d in question. This cause, however, is not sufficient to
explain the constant superiority of numbers in the Southwestern
Tennessee region thereafter.

As slavery expanded from this small territory into all parts of the
State, the attitude of the people of the Commonwealth with respect to
the nation and slavery at various times may be shown. After Tennessee
had been ceded to the United States in 1790 by North Carolina, she had
a most unusual method of throwing off her territorial government for
nearly three months in 1796, and existed in absolute independence for
that period before being admitted into statehood by the Federal
Government.[3] Nevertheless in the period of the Civil War this State
was the last to secede and the first to comply with the terms of
readmission. With respect to slavery the early attitude of Tennessee
toward the national government was peculiar. The cession act of North
Carolina provided: "That no regulation made or to be made by Congress
shall tend to emancipate slaves."[4] Probably because of this fact
Lincoln did not mention Tennessee in the Emancipation Proclamation.

Yet Tennessee did have a strong anti-slavery sentiment, beginning with
the outspoken protest of some of the King's Mountain heroes, also
expressing itself in the work of many petitioners to the State
legislature in the period 1800-1820. Then in 1834, in the State
constitutional convention of that year, the anti-slavery feeling
developed to proportions little appreciable at the present day, since
we know the general opposition to such feeling and sentiment. Any
antagonism to a so strongly fixed social convention then meant unusual
courage in the midst of a majority of persons of adverse opinion.

The burning question of human rights for the black inhabitants of the
State still became more ardent as the years passed, and the signs of
its greater intensity were clearly seen in the Anti-Slavery Convention
which met in London in 1843. The chronicle of proceedings contains a
speech of Joshua Leavitt of Boston, who made the interesting
statement that "The people of East Tennessee, a race of hardy
mountaineers, find their interests so little regarded by the dominant
slave-holders of other parts of the state that they are taking
measures to become a separate state. They are holding anti-slavery
meetings, and meetings of political associations with great freedom,
discussing their questions, rousing up the people and showing how
slavery