Early settlers of the lands destined to become the state of Tennessee proved themselves to be independent thinkers whose actions previewed the coming break with Britain. As early as 1772 the residents worried the British by forming the Watauga Association—a move that an official of the crown called “a dangerous example to the people of America.” The author maintains “no other people in any part of the American West, prior to the admission of their states into the Union, had such tutelage and experience in self-government as had those of the Tennessee country.” Yet, he explains, “no state in American annals met with as determined opposition to its admission as Tennessee.” In this fascinating booklet, Williams details the background, proceedings in Congress, and the manifest partisanship behind the disparity in treatment experienced by the sixteenth state.