Editing Clarksville, Tennessee (section)

===Colonization===
[[File:Wilderness road en.png|thumb|right|The [[Transylvania (colony)|Transylvania Purchase]], bought from the Cherokee tribe, stretches from [[Sycamore Shoals]] in [[Elizabethton, Tennessee]], to the [[Wilderness Road]] into [[Kentucky]].]]
The area around Clarksville was first surveyed by [[Thomas Hutchins]] in 1768. He identified Red Paint Hill, a rock bluff at the confluence of the [[Cumberland River|Cumberland]] and [[Red River (Cumberland River)|Red]] Rivers, as a navigational landmark.<ref>Christian G. Fritz, [https://books.google.com/books?id=ZpKCvUacmSwC&pg=RA1-PA168 ''American Sovereigns: The People and America's Constitutional Tradition Before the Civil War''] (Cambridge University Press, 2008) at pp. 55-60; {{ISBN|978-0-521-88188-3}}</ref>

In the years between 1771 and 1775, [[John Montgomery (pioneer)|John Montgomery]], the namesake of the county, along with [[Kasper Mansker]], visited the area while on a hunting expedition. In 1771, [[James Robertson (early American)|James Robertson]] led a group of 12 or 13 families involved with the [[Regulator movement]] from near where present-day [[Raleigh, North Carolina]] now stands. In 1772, Robertson and the pioneers who had settled in northeast Tennessee (along the Watauga River, the [[Doe River]], the [[Holston River]], and the [[Nolichucky River]]) met at [[Sycamore Shoals]] to establish an independent regional government known as the [[Watauga Association]].

In 1772, surveyors placed the land officially within the domain of the Cherokee tribe, who required negotiation of a lease with the settlers. As the lease was being celebrated, a [[Cherokee]] warrior was murdered by a white man. Through diplomacy, Robertson made peace with the Cherokee, who had threatened to expel the settlers by force.<ref name="tcarden.com">{{cite web|url=http://www.tcarden.com/tree/ensor/Watag.html|title=Loading...|website=tcarden.com|access-date=June 19, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090609232139/http://www.tcarden.com/tree/ensor/Watag.html|archive-date=June 9, 2009|url-status=dead}}</ref>

In March 1775, land speculator and North Carolina judge [[Richard Henderson (American pioneer)|Richard Henderson]] met with more than 1,200 Cherokees at Sycamore Shoals, including Cherokee leaders such as [[Attakullakulla]], [[Oconostota]], and [[Dragging Canoe]]. In the [[Treaty of Sycamore Shoals]] (also known as the Treaty of Watauga), Henderson purchased all the land lying between the Cumberland River, the [[Cumberland Mountains]], and the [[Kentucky River]], and situated south of the [[Ohio River]] in what is known as the [[Transylvania Purchase]] from the Cherokee Indians. The land thus delineated, {{convert|20|e6acre|km2|sigfig=2|abbr=unit}}, encompassed an area half as large as the present state of Kentucky. Henderson's purchase was in violation of North Carolina and Virginia law, as well as the [[Royal Proclamation of 1763]], which prohibited private purchase of American Indian land. Henderson may have mistakenly believed that a newer British legal opinion had made such land purchases legal.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/boonebiography00morg|url-access=registration|page=[https://archive.org/details/boonebiography00morg/page/179 179]|quote=boone a biography algonquin bryce.|title=Boone: A Biography|first=Robert|last=Morgan|date=September 23, 2008|publisher=Algonquin Books|via=Internet Archive}}</ref>

All of present-day Tennessee was once recognized as [[Washington County, North Carolina]]. Created in 1777 from the western areas of Burke and Wilkes Counties, Washington County had as a precursor a Washington District of 1775–76, which was the first political entity named for the Commander-in-Chief of American forces in the Revolution.<ref name="tcarden.com" /><ref name="jcedb.org">{{Cite web|url=http://www.jcedb.org/history/lostco.php|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110115114140/http://www.jcedb.org/history/lostco.php|url-status=dead|title=Lost Counties of Tennessee.|archive-date=January 15, 2011}}</ref>