II. The Status of the Negro in the State of Franklin from 1785 to 1788
The State of Franklin[72] was included in the western part of North Carolina, which later became the Southwest Territory and the State of Tennessee. The independent action of its people is significant, therefore, not only as an expression of their own position on slavery, but also as a prophecy of the attitude of the state of Tennessee.
The constitution proposed by the Greenville Convention, November 14, 1785, established a liberal suffrage.[73] Section 4 of this constitution states that “Every free male inhabitant in this state six months immediately preceding the day of election, shall participate in electing all officers chosen by the people, in the county where he resides.”[74] The Declaration of Rights uses the terms “freeman,” “the people,” and “every man,” synonymously. There was no property or religious qualification for the suffrage. The slave, by emancipation, would have voted under this constitution on the same basis as other citizens. This constitution was finally rejected and that of North Carolina with few changes was adopted.[75] The above proposal is interesting as a typical frontier attitude on the suffrage question.
North Carolina never recognized the independence of the Franklin State. There were two factions in North Carolina politics on this question.[76] One of these, led by John Sevier, the Governor of Franklin, advocated independence; and the other, led by John Tipton, demanded the downfall of Franklin. The Tipton faction won, and the Franklin State came to an end in 1788.
III. The Status of the Negro in the Southwest Territory from 1790 to 1796
The western part of North Carolina continued to demand a separate political existence, and in February, 1790, it was ceded to the National Government by North Carolina. The Act of Cession provided that “the laws in force and in use in the State of North Carolina at this time, shall be and continue in full force within the territory hereby ceded until the same shall be repealed or otherwise altered by the legislative authority of the said territory”; and also, “that no regulations made or to be made by congress shall tend to emancipate slaves.”[77] The cession was accepted by Congress April 2, 1790, on the above condition;[78] and when Congress, on May 26, 1790, organized the government for the Southwest Territory, it mentioned the conditions laid down in the Act of Cession.[79]
The provisions of the Act of Cession show how slavery, as it had developed in North Carolina by 1790, was transplanted and legalized in the territory that became Tennessee in 1796. There is no recorded protest on the part of the people of the territory. The contract between the National Government, North Carolina, and the Southwest Territory, shows that the economic importance of slavery was already recognized.