8 History 3 - Tennessee History for Kids

EIGHTH GRADE
Part Three: The First Europeans

A statue of de Soto in Bradenton, Florida

Go back nearly 500 years. As far as Europeans are concerned, the New World might as well be another planet. No one knows what lies over the horizon in the land Christopher Columbus has discovered. Meanwhile a Spanish explorer named Hernando de Soto, who has already made expeditions into South America, thinks he can find gold in America.

There are a few things about de Soto's expedition that are important to remember. For one thing, he wasn’t alone. De Soto landed near what is now Tampa, Florida, with about 600 people. They had lots of weapons, such as axes, swords, and cross-bows. Most of them were wearing armor. They also brought cattle and hogs -- the first domesticated animals ever in North America.

De Soto's route

The other thing to remember about de Soto and his army is that theirs wasn’t a short trip, but one that lasted more than two years. Historians believe de Soto and his army moved through Florida, then Georgia, then South Carolina, and made their way close to the present location of Chattanooga, where they rested for three weeks. Then they headed across what is now Northern Alabama, where they fought with groups of Creek and Chickasaw along the way.

This cross in Memphis represents de Soto's arrival at the Mississippi River

De Soto is credited with being the first explorer to "discover" the Mississippi River on May 8, 1541, when his army arrived at or near the location where the city of Memphis is today. Somehow they managed to cross the river (still looking for gold) and made their way into what is now Arkansas, where de Soto died. By this time many of the original party had passed away as well. Finally, de Soto's remaining army built rafts, floated down the Mississippi River, and worked their way to Mexico.

For a Tennessee History for Kids-style virtual tour of the De Soto National Memorial in Bradenton, Florida, click here.

De Soto's army wasn't the only group of Spaniards who came through Tennessee during this era; there was another explorer named Juan Pardo who passed through with several hundred men about 25 years later. For the next 200 years, there was the occassional explorer, trader or missionary -- such as Englishmen James Needham and Gabriel Arthur, who came from the east, and Frenchmen Jacques Marquette and Louis Joliet, who came south down the Mississippi River. But for the most part, few white people made their way into the land we now call Tennessee until the mid-1700s.

The biggest impact of European exploration was disease. When people began arriving in the New World they unwittingly brought with them illnesses from Europe that devastated Native American populations. De Soto's army was the first to notice this; diseases that they spread apparently wiped out entire villages, sometimes in advance of their arrival. This onslaught of disease was a problem for successive generations of Native Americans; in fact, we estimate that half of the Cherokee population died from smallpox in 1738 and 1739.

When the settlers first started arriving, Tennessee was an unbroken wilderness

Long Hunters

When your eighth grade social studies textbook talks about the 1700s, it focuses on the development of the thirteen original colonies and their relationship to their Mother Country (England). While all this was taking place, most Europeans stayed on the east side of the Appalachian Mountains. There were some explorers and traders and long hunters (hunters who would come and stay a long time and carry long guns). But they would just come in, trade, stay a few weeks, and leave.

The tree on which Daniel Boone carved his famous inscription
PHOTO: Library of Congress

Daniel Boone was the most famous long hunter, and there are a lot of great legends about him. Boone was once asked if he ever got lost in the woods on one of his long journeys alone. “No,” he said, “but I was bewildered once for three days.” It was said that if Daniel Boone could see the smoke from another chimney from his log cabin, it was time for him to move further away.

Boone would not have won a spelling bee. There used to be a tree in Washington County that had the words “D. Boon cilled a Bar on tree in the year 1760.” We believe Boone carved those words.

The Wilderness Road
TN Historical Quarterly, Summer 1976

In addition to being a long hunter, Boone was a trailblazer. Many of the “roads” that the settlers used to cross from east to west would today be classified as "foot trails," and some of them were originally blazed by Daniel Boone. The most famous of these was the "Wilderness Road" which crossed the mountains at the rather important area known as the Cumberland Gap. Today, when you look at a map, it might seem confusing that people would take this route to cross Tennessee. But back when there were no roads, no bridges, no cars, and no railroads, the Wilderness Road was much easier than going over the Cumberland Plateau (the direct route that Interstate 40 now takes).

The Cumberland Gap is now a national historic park. Click here to take a virtual tour of it.

"Daniel Boone escorts settlers through the Cumberland Gap," a painting by George Caleb Bingham

These explorers and long hunters were tough, because they had to be able to live off the land and defend themselves in case they got into a fight with Native Americans along the way. They had to keep from getting lost. They generally slept out in the open, regardless of the temperature – that is, unless they were able to hide in a cave or a hollow tree. They were also loners. After all, they lived in a time when there was no TV, no radio, and no telephone.

Now remember that when white settlers first got here, these people and their land were still part of England (there was no United States yet). Meanwhile King George III had enough problems to deal with without a war against Native Americans. An Englishman named Henry Timberlake brought a few Cherokee leaders to meet with the king, and they had made a good impression on him. So in 1763, when the colonies were still part of England, King George ordered all white settlers to stay out of what was then known as “Indian country” -- everything west of the Appalachian Mountains. Only problem was, he couldn't enforce this law, and settlers came anyway.

We aren’t certain, but we think that the first permanent white male settler in the land we now call Tennessee was William Bean, who built a cabin on the Watauga River in 1768. Not far behind him was James Robertson, who would later be one of the founders of Nashville, and Valentine Sevier, whose son John Sevier would one day become governor of Tennessee. Within a few years there were many other settlers. It was here, in the counties that we now call Sullivan, Carter, and Washington, that the state of Tennessee as we know it started.

QUIZ

1) (TRUE OR FALSE) De Soto was escorted by a small army of 60 men.
2) What year did De Soto reportedly "discover" the Mississippi River?
3) What killed an estimate half of all Cherokee people in 1738 and 1739?
4) What is the name of the gap in the mountains that settlers moving west took to get from east to west Tennessee in the days before railroads?
5) (TRUE OR FALSE) King George III encouraged settlers to move west from Tennessee into North Carolina.
6) What is the name of the person who we believe to be the first permanent settler in Tennessee of English descent?

For quiz answers, click here.

Now our story gets bloody. Click here.

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