FAP Conference
Tennessee (Cherokee: áážá) is a U.S. state located in the
Southeastern United States. Tennessee is the 36th most extensive and the 17th
most populous of the 50 United States. Tennessee is bordered by Kentucky and
Virginia to the north, North Carolina to the east, Georgia, Alabama, and
Mississippi to the south, and Arkansas and Missouri to the west. The
Appalachian Mountains dominate the eastern part of the state, and the
Mississippi River forms the state's western border. Tennessee's capital and
second largest city is Nashville, which has a population of 626,144.[4] Memphis
is the state's largest city, with a population of 670,902.[5]
The state of
Tennessee is rooted in the Watauga Association, a 1772 frontier pact generally
regarded as the first constitutional government west of the Appalachians.[6]
What is now Tennessee was initially part of North Carolina, and later part of
the Southwest Territory. Tennessee was admitted to the Union as the 16th state
on June 1, 1796. Tennessee was the last state to leave the Union and join the
Confederacy at the outbreak of the U.S. Civil War in 1861, and the first state
to be readmitted to the Union at the end of the war.[7]
Tennessee furnished
more soldiers for the Confederate Army than any other state, and more soldiers
for the Union Army than any other Southern state.[7] Tennessee has seen some of
the nation's worst racial strife, from the formation of the Ku Klux Klan in
Pulaski in 1866 to the assassination of Martin Luther King in Memphis in 1968.
In the 20th century, Tennessee transitioned from an agrarian economy to a more
diversified economy, aided at times by federal entities such as the Tennessee
Valley Authority. In the early 1940s, the city of Oak Ridge was established to
house the Manhattan Project's uranium enrichment facilities, helping to build
the world's first atomic bomb.
Tennessee has played
a critical role in the development of many forms of American popular music,
including rock and roll, blues, country, and rockabilly. Beale Street in
Memphis is considered by many to be the birthplace of the blues, with musicians
such as W.C. Handy performing in its clubs as early as 1909.[8] Memphis was
also home to Sun Records, where musicians such as Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash,
Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison, and Charlie Rich began their
recording careers, and where rock and roll took shape in the 1950s.[9] The 1927
Victor recording sessions in Bristol generally mark the beginning of the
country music genre and the rise of the Grand Ole Opry in the 1930s helped make
Nashville the center of the country music recording industry.[10][11] Three
bricks and mortar museums recognize Tennessee's role in nurturing various forms
of popular music: the Memphis Rock N' Soul Museum, the Country Music Hall of
Fame and Museum in Nashville, and the International Rock-A-Billy Museum in
Jackson. In addition, the Rockabilly Hall of Fame, an online site recognizing
the development of rockabilly in which Tennessee played a crucial role, is
based in Nashville.
Tennessee's major
industries include agriculture, manufacturing, and tourism. Poultry, soybeans,
and cattle are the state's primary agricultural products,[12] and major
manufacturing exports include chemicals, transportation equipment, and
electrical equipment.[13] The Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the nation's
most visited national park, is headquartered in the eastern part of the state,
and a section of the Appalachian Trail roughly follows the Tennessee-North
Carolina border.[14] Other major tourist attractions include the Tennessee
Aquarium in Chattanooga, the Sunsphere in Knoxville, Dollywood in Pigeon Forge,
the Parthenon, the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, and Ryman Auditorium
in Nashville, and Elvis Presley's Graceland residence and tomb in Memphis. -Wikipedia
