1 8 The Winning of the West 



the River Ohio, as they chose to call it. This law 

 followed on the general lines of the Ordinance of 

 1787 for the government of the Northwest; but 

 there was one important difference. North Caro- 

 lina had made her cession conditional upon the non- 

 passage of any law tending to emancipate slaves. At 

 that time such a condition was inevitable; but it 

 doomed the Southwest to suffer under the curse of 

 negro bondage. 



William Blount of North Carolina was appointed 

 Governor of the Territory, and at once proceeded 

 to his new home to organize the civil government. 19 

 He laid out Knoxville as his capital, where he built 

 a good house with a lawn in front. On his recom- 

 mendation Sevier was appointed Brigadier-General 

 for the Eastern District and Robertson for the West- 

 ern; the two districts known as Washington and 

 Miro respectively. 



Blount was the first man of leadership in the West 

 who was of Cavalier ancestry; for though so much 

 is said of the Cavalier type in the Southern States 

 it was everywhere insignificant in numbers, and 

 comparatively few of the Southern men of mark have 

 belonged to it. Blount was really of Cavalier blood. 

 He was descended from a Royalist baronet, who was 

 roughly handled by the Cromwellians, and whose 

 three sons came to America. One of them settled 

 in North Carolina, near Albemarle Sound, and from 

 him came the new governor of the southwestern 



19 Blount MSS. Biography of Blount, in manuscript, com- 

 piled by one of his descendants from the family papers. 



