Editing Knoxville, Tennessee (section)

===Antebellum era===
[[File:Craighead-Jackson House 01.jpg|thumb|The [[Craighead-Jackson House]] in Knoxville, built in 1818]]

Knoxville served as capital of the Southwest Territory and as capital of Tennessee (admitted as a state in 1796) until 1817,<ref name="ReferenceA"/> when the capital was moved to [[Murfreesboro, Tennessee|Murfreesboro]]. Early Knoxville has been described as an "alternately quiet and rowdy river town".<ref name="wheeler"/> Early issues of the ''[[The Knoxville Gazette|Knoxville Gazette]]''—the first newspaper published in Tennessee—are filled with accounts of murder, theft, and hostile Cherokee attacks. Abishai Thomas, a friend of William Blount, visited Knoxville in 1794 and wrote that, while he was impressed by the town's modern frame buildings, the town had "seven taverns" and no church.<ref>MacArthur, ''Knoxville: Crossroads of the New South'', 23.</ref>

Knoxville initially thrived as a way station for travelers and migrants heading west. Its location at the confluence of three major rivers in the Tennessee Valley brought [[flatboat]] and later [[steamboat]] traffic to its waterfront in the first half of the 19th century, and Knoxville quickly developed into a regional merchandising center. Local agricultural products—especially tobacco, corn, and whiskey—were traded for cotton, which was grown in the [[Deep South]].<ref name="ReferenceA"/> The population of Knoxville more than doubled in the 1850s with the arrival of the [[East Tennessee and Georgia Railroad]] in 1855.<ref name="wheeler"/>

Among the most prominent citizens of Knoxville during the Antebellum years was James White's son, [[Hugh Lawson White]] (1773–1840). White first served as a judge and state senator, before being nominated by the state legislature to replace [[Andrew Jackson]] in the U.S. Senate in 1825. In 1836, White ran unsuccessfully for president, representing the [[Whig Party (United States)|Whig Party]].<ref>Jonathan Atkins, "[http://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/entry.php?rec=1497 Hugh Lawson White] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170702071628/http://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/entry.php?rec=1497 |date=July 2, 2017 }}". ''The Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture'', 2002. Retrieved: February 26, 2008.</ref>