Bill Carey. True Tales of Tennessee. History P, 2023.

Well, we have reviewed anecdotal history books on various states in the recently, specifically Connecticut and Florida. Now Tennessee takes its turn.

True Tales of Tennessee mostly covers the nineteenth century from about 1810 until the Civil War, with a few details from earlier and later. Most striking are simply the changes that took place during that time. Part of that were changes in the settlement of the land, but there were also significant technological advances that would affect the territory/state, too.

The book starts with one of the most significant events in recent (geologically speaking) North American history, the New Madrid earthquake. Centered just across the Mississippi River, it had a great effect on the relatively few settlers in the area and especially on the river traffic. In those days, the standard river boats were keelboats that sailed downriver but rarely upriver.

That would change in Tennessee beginning in 1811, just four years after Fulton built the first steamboat. True Tales of Tennessee describes in detail riverboat arrivals in Memphis, Nashville, and eventually Chattanooga. This made a great difference in commerce in the region, especially once they tamed certain rough patches such as Muscle Shoals and the Suck.

During this time Tennessee was the home to two presidents, Andrew Jackson and James Knox Polk. This is not a political history, but it does describe some of the things these two did that made them appeal to fellow Tennesseans. We also learn a few things about another son of the state, Davy Crockett, and what happened to the Native Americans. Carey reminds us that Crockett did not support the Indian Removal Act.

The two other technical marvels from the time period that would greatly affect the state were the telegraph and the railroad. The first news item sent there via telegraph described a passenger ship arriving in Boston from Europe. The news itself was hardly earthshaking, but the fact that the news arrived only about two hours after the ship docked in Boston was a big deal. The 1850s brought the arrival of the railroad. The rivers had connected the state to the north and west, now the railroad connected it across the Appalachians to the east.

We read about the lives of slaves. One very interesting chapter tells of an old family photo that led a man on a collection of family oral history that details what life as a slave was like and the effects of Reconstruction and the reaction to it. Cotton was a chief cash crop then, and even the railroads were built partly by slave labor. There is a chapter dedicated to runaways and abolitionists. We learned that the John Greenleaf Whittier’s poem “The Cross” (1852) was written in memory of a man who died in a Nashville prison. He had been convicted of helping slaves escape.

We also read about some other labor movements and entrepreneurs. In some cases there are historical homes or other edifices such as a furnace that still stand today. Other times there is just the historical record. In all, we get a good sense of what was going on in Tennessee as it grew into statehood prior to the Civil War.

Carey is careful to separate speculation from what likely truly happened. Some stories changed over time. He tries wherever possible to cite primary sources such as letters, diaries, and contemporary newspaper accounts. Some things do not change much. When we read what political figures and newspapers said about people they disagreed with, the crude discourse we occasionally encounter on the Internet does not seem that different, e.g., “…the total want of all that is required to constitute the man.” Ah, humanity!