Jack Neely will be offering a taste of our America250 celebration that will culminate in early October, with a short talk about what Knoxville was like in the 1790s, emphasizing the extraordinary variety of people who came to live in the tiny, rough-edged, unpredictable, but nationally important town that was, at the time, one of the 16 capitals of the United States. Some were the Scots-Irish frontiersmen we often hear about, but others were from Boston, parts of Connecticut, and especially the Philadelphia area, with a significant number of immigrants from Ireland, Scotland, England, and even Spain—all here for the chance to be on the ground floor of something new–as well as those of African descent, most of whom were here involuntarily. Included will be a discussion of the most important event of that era, the founding of a new state, in 1796. That happened half a block from the fair site.
At the Fair, we’ll also host a booth right in front of the 1928 Tennessee Theatre, where we’ll have all our available publications, and can also help with questions about the extraordinary theater’s history, including its recent extension.
