Editing Middle Tennessee (section)

==History==
===Native Americans===
Throughout the past 10,000 years, a number of different [[Native Americans in the United States|Native]] peoples are believed to have inhabited what is now Middle Tennessee. The region is believed to have been rich in [[game (hunting)|game]] animals favored by [[Last Glacial Period|Ice Age]] [[hunter-gatherer]]s.<ref>{{cite book |last=Satz |first=Ronald |title=Tennessee's Indian Peoples |url=https://archive.org/details/tennesseesindian0000satz |url-access=registration |publisher=University of Tennessee Press |location=[[Knoxville, Tennessee]] |pages=3–4 |isbn=978-0-87049-285-3 |year=1979 |via=Internet Archive}}</ref> During the [[Mississippian period]] (1000–1600 AD), Native Americans established [[chiefdom]]s and constructed numerous earthwork mounds in the region, such as [[Mound Bottom]] in [[Cheatham County, Tennessee|Cheatham County]] and the [[Castalian Springs Mound Site|Castalian Springs]] site in [[Sumner County, Tennessee|Sumner County]].<ref name=pp811/> By the late 17th century, for unknown reasons, there were few Native Americans left in Middle Tennessee, but the [[Cherokee]] and the [[Chickasaw]] claimed the region as their hunting grounds.<ref>{{harvp|Satz|1979|p=14}}</ref> Natives that had occupied what is now Middle Tennessee prior to this time may have died as a result of new infectious diseases indirectly introduced by European explorers.<ref name=pp811>{{harvp|Satz|1979|pp=8-11}}</ref>

===Exploration and colonization===
[[File:Fort Nashborough, First Ave. and Church St., Nashville, Tenn (74048).jpg|thumb|left|Postcard with an illustration of the reconstruction of [[Fort Nashborough]]]]
The first Europeans to reach what is now Middle Tennessee were probably an expedition in 1540–1541 led by Spanish conquistador [[Hernando De Soto]].{{sfn|Corlew|1981|pp=25-26}}{{sfn|Langsdon|2000|p=4-5}} By the late 17th century, the French had begun to explore the [[Cumberland River]] valley in Middle Tennessee. In 1714, a group of French traders constructed a trading post at a site along the Cumberland River in modern-day Nashville that became known as French Lick. These settlers quickly established an extensive [[fur trading]] network with the local Native Americans, but by the 1740s the settlement had largely been abandoned.{{sfn|Albright|1909|pp=18-19}} In the 1750s and 1760s, [[longhunters]] from Virginia explored much of Middle Tennessee, especially the [[Cumberland Plateau]].{{sfn|Finger|2001|pp=40-42}} In 1769, French-born fur trader [[Timothy Demonbreun]] established residence along the Cumberland River in present-day Nashville.<ref>{{cite news |last=Corradetti |first=Alex |date=June 27, 2021 |title=Exploring the Demonbreun Cave, Nashville's first residence |url=https://www.wkrn.com/tennessee-225/exploring-the-demonbreun-cave-nashvilles-first-residence/ |work=[[WKRN-TV]] |location=Nashville |access-date=December 22, 2021}}</ref>

In 1779, [[James Robertson (explorer)|James Robertson]] and [[John Donelson]] led two groups of settlers from the [[Washington District, North Carolina|Washington District]] in what is now East Tennessee to the French Lick.{{sfn|Corlew|1981|pp=53}} These settlers constructed [[Fort Nashborough]], which they named for [[Francis Nash]], a [[Brigadier general (United States)|brigadier general]] of the [[Continental Army]] during the [[American Revolutionary War]].{{sfn|Albright|1909|pp=49-50}} The next year, the settlers signed the [[Cumberland Compact]], which established the [[Cumberland Association]], a representative form of government based on the government known as the [[Watauga Association]] that had been established by the settlers of East Tennessee.{{sfn|Albright|1909|pp=68-72}} Fort Nashborough later developed as the city of Nashville, and a number of other settlements were established nearby in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.<ref>{{cite web |title=Founding of Nashville |url=http://www.nashvillearchives.org/nashville-founding.html |website=Nashville Metropolitan Government Archives |publisher=Nashville Public Library |access-date=May 2, 2021}}</ref> The first settlements in Middle Tennessee became known as the Cumberland Settlements. In 1790, what is now Tennessee became the [[Southwest Territory]], and the settlements in Middle Tennessee were organized into the Mero District, named after Spanish territorial governor [[Esteban Rodríguez Miró]].{{sfn|Albright|1909|pp=152-154}}

In 1795, a survey conducted by the territorial legislature found that the majority of residents of Middle Tennessee were opposed to statehood, while the majority of residents of East Tennessee, of which there were approximately three times more, were in favor.{{sfn|Langsdon|2000|p=22}}{{sfn|Corlew|1981|p=95}} Tennessee was admitted to the Union as the 16th state the following year. During the [[Antebellum South|antebellum era]], a [[slavery in the United States|slavery]]-based agrarian economy took hold in Middle Tennessee, especially in the fertile soils of the [[Nashville Basin]].{{sfn|Corlew|1981|pp=209-212}} Planters primarily grew [[cotton]] in the Nashville Basin, and [[tobacco]] and [[corn]] were cultivated in the [[Highland Rim]].{{sfn|Lamon|1980|pp=9-12}} By [[1860 United States census|1860]], enslaved African Americans composed about 29% of the population of Middle Tennessee.{{sfn|Lamon|1980|p=116}} After the election of [[Abraham Lincoln]] that year, a majority of Middle Tennesseans voted against the state's ordinance of [[secession]] in February 1861. Many of these white voters supported the continuation of slavery but were skeptical about leaving the Union.

===Civil War and Reconstruction===
[[File:Kurz and Allison - Battle of Franklin, November 30, 1864.jpg|thumb|right|The [[Battle of Franklin (1864)|Battle of Franklin]], November 30, 1864]]
Following the Confederate [[Battle of Fort Sumter|attack on Fort Sumter]] in April 1861, which started the [[American Civil War|Civil War]], and President Lincoln's call to raise federal troops in response, many Middle Tennesseans changed their opinions about secession. In June 1861, Middle Tennessee voted in favor of Tennessee's second ordnance of secession, which resulted in Tennessee joining the [[Confederate States of America]] (CSA),{{sfn|Corlew|1981|p=294}} although a few counties in the extreme southwest ([[Wayne County, Tennessee|Wayne]]) and northeast ([[Macon County, Tennessee|Macon]] and [[Fentress County, Tennessee|Fentress]]) continued to favor the Union.

A number of crucial campaigns and battles of the Civil War took place in Middle Tennessee. General [[Ulysses S. Grant]] and the [[U.S. Navy]] captured control of the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers in February 1862 at the battles of [[Battle of Fort Henry|Fort Henry]] and [[Battle of Fort Donelson|Fort Donelson]], essentially establishing Union control of Middle Tennessee.{{sfn|Connelly|1979|pp=24-30}} Union troops occupied the state for the duration of the war.

Union strength in the area, however, was tested by a series of Confederate offensives beginning in the summer of 1862, which culminated in Union General [[William Rosecrans]]'s [[Army of the Cumberland]] routing Confederate General [[Braxton Bragg]]'s [[Army of Tennessee]] at the [[Battle of Stones River]] in [[Murfreesboro, Tennessee|Murfreesboro]] in December 1862 and January 1863.{{sfn|Connelly|1979|pp=54-65}} This was one of the bloodiest battles of the entire war.{{sfn|Connelly|1979|pp=54-65}} In February, the Confederates took about 670 to 870 casualties in the [[Battle of Dover (1863)|Battle of Dover]] when Colonel [[Abner C. Harding]] defeated the 2500 Confederate troops with 800 Union soldiers. The next summer, Rosecrans's [[Tullahoma campaign]] forced Bragg's remaining troops in Middle Tennessee to flee to [[Chattanooga, Tennessee|Chattanooga]] with little fighting.{{sfn|Connelly|1979|pp=65-68}} The last major battles in Middle Tennessee occurred during the [[Franklin–Nashville campaign]] in the fall of 1864, when the Army of Tennessee under the command of General [[John Bell Hood]] unsuccessfully tried to lure Union General [[William Tecumseh Sherman]], who was conducting the [[Atlanta campaign]] in Georgia, back into the region. Hood was defeated at the [[Battle of Franklin (1864)|Battle of Franklin]] in November, then completely dispersed from the state by General [[George Henry Thomas|George Thomas]] at the [[Battle of Nashville]] the following month.{{sfn|Corlew|1981|pp=314-315}} The [[United States Colored Troops]] (USCT) played a major role in this campaign.{{sfn|Corlew|1981|pp=314-315}}

During [[Reconstruction era|Reconstruction]], Middle Tennessee's economy fell into a state of disrepair. The [[Ku Klux Klan]] was formed in [[Pulaski, Tennessee|Pulaski]] in December 1865 as a vigilante organization to advance the interests of former Confederates, including maintenance of [[white supremacy]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Coulter |first1=E. Merton |author1-link=E. Merton Coulter |title=William G. Brownlow: Fighting Parson of the Southern Highlands |date=1999 |publisher=University of Tennessee Press |location=Knoxville |isbn=978-1-57233-050-4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=egskEhcF5gkC |access-date=May 12, 2021 |language=en |via=Google Books}}</ref> In the years following the Civil War, African Americans and their White allies in Middle Tennessee were targeted with acts of violence by former Confederates. Many freedmen (former slaves) became [[sharecropping|sharecroppers]] following the end of slavery, and were often disadvantaged by the planters' recordkeeping and contracts.

===Late 19th and earlier 20th century===
The post-Reconstruction era in Middle Tennessee was characterized by continued White violence against African Americans, especially related to elections, and many were [[Lynching in the United States|lynched]] in a cycle often related to economic tensions and settlement of finances after harvest. In the late 19th century, African Americans began fleeing Middle Tennessee to booming industrial cities in the Northeast and Midwest. This mass migration, which occurred in every Southern state and accelerated between 1915 and 1930, became known as the first wave of the [[Great Migration (African American)|Great Migration]]. It continued until 1970.

The region's economy continued to be based primarily on agriculture, but [[Coal mining in the United States|coal mining]] expanded extensively in the Cumberland Plateau in Middle Tennessee in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.{{sfn|Lamon|1980|pp=75-80}} In 1897, Tennessee celebrated its centennial of statehood one year late with the [[Tennessee Centennial and International Exposition]] in Nashville.<ref>{{cite book |title=Official Guide To The Tennessee Centennial and International Exposition and City of Nashville |date=1897 |publisher=Marshall & Bruce |location=Nashville |url=https://library.si.edu/digital-library/book/officialguidete00tenn |doi=10.5479/sil.999616.39088016962151 |access-date=May 23, 2021 |via=[[Smithsonian Libraries]]}}</ref> A [[Parthenon (Nashville)|full-scale replica]] of the [[Parthenon]] in [[Athens]] was designed by architect [[William Crawford Smith]] and constructed for the celebration{{sfn|Corlew|1981|pp=411-414}} The site of the exposition is now a city park called [[Centennial Park (Nashville)|Centennial Park]].<ref>{{cite journal |last=Coleman |first=Christopher K. |title=From Monument to Museum: The Role of the Parthenon in the Culture of the New South |journal=Tennessee Historical Quarterly |volume=49 |issue=3 |page=140 |jstor=42626877 | date = Fall 1990}}</ref>

The [[Great Train Wreck of 1918|worst rail accident in U.S. history]] occurred on July 9, 1918, in Nashville when two passenger trains [[head-on collision|collided head on]], killing 101 people and injuring 171. Human error was ultimately deemed to be the main cause of the accident.<ref name="Coggins2012">{{cite book |first=Allen R. |last=Coggins |title=Tennessee Tragedies: Natural, Technological, and Societal Disasters in the Volunteer State |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SfK6aBuqohQC&pg=PA158 |access-date=November 23, 2012 |date=January 15, 2012 |publisher=Univ. of Tennessee Press |isbn=978-1-57233-829-6 |page=158 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140101183229/http://books.google.com/books?id=SfK6aBuqohQC&pg=PA158 |archive-date=January 1, 2014 |url-status=live |via=Google Books}}</ref>

The ''[[Grand Ole Opry]]'' was first broadcast in 1925 in Nashville, and remains the longest-running radio program in the nation. This radio program helped establish Nashville as the national home of [[country music]].<ref name="Grand Ole Opry">{{cite web|title=tennessee home buyer|url=https://www.google.com/maps/place/Sell+House+Fast+Tennessee:+PropertyFTN/@36.1577981,-86.7707313,17z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x45808de165999b77:0x3539a44ef00bb610!8m2!3d36.1577981!4d-86.7685426}}</ref>

During [[World War II]] [[Camp Forrest]], located in [[Tullahoma]], was one of the [[United States Army|U.S. Army]]'s largest training bases. It was also used to house German, Italian, and Japanese prisoners of war. After the war, it was adapted as [[Arnold Air Force Base]]. The [[Vultee Aircraft]] Corporation operated a plant in Nashville during the war, employing mostly women.

On February 25 and 26, 1946, a civil disturbance known as the "Columbia Race Riot" occurred in [[Columbia, Tennessee|Columbia]], instigated by a fight between a Black Navy veteran and a White repair apprentice.<ref>{{cite journal |jstor=42626044 |first=Dorothy |last=Beeler |title=Race Riot in Columbia, Tennessee/ February 25-27, 1946 |journal=Tennessee Historical Quarterly |volume=39 |issue=1 |year=1980 |pages=49–61}}</ref> Described by the press as the "first major racial confrontation" following World War II, the event garnered national attention. It marked a new era of resistance by African-American veterans and others following their participation in [[World War II]], which they believed had earned them their full rights as citizens.<ref>King, Gilbert; ''Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America,'' HarperCollins, 2012, pp. 7-20</ref>

===Mid 20th century to present===
During the early years of the [[civil rights movement]], the [[Highlander Research and Education Center|Highlander Folk School]] near [[Monteagle, Tennessee|Monteagle]] provided training to a number of activists in the movement, including [[Martin Luther King Jr.]], [[Ralph Abernathy]], [[John Lewis]], and [[Rosa Parks]]. The [[Nashville Student Movement]] was organized as part of workshops on [[nonviolence]] taught by activist [[James Lawson (activist)|James Lawson]]. Between February and May 1960, the group organized a [[Nashville sit-ins|series of sit-ins]] at segregated lunch counters in Nashville, which successfully resulted in the desegregation of facilities in the city.{{sfn|Lamon|1980|pp=106–108}}

The construction of the [[Interstate Highway System]] in the latter 20th century facilitated [[suburbanization]] in the region and brought new industries to Middle Tennessee. Since 1970, the Nashville and Clarksville metropolitan areas have been two of the fastest-growing regions in the United States. This growth has accelerated since 1990, causing Middle Tennessee to surpass East Tennessee as the most populous of the state's grand divisions in the 2000s. The region's economy has been transformed by new economic sectors, including the automotive,<ref name="grigsby"/> healthcare,<ref>{{cite news |last=Haggard |first=Amanda |date=September 13, 2018 |title=How Nashville Changed Health Care for the Nation |url=https://www.nashvillescene.com/news/cover-story/article/21021762/how-nashville-changed-health-care-for-the-nation |work=[[Nashville Scene]] |location=Nashville, TN |access-date=January 5, 2020}}</ref> banking,<ref>{{cite news |last=McGee |first=Jamie |title=Big financial companies increasingly choosing Nashville |url=https://www.tennessean.com/story/money/2018/06/18/nashville-financial-market-banking-alliancebernstein-jpmorgan/653434002/ |work=[[The Tennessean]] |location=Nashville, TN |date=June 18, 2018 |access-date=January 5, 2020}}</ref> technology,<ref name=wsmv040621>{{cite news|last=Layden|first=Melanie|date=April 6, 2021|title=Booming tech industry in Middle Tennessee|url=https://www.wsmv.com/news/booming-tech-industry-in-middle-tennessee/article_971f50ca-971d-11eb-bac7-4fa8e230a0cd.html|work=WSMV-TV|location=Nashville|access-date=2021-04-10}}</ref> and entertainment industries.