Tennessee and 

 Tobacco 



he hardy Tennessee frontier was long 

 explored and settled by the time the territory was ad- 

 mitted to the Union in 1796. Indians were thought to 

 be the first inhabitants of the Tennessee region-the 

 Chickasaw, Cherokee and Shawnee were among the 

 tribes living there when the first Europeans, the Spanish, 

 explored the area in search of gold around 1540. 



There was later a long period of French-British 

 contention over the land area which Tennessee now 

 occupies. By 1763, the British were in control and, 

 eventually, North Carolina annexed the area into its 



