In December 1784, a small contingent of upper Tennessee Valley political leaders met in Washington County, North Carolina\u27s rustic courthouse to discuss the uncertain postrevolutionary political climate that they believed threatened their regional political hegemony, prosperity and families. The Jonesboro delegates fatefully decided that their backcountry communities could no longer remain part of their parent state and that North Carolina\u27s westernmost counties (at the time Washington, Sullivan and Greene counties) must unite and form America\u27s fourteenth state
