Editing Bledsoe County, Tennessee (section)

==History==
Bledsoe County was formed in 1807 from land that was formerly Cherokee Nation land as well as land carved from [[Roane County, Tennessee|Roane County]]. The county was named for [[Anthony Bledsoe]] (1739–1788), a soldier in the [[American Revolutionary War|Revolutionary War]] and was an early settler of [[Sumner County, Tennessee|Sumner County]]. He was killed in an Indian attack at [[Bledsoe's Station]].<ref>[http://www.state.tn.us/sos/bluebook/05-06/44-counties.pdf Origins Of Tennessee County Names], ''[[Tennessee Blue Book]]'' 2005-2006, pages 508-513</ref>

Like many [[East Tennessee]] counties, Bledsoe County opposed secession on the eve of the [[American Civil War|Civil War]]. In Tennessee's Ordinance of Secession on June 8, 1861, the county's residents voted against secession by a margin of 500 to 197.<ref>Oliver Perry Temple, [https://books.google.com/books?id=g8xYAAAAMAAJ&dq=%22The+detailed+vote+of+the+several+counties+was+as+follows%22&pg=PA199 East Tennessee and the Civil War] (R. Clarke Company, 1899), p. 199.</ref>  General [[James G. Spears]], a resident of Bledsoe, served as a vice president at the pro-Union [[East Tennessee Convention]] in May and June 1861, and fought for the Union Army in the war.<ref>Oliver Perry Temple, [[Mary Boyce Temple]] (ed.), "[https://books.google.com/books?id=Yw8UAAAAYAAJ&dq=%22james+g.+spears%22+notable&pg=PA186 General James G. Spears]," ''Notable Men of Tennessee'' (Cosmopolitan Press, 1912), pp. 186-190.</ref>

=== The Lynching of James Scales ===
James Scales was incarcerated at the Training and Agricultural School for Colored Boys in Bledsoe County after he was convicted for armed [[robbery]]. At the [[reformatory]] James was tasked with cooking and building fires for the Superintendent Henry Eugene Scott's family, namely his wife Notie Bell Lewis Scott and their daughter Gwendolyn Scott McKinney, whose home resided on the grounds of the reformatory. 

On November 23<sup>rd</sup> 1944 McKinney was found murdered and her mother severely injured, later dying of her injuries. Scales was immediately suspected of the double [[murder]]. He was found later in the day by farmers who brought him to the [[reformatory]], where he was later taken to the local jail in Pikeville. 

At the local jail Scales was placed in a cell by the jail cook. Construction workers nearby impersonated [[reformatory]] personnel and requested Scales be released to them. The jail cook obliged and released scales. 

After Scales was kidnapped he was taken to [[reformatory]] grounds, at the grounds a tree had been prepared for a [[lynching]]. A barrel was placed beneath the tree for Scales to stand on, a witness to the event attempted to stop the lynching but Scales was shot 4 to 6 times by a member of the mob killing him at the age of 16.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Cohen |first=Andrew |date=April 1, 2014 |title=The Lynching of James Scales: How the FBI, the DOJ, and State Authorities "Whitewashed" Racial Violence in Bledsoe County, Tennessee |journal=Texas Journal on Civil Liberties & Civil Rights |pages=295–314}}</ref>