries between East, Middle and West. That's 00:28:53.599 --> 00:28:55.400 fascinating. OK, so let's walk through them, 00:28:55.420 --> 00:28:57.319 starting with East Tennessee. East Tennessee 00:28:57.319 --> 00:28:59.579 is all about the mountains. You have the Blue 00:28:59.579 --> 00:29:01.839 Ridge Mountains, which include the state's highest 00:29:01.839 --> 00:29:05.500 peaks, like Kuogi, formerly Clingman's Dome. 00:29:05.619 --> 00:29:07.980 And this is where you find the Great Smoky Mountains 00:29:07.980 --> 00:29:11.059 National Park. Which is remarkably the most visited 00:29:11.059 --> 00:29:13.920 national park in the entire United States. It 00:29:13.920 --> 00:29:17.470 gets millions more visitors every year. than 00:29:17.470 --> 00:29:19.630 the Grand Canyon or Yellowstone. Incredible. 00:29:19.910 --> 00:29:22.569 And then just west of the Blue Ridge, the landscape 00:29:22.569 --> 00:29:25.849 shifts into these long, linear, parallel ridges 00:29:25.849 --> 00:29:28.450 and valleys. That's the Tennessee Valley, part 00:29:28.450 --> 00:29:30.630 of the Greater Appalachian System. Okay, so moving 00:29:30.630 --> 00:29:32.970 west from there, we enter Middle Tennessee, the 00:29:32.970 --> 00:29:34.990 region around Nashville. And this region has 00:29:34.990 --> 00:29:37.690 a really unique geology, almost like a bullseye. 00:29:38.450 --> 00:29:40.730 It's defined by the Highland Rim, which is this 00:29:40.730 --> 00:29:42.630 elevated plain that completely surrounds the 00:29:42.630 --> 00:29:44.809 Central Depression called the Nashville Basin. 00:29:44.869 --> 00:29:47.079 The geology of that basin is the... key. It's 00:29:47.079 --> 00:29:50.579 all limestone. Very porous, shallow limestone 00:29:50.579 --> 00:29:52.839 bedrock. And that means you get what's called 00:29:52.839 --> 00:29:56.039 karst topography. Lots and lots of caves. Tennessee 00:29:56.039 --> 00:29:59.500 has over 10 ,000 documented caves, which is the 00:29:59.500 --> 00:30:02.000 most of any state in the U .S. It also means 00:30:02.000 --> 00:30:04.420 you have tons of sinkholes, underground streams. 00:30:05.339 --> 00:30:08.099 It's a landscape that is literally hollow underneath. 00:30:08.480 --> 00:30:10.759 And finally, West Tennessee is just a complete 00:30:10.759 --> 00:30:13.160 contrast to the mountains and the hills. West 00:30:13.160 --> 00:30:15.569 Tennessee is defined by flatness. It's almost 00:30:15.569 --> 00:30:18.329 entirely within the Gulf Coastal Plain. And as 00:30:18.329 --> 00:30:20.990 you get to the very edge of the state, it transitions 00:30:20.990 --> 00:30:23.890 into the Mississippi Alluvial Plain, or what 00:30:23.890 --> 00:30:25.890 people just call the Mississippi Bottoms. This 00:30:25.890 --> 00:30:28.750 is the super fertile land. Created by millennia 00:30:28.750 --> 00:30:30.950 of sediment deposited by the Mississippi River, 00:30:31.069 --> 00:30:33.269 which forms the state's entire western border. 00:30:33.650 --> 00:30:36.170 This is the prime agricultural land, connecting 00:30:36.170 --> 00:30:38.450 right back to that 19th century cotton economy. 00:30:38.710 --> 00:30:40.549 We also have to talk about something people might 00:30:40.549 --> 00:30:44.059 not associate with a state this far inland. There 00:30:44.059 --> 00:30:46.980 are two very active seismic zones. The eastern 00:30:46.980 --> 00:30:49.059 Tennessee seismic zone runs along the mountains 00:30:49.059 --> 00:30:51.539 and produces a lot of frequent small quakes. 00:30:51.839 --> 00:30:54.480 But the one that generates real concern is the 00:30:54.480 --> 00:30:56.660 New Madrid seismic zone. In the far northwest 00:30:56.660 --> 00:31:00.359 corner of the state. Correct. And that zone produced 00:31:00.359 --> 00:31:02.539 one of the most violent series of earthquakes 00:31:02.539 --> 00:31:05.799 in North American history, back in 1811 and 1812. 00:31:05.880 --> 00:31:09.119 These were massive. So powerful. They supposedly 00:31:09.119 --> 00:31:11.619 rang church bells in Boston, and they temporarily 00:31:11.619 --> 00:31:14.759 made the Mississippi River flow backward. The 00:31:14.759 --> 00:31:17.420 most famous legacy is Reelfoot Lake, which was 00:31:17.420 --> 00:31:19.740 formed when the land literally dropped during 00:31:19.740 --> 00:31:21.819 the quake and the Mississippi River filled it 00:31:21.819 --> 00:31:24.359 in. The power of water is just undeniable there, 00:31:24.460 --> 00:31:26.539 which brings us right back to the state's original 00:31:26.539 --> 00:31:29.339 name, where the waters meet. It's so fitting. 00:31:29.789 --> 00:31:32.130 The state is trisected by these major river systems. 00:31:32.390 --> 00:31:34.750 The Tennessee River itself is formed right in 00:31:34.750 --> 00:31:37.369 Knoxville. The Cumberland River flows through 00:31:37.369 --> 00:31:39.930 Nashville. And of course, the mighty Mississippi 00:31:39.930 --> 00:31:42.009 drains the entire western part of the state. 00:31:42.170 --> 00:31:44.970 This incredible range of terrain, from the highest 00:31:44.970 --> 00:31:47.730 peaks in the east to the flat plains in the west, 00:31:47.849 --> 00:31:50.569 it must translate to incredible biodiversity. 00:31:51.289 --> 00:31:53.329 It does. And this is a key takeaway from the 00:31:53.329 --> 00:31:55.869 sources. Tennessee is confirmed as the single 00:31:55.869 --> 00:31:58.309 most biodiverse inland state in the entire U 00:31:58.309 --> 00:32:00.849 .S. That's a huge claim. It is. And it's backed 00:32:00.849 --> 00:32:03.130 up by these really unique ecosystems. Give us 00:32:03.130 --> 00:32:05.549 some examples. OK, so the Great Smoky Mountains 00:32:05.549 --> 00:32:08.089 National Park isn't just the most visited. It's 00:32:08.089 --> 00:32:10.410 also recognized as the most biologically diverse 00:32:10.410 --> 00:32:13.309 national park in the world. And it is home to 00:32:13.309 --> 00:32:16.309 more species of salamanders than any other place 00:32:16.309 --> 00:32:18.680 on the planet. The salamander capital of the 00:32:18.680 --> 00:32:20.759 world. Literally. Yeah. And then there's the 00:32:20.759 --> 00:32:22.440 Duck River, which flows through Middle Tennessee. 00:32:22.619 --> 00:32:25.180 Yeah. It is officially cited as the single most 00:32:25.180 --> 00:32:28.359 biologically diverse waterway in all of North 00:32:28.359 --> 00:32:30.799 America. And you mentioned the unique plant life 00:32:30.799 --> 00:32:33.799 in the Nashville Basin. Yes, the cedar glades. 00:32:34.039 --> 00:32:36.859 These are these really special ecosystems where 00:32:36.859 --> 00:32:39.859 the limestone bedrock is so shallow that deep 00:32:39.859 --> 00:32:42.539 soil can't form. The conditions are incredibly 00:32:42.539 --> 00:32:44.880 harsh, like a desert, which results in these 00:32:44.880 --> 00:32:47.359 unique plant communities with lots of endemic 00:32:47.359 --> 00:32:49.880 species plants found nowhere else on Earth. It's 00:32:49.880 --> 00:32:52.640 a truly special place ecologically. So all of 00:32:52.640 --> 00:32:54.900 that geography, all that history, it defines 00:32:54.900 --> 00:32:57.180 Tennessee's modern economy. And when you look 00:32:57.180 --> 00:32:59.579 at its fiscal profile, it seems all contradictory. 00:32:59.680 --> 00:33:02.660 The state is marketed as this low -tax, business 00:33:02.660 --> 00:33:05.339 -friendly haven. And it is. They've done a really 00:33:05.339 --> 00:33:08.480 excellent job cultivating that reputation. It 00:33:08.480 --> 00:33:11.299 consistently ranks in the top five states for 00:33:11.299 --> 00:33:13.980 the lowest overall tax burden on its citizens. 00:33:14.579 --> 00:33:17.180 And fiscally, it's ranked as one of the healthiest 00:33:17.180 --> 00:33:19.180 states in the nation. OK, but here's the part 00:33:19.180 --> 00:33:21.690 that gets confusing. If they have no general 00:33:21.690 --> 00:33:24.390 income tax, how do they pay for everything? How 00:33:24.390 --> 00:33:27.509 do they fund massive government operations? The 00:33:27.509 --> 00:33:29.789 paradox is resolved by looking at what they do 00:33:29.789 --> 00:33:32.509 tax. Tennessee is one of only nine states with 00:33:32.509 --> 00:33:35.710 no general personal income tax. They phased out 00:33:35.710 --> 00:33:38.130 the last little bit of it in 2021. So where does 00:33:38.130 --> 00:33:40.210 the money come from? They shift the tax burden 00:33:40.210 --> 00:33:42.430 almost entirely onto consumption, onto sales 00:33:42.430 --> 00:33:44.369 tax. So when you go to buy something. You pay 00:33:44.369 --> 00:33:45.970 one of the highest tax rates in the country. 00:33:46.269 --> 00:33:49.230 Tennessee has the highest average combined state 00:33:49.230 --> 00:33:51.849 and local sales tax rate in the nation. It hovers 00:33:51.849 --> 00:33:55.549 around 9 .5%. So this low tax reputation really 00:33:55.549 --> 00:33:58.390 depends on who you are. Exactly. It's a structure 00:33:58.390 --> 00:34:00.529 that places a disproportionately heavy burden 00:34:00.529 --> 00:34:02.930 on lower -income residents, who spend a much 00:34:02.930 --> 00:34:05.369 larger percentage of their income on basic goods. 00:34:05.589 --> 00:34:07.930 It's a critical part of their business -friendly 00:34:07.930 --> 00:34:10.349 model, which also includes being a right -to 00:34:10.349 --> 00:34:13.230 -work state, leading to very low rates of unionization. 00:34:13.809 --> 00:34:16.650 Okay, let's move to agriculture. Is that old 00:34:16.650 --> 00:34:19.750 19th century agrarian economy still a major factor? 00:34:19.869 --> 00:34:21.730 Oh, absolutely. Agriculture is still immense. 00:34:21.949 --> 00:34:24.610 It generates an estimated economic impact of 00:34:24.610 --> 00:34:27.550 over $80 billion a year and covers more than 00:34:27.550 --> 00:34:30.289 40 % of the state's land. What are the big commodities 00:34:30.289 --> 00:34:32.630 now? Is it still cotton? It's more diversified 00:34:32.630 --> 00:34:35.110 now. The top commodity is actually beef cattle, 00:34:35.269 --> 00:34:37.809 followed very closely by broilers and poultry. 00:34:38.170 --> 00:34:40.969 But those traditional cash crops are still very 00:34:40.969 --> 00:34:43.710 much present. Soybeans and corn are the most 00:34:43.710 --> 00:34:45.969 common field crops. And cotton is still a player. 00:34:46.150 --> 00:34:48.929 A huge player. Tennessee still ranks seventh 00:34:48.929 --> 00:34:51.429 in the nation for cotton production. Almost all 00:34:51.429 --> 00:34:53.449 of it concentrated in those fertile plains of 00:34:53.449 --> 00:34:56.289 West Tennessee. Tobacco is also still significant, 00:34:56.550 --> 00:34:58.909 ranking fourth nationwide. And the Nashville 00:34:58.909 --> 00:35:01.630 Basin supports its own specialized kind of agriculture. 00:35:02.090 --> 00:35:04.969 The great pasture land there makes it a top equestrian 00:35:04.969 --> 00:35:07.860 region. It's famous as the birthplace of the 00:35:07.860 --> 00:35:11.199 Tennessee walking horse. And fun fact, the state 00:35:11.199 --> 00:35:13.760 also ranks second in the nation for mule breeding. 00:35:14.099 --> 00:35:17.019 Shifting to manufacturing, the sources all say 00:35:17.019 --> 00:35:19.619 the automotive sector is the absolute backbone 00:35:19.619 --> 00:35:22.260 of the modern economy. It is the largest manufacturing 00:35:22.260 --> 00:35:24.219 sector, and it's one of the most concentrated 00:35:24.219 --> 00:35:26.800 in the entire world. You have these massive plants 00:35:26.800 --> 00:35:28.900 from Nissan, General Motors, and Volkswagen. 00:35:29.500 --> 00:35:32.159 The Nissan plant in Smyrna is huge, right? It's 00:35:32.159 --> 00:35:34.480 the largest automotive assembly plant in all 00:35:34.480 --> 00:35:37.119 of North America by volume. It's a massive ecosystem. 00:35:37.559 --> 00:35:40.000 And it's still growing with Ford's new investment. 00:35:40.360 --> 00:35:42.900 Ford is building what they call Blue Oval City. 00:35:43.000 --> 00:35:45.960 It's this mega campus out in West Tennessee set 00:35:45.960 --> 00:35:48.840 to open in 2025. It's all part of this strategy 00:35:48.840 --> 00:35:51.219 that's made Tennessee a global hub for auto production 00:35:51.219 --> 00:35:54.059 thanks to low costs and that non -union labor 00:35:54.059 --> 00:35:56.860 force. Beyond cars, what other big industries 00:35:56.860 --> 00:35:59.320 are there? You see major corporate headquarters 00:35:59.320 --> 00:36:02.119 spread across the state. In Memphis, you have 00:36:02.119 --> 00:36:05.940 the logistics giant FedEx. Nashville is a massive 00:36:05.940 --> 00:36:08.840 health care hub, home to HCA, the largest private 00:36:08.840 --> 00:36:11.599 hospital operator in the world. And in East Tennessee, 00:36:11.780 --> 00:36:15.079 you have Eastman Chemical, a huge player in chemicals 00:36:15.079 --> 00:36:17.400 and materials. And all of this industry, all 00:36:17.400 --> 00:36:20.360 this activity, it relies heavily on the legacy 00:36:20.360 --> 00:36:23.400 of the TVA. What does the energy mix look like 00:36:23.400 --> 00:36:26.440 today? The TVA still controls over 90 % of the 00:36:26.440 --> 00:36:29.860 state's generating capacity. But what often surprises 00:36:29.860 --> 00:36:31.739 people is that Tennessee's number one energy 00:36:31.739 --> 00:36:35.179 source is nuclear power. Nuclear. It accounts 00:36:35.179 --> 00:36:38.510 for over 43 % of its electricity. That's a direct 00:36:38.510 --> 00:36:40.769 legacy of Oak Ridge and the scientific establishment 00:36:40.769 --> 00:36:43.489 there. After nuclear, you have coal and natural 00:36:43.489 --> 00:36:45.869 gas. But even with all that capacity, is the 00:36:45.869 --> 00:36:49.530 state self -sufficient in energy? It's not. Tennessee 00:36:49.530 --> 00:36:51.949 is actually a net consumer of electricity. It 00:36:51.949 --> 00:36:54.969 relies on power generated by TVA facilities in 00:36:54.969 --> 00:36:57.289 neighboring states, especially the big coal plants 00:36:57.289 --> 00:36:59.690 in Kentucky and Alabama. It just shows you how 00:36:59.690 --> 00:37:02.369 regional that TVA system really is. We also have 00:37:02.369 --> 00:37:04.469 to touch on the environmental cost of some of 00:37:04.469 --> 00:37:07.550 the state's historical resource extraction, specifically 00:37:07.550 --> 00:37:10.750 the Copper Basin. The Copper Basin is a really 00:37:10.750 --> 00:37:13.789 dark environmental lesson. During the Civil War, 00:37:13.909 --> 00:37:16.429 the area supplied about 90 % of the Confederacy's 00:37:16.429 --> 00:37:19.510 copper, but the intensive unregulated mining 00:37:19.510 --> 00:37:22.349 and smelting that went on for a century resulted 00:37:22.349 --> 00:37:25.210 in complete ecological devastation. What would 00:37:25.210 --> 00:37:27.869 it look like? The pollution. The sulfur dioxide 00:37:27.869 --> 00:37:31.210 killed every living plant. It created this barren, 00:37:31.210 --> 00:37:34.590 red, eroded moonscape that took decades and millions 00:37:34.590 --> 00:37:36.809 of dollars to remediate. It's a stark warning. 00:37:37.269 --> 00:37:39.510 Finally, let's talk about tourism, which is the 00:37:39.510 --> 00:37:42.530 state's key cultural export. Tourism is huge. 00:37:42.690 --> 00:37:44.989 It's consistently one of the top dozen most visited 00:37:44.989 --> 00:37:47.630 states in the country. And the attractions are 00:37:47.630 --> 00:37:49.750 spread out across those grand divisions. You 00:37:49.750 --> 00:37:51.530 have the Great Smoky Mountains in the east, which 00:37:51.530 --> 00:37:53.349 is the biggest draw. And then the music centers. 00:37:53.590 --> 00:37:56.039 Right. Graceland and the National Civil Rights 00:37:56.039 --> 00:37:58.260 Museum in Memphis, all of Nashville's attractions. 00:37:58.579 --> 00:38:00.800 And the history is built right into the tourism. 00:38:01.039 --> 00:38:04.400 The National Park Service maintains four major 00:38:04.400 --> 00:38:06.980 Civil War battlefields, which are huge draws. 00:38:07.380 --> 00:38:10.780 It's this perfect blend of natural beauty, deep 00:38:10.780 --> 00:38:14.199 history and unique local culture. The sources 00:38:14.199 --> 00:38:16.619 are just unanimous on this point. If you want 00:38:16.619 --> 00:38:19.000 to trace the roots of American popular music, 00:38:19.099 --> 00:38:20.780 you have to go through Tennessee. Its contribution 00:38:20.780 --> 00:38:24.010 is just foundational. It is the cradle of American 00:38:24.010 --> 00:38:27.369 sound. The state played this crucial and often 00:38:27.369 --> 00:38:30.369 simultaneous role in developing blues, country, 00:38:30.590 --> 00:38:32.849 rock and roll, and soul. Let's follow the music 00:38:32.849 --> 00:38:35.130 geographically, starting over in Memphis. Memphis 00:38:35.130 --> 00:38:37.630 is the epicenter of the blues. Beale Street becomes 00:38:37.630 --> 00:38:40.369 world famous in the early 20th century. But the 00:38:40.369 --> 00:38:43.210 city's global impact was cemented in the 1950s 00:38:43.210 --> 00:38:45.989 at a little studio called Sun Records. The birthplace 00:38:45.989 --> 00:38:48.289 of rock and roll? Essentially, yes. This is where 00:38:48.289 --> 00:38:51.070 Sam Phillips launched the careers of Elvis Presley, 00:38:51.389 --> 00:38:54.369 Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins. It 00:38:54.369 --> 00:38:56.530 changed the world. And the sound in Memphis kept 00:38:56.530 --> 00:39:00.690 evolving into soul music. At Stax Records. Stax 00:39:00.690 --> 00:39:02.670 was one of the most important soul labels of 00:39:02.670 --> 00:39:05.429 the 50s and 60s, developing that distinctive 00:39:05.429 --> 00:39:08.769 Memphis soul sound with artists like Otis Redding 00:39:08.769 --> 00:39:12.010 and Booker T and the MGs. Okay, so moving east 00:39:12.010 --> 00:39:14.489 from there, we find the origins of country music. 00:39:14.710 --> 00:39:17.219 While Memphis had the blues rock fusion. The 00:39:17.219 --> 00:39:19.539 commercial birth of country music is often attributed 00:39:19.539 --> 00:39:23.019 to the 1927 Victor recording sessions in Bristol, 00:39:23.159 --> 00:39:25.139 right on the Virginia -Tennessee line. They're 00:39:25.139 --> 00:39:27.039 Bristol sessions. That's where they made the 00:39:27.039 --> 00:39:28.820 first commercial recordings of the Carter family 00:39:28.820 --> 00:39:32.599 and Jimmy Rogers. But the gravitational center 00:39:32.599 --> 00:39:35.079 of the genre very quickly shifted to Nashville. 00:39:35.300 --> 00:39:37.659 To Music City. And Nashville earned that name 00:39:37.659 --> 00:39:40.860 largely because of one radio show, the Grand 00:39:40.860 --> 00:39:45.219 Ole Opry. It started in the 1920s and it is still 00:39:45.219 --> 00:39:47.559 the nation's longest running live radio show. 00:39:48.320 --> 00:39:51.320 The Opry solidified Nashville as the undisputed 00:39:51.320 --> 00:39:53.559 capital of the country music industry. Beyond 00:39:53.559 --> 00:39:55.940 music, Nashville is also known for its universities, 00:39:56.019 --> 00:39:58.159 carrying on that Athens of the South reputation. 00:39:58.639 --> 00:40:00.739 It's a well -deserved nickname. Nashville is 00:40:00.739 --> 00:40:03.119 home to the highly ranked Vanderbilt University. 00:40:03.659 --> 00:40:07.460 And crucially, Tennessee is also home to six. 00:40:07.929 --> 00:40:10.010 historically black colleges and universities, 00:40:10.329 --> 00:40:12.889 which have played just an enormous role in educating 00:40:12.889 --> 00:40:15.130 African -American leaders for over a century. 00:40:15.329 --> 00:40:17.449 And the state has made a massive investment in 00:40:17.449 --> 00:40:19.650 educational access recently with the Tennessee 00:40:19.650 --> 00:40:22.150 Promise program. The Tennessee Promise is nationally 00:40:22.150 --> 00:40:24.449 significant. It provides tuition -free community 00:40:24.449 --> 00:40:27.510 college or trade school for any in -state high 00:40:27.510 --> 00:40:30.130 school graduate. It's funded by the state lottery, 00:40:30.269 --> 00:40:32.889 and it's been really successful in boosting the 00:40:32.889 --> 00:40:35.210 number of residents with some post -secondary 00:40:35.210 --> 00:40:37.039 education. What's happening with the state's 00:40:37.039 --> 00:40:39.699 population today? Is it growing? It is one of 00:40:39.699 --> 00:40:41.739 the fastest growing destinations in the country 00:40:41.739 --> 00:40:44.739 right now, largely fueled by domestic migration. 00:40:44.960 --> 00:40:46.679 People are moving in from the Northeast, the 00:40:46.679 --> 00:40:49.159 Midwest, California. Drawn by the jobs and the 00:40:49.159 --> 00:40:51.579 low cost of living. Exactly. And this is rapidly 00:40:51.579 --> 00:40:54.179 shifting the demographic profile. For instance, 00:40:54.380 --> 00:40:57.440 the Hispanic population grew by over 134 percent 00:40:57.440 --> 00:41:00.739 in just 10 years between 2000 and 2010. Turning 00:41:00.739 --> 00:41:02.719 to the government itself, the sources highlight 00:41:02.719 --> 00:41:06.519 a few really peculiar structural rules. The capital 00:41:06.519 --> 00:41:09.099 city itself was a political football for decades. 00:41:09.539 --> 00:41:12.900 It moved four times before it finally settled 00:41:12.900 --> 00:41:15.500 in Nashville for good in 1843. And there are 00:41:15.500 --> 00:41:17.800 some oddities in how the government is structured. 00:41:18.059 --> 00:41:21.159 Two really unique practices. First, in Tennessee, 00:41:21.360 --> 00:41:23.320 the governor gets to appoint the attorney general. 00:41:23.440 --> 00:41:26.039 It's the only state that does that. Second, the 00:41:26.039 --> 00:41:28.480 speaker of the Senate. also serves as the lieutenant 00:41:28.480 --> 00:41:31.300 governor, which creates this incredibly powerful 00:41:31.300 --> 00:41:34.239 position for the majority party leader. The state 00:41:34.239 --> 00:41:37.739 also has a very firm reputation for strict criminal 00:41:37.739 --> 00:41:40.460 punishment. Capital punishment is legal and they 00:41:40.460 --> 00:41:43.099 still use it. A stark example is the upcoming 00:41:43.099 --> 00:41:46.380 execution date for Krista Gayle Pike, who, if 00:41:46.380 --> 00:41:48.340 it goes forward, would be the first woman executed 00:41:48.340 --> 00:41:51.670 in the state in over 200 years. Finally, let's 00:41:51.670 --> 00:41:53.989 really analyze the massive political shift that 00:41:53.989 --> 00:41:55.750 has happened over the last few decades. It's 00:41:55.750 --> 00:41:57.849 transformed Tennessee from a competitive swing 00:41:57.849 --> 00:42:01.309 state into a solid Republican bastion. Historically, 00:42:01.349 --> 00:42:03.989 for most of the 20th century, Tennessee was a 00:42:03.989 --> 00:42:06.309 swing state. It would elect moderate Democrats 00:42:06.309 --> 00:42:09.030 and moderate Republicans like Senator Howard 00:42:09.030 --> 00:42:11.909 Baker, who was known as the Great Conciliator. 00:42:11.989 --> 00:42:14.630 The end of that era really starts with the 2000 00:42:14.630 --> 00:42:16.889 presidential election. That's the turning point. 00:42:16.989 --> 00:42:20.360 Al Gore. A former senator from Tennessee, the 00:42:20.360 --> 00:42:22.619 sitting vice president, failed to carry his own 00:42:22.619 --> 00:42:25.340 home state against George W. Bush. And that loss 00:42:25.340 --> 00:42:27.679 was a symptom of a much bigger realignment. It 00:42:27.679 --> 00:42:30.380 was. Rural white voters, especially in Middle 00:42:30.380 --> 00:42:32.360 and West Tennessee, who had been Democrats for 00:42:32.360 --> 00:42:34.900 generations, began rejecting the National Democratic 00:42:34.900 --> 00:42:38.199 Party over social and cultural issues. And they 00:42:38.199 --> 00:42:40.820 shifted their loyalty decisively to the Republican 00:42:40.820 --> 00:42:43.579 Party. And that transition happened fast. Very 00:42:43.579 --> 00:42:46.539 fast. Since 2000, it has become one of the most 00:42:46.539 --> 00:42:49.219 reliably Republican states in the country. The 00:42:49.219 --> 00:42:51.219 current federal representation reflects that 00:42:51.219 --> 00:42:54.199 completely. Eight of nine House seats and both 00:42:54.199 --> 00:42:57.000 Senate seats are Republican. This political climate 00:42:57.000 --> 00:42:58.980 also includes some of the country's most restrictive 00:42:58.980 --> 00:43:01.460 voter laws, which is a critical piece of this. 00:43:01.679 --> 00:43:04.460 It is. Tennessee is one of only a handful of 00:43:04.460 --> 00:43:07.500 states that requires a photo ID to vote. But 00:43:07.500 --> 00:43:09.820 more strikingly, the state has one of the nation's 00:43:09.820 --> 00:43:12.719 highest rates of felony disenfranchisement. What 00:43:12.719 --> 00:43:14.940 does that mean in real numbers? It means close 00:43:14.940 --> 00:43:17.219 to 10 percent of the voting age population is 00:43:17.219 --> 00:43:19.900 ineligible to vote because of a prior felony 00:43:19.900 --> 00:43:22.659 conviction. And that includes the highest rate 00:43:22.659 --> 00:43:24.940 of black and Latino felony disenfranchisement 00:43:24.940 --> 00:43:27.880 in the entire nation, which significantly impacts 00:43:27.880 --> 00:43:29.960 who gets to participate in the state's democracy. 00:43:30.570 --> 00:43:32.469 To wrap up the culture here, we can't forget 00:43:32.469 --> 00:43:35.090 the vibrant pro sports scene that has followed 00:43:35.090 --> 00:43:37.630 all this growth into the big cities. The growth 00:43:37.630 --> 00:43:39.389 of the metro areas brought the major leagues. 00:43:39.989 --> 00:43:42.769 Nashville has the NFL's Titans and the NHL's 00:43:42.769 --> 00:43:46.010 Predators. Memphis has the NBA's Grizzlies. And 00:43:46.010 --> 00:43:48.269 outside of that, the state is a massive draw 00:43:48.269 --> 00:43:51.170 for motorsports. The Bristol Motor Speedway routinely 00:43:51.170 --> 00:43:54.710 sells out over 160 ,000 seats for NASCAR. It's 00:43:54.710 --> 00:43:57.289 that perfect mix of modern growth and deep -rooted 00:43:57.289 --> 00:44:01.380 tradition. What an incredible... contrast. We've 00:44:01.380 --> 00:44:03.800 traced this journey from ancient hunting grounds 00:44:03.800 --> 00:44:06.920 and that rugged, self -governing frontier through 00:44:06.920 --> 00:44:09.820 the absolute fracture of the Civil War and into 00:44:09.820 --> 00:44:12.860 its current status as this industrial, high -tech, 00:44:12.900 --> 00:44:16.780 cultural powerhouse. The duality is just unmistakable. 00:44:16.880 --> 00:44:19.380 You have a state that cherishes the traditions 00:44:19.380 --> 00:44:21.840 of the Grand Ole Opry and its Appalachian past, 00:44:22.039 --> 00:44:24.559 while at the same time housing the birthplace 00:44:24.559 --> 00:44:26.980 of the atomic bomb and some of the most powerful 00:44:26.980 --> 00:44:29.500 supercomputers on Earth at Oak Ridge. Right. 00:44:29.519 --> 00:44:32.239 And that tension. between its low -tax, anti 00:44:32.239 --> 00:44:35.539 -union economic model and its profound historical 00:44:35.539 --> 00:44:38.280 reliance on these massive federal government 00:44:38.280 --> 00:44:41.760 projects like the TVA that defines its very existence. 00:44:42.079 --> 00:44:43.980 It's a state that is perpetually shaped by its 00:44:43.980 --> 00:44:46.820 internal geography, that East versus Middle versus 00:44:46.820 --> 00:44:49.500 West divide, and by the conflicts that grew out 00:44:49.500 --> 00:44:51.880 of that land. The Trail of Tears, the Civil War, 00:44:51.960 --> 00:44:53.840 the Coal Creek War, the Civil Rights Movement. 00:44:54.250 --> 00:44:56.329 So the final question is, what does this ongoing 00:44:56.329 --> 00:44:58.869 tension between fierce tradition and incredibly 00:44:58.869 --> 00:45:01.210 rapid change mean for a state that is now one 00:45:01.210 --> 00:45:02.809 of the fastest growing places in the country? 00:45:03.010 --> 00:45:05.090 If you're moving to Tennessee or even just studying 00:45:05.090 --> 00:45:06.889 it, you have to understand that you're stepping 00:45:06.889 --> 00:45:10.250 into this dynamic conflict zone. So the question 00:45:10.250 --> 00:45:13.550 for you to mull over is this. As Tennessee attracts 00:45:13.550 --> 00:45:16.250 all this new migration and capital, can this 00:45:16.250 --> 00:45:18.929 deep history of geographical and political division 00:45:18.929 --> 00:45:21.030 finally be synthesized into some kind of unified 00:45:21.030 --> 00:45:24.219 identity? Or is the state just doomed to perpetually 00:45:24.219 --> 00:45:26.480 exist as three separate and sometimes warring 00:45:26.480 --> 00:45:29.559 nations under a single flag? That internal tension 00:45:29.559 --> 00:45:31.639 might be Tennessee's most enduring export.