ELEMENTARY CIVICS
Part Three: The state we call Tennessee

Tennessee History for Kids has a video that goes with this section. In the segment, called "What kind of a MALL is this???," History Bill checks out Nashville's Bicentennial Mall and finds an outdoor museum of Tennessee history. And he always did want to walk across the state in seconds. Click here to see it using Quicktime; here using Windows Media Player; and here on youtube.
Now that we know what governments do and where they get their money, we're going to talk about one place in particular -- your home state of Tennessee.

You can see Tennessee, the state with a star on it, on this map of the United States.
Tennessee is one of the 50 states in the United States. It is located in the southeastern part of the country, which is in the bottom right the way most U.S. maps are set up.

You'll learn a lot more about Tennessee's geography and history elsewhere on this site. But here are some things that are important to know in order to understand Tennessee's government:
Tennessee's "state birthday" was June 1, 1796. How old does that make the state now?
PHOTO: Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park
* Tennessee wasn't one of the Thirteen Original Colonies, but settlers were moving into Tennessee while the American Revolution was taking place.
* The name "Tennessee" was originally the name of a Cherokee Indian village in Monroe County (which we now spell "Tanase")
* In 1796 Tennessee became the 16th state in the United States. But most of what we now call Tennessee was still Native American land back then.
* Tennessee's flag is red, with a circle in the middle that has three stars in it. The three stars represent East, Middle and West Tennessee -- Tennessee's three "Grand Divisions."
The Nashville skyline
Nashville is the Tennessee state capital, which means the place where the state government is based (more on that later). But Nashville hasn't always been the state capital. Earlier in Tennessee's history, the capital was in Knoxville, Kingston, and Murfreesboro.
Finally, do you know what a symbol is? A symbol is something that makes people think of something else. The Tennessee flag is a symbol of Tennessee. But the state government also picks certain animals and plants to be symbols of the state. There are a whole bunch of them. Here are a few:
A raccoon

The state wild animal is the raccoon.


A box turtle
The state reptile is the box turtle.

A mockingbird
The state bird is the mockingbird.
The iris
The iris is the state flower.
A tulip poplar blossom
The state tree is the tulip poplar.
There are many other state symbols. Click here for a complete list.
And now let's talk about how Tennessee's government is set up. Click here.

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