James White (general)

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American politician and founder of Knoxville, Tennessee (1747-1821)

title: "James White (general)" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1747-births", "1821-deaths", "members-of-the-north-carolina-house-of-representatives", "18th-century-members-of-the-north-carolina-general-assembly", "people-from-rowan-county,-north-carolina", "presbyterians-from-north-carolina", "presbyterians-from-tennessee", "american-city-founders", "american-militia-generals", "american-people-of-scotch-irish-descent", "north-carolina-militiamen-in-the-american-revolution", "military-personnel-from-knoxville,-tennessee", "people-of-tennessee-in-the-american-revolution", "people-of-the-creek-war", "people-from-the-state-of-franklin", "tennessee-state-senators", "slave-owners-from-north-carolina"] description: "American politician and founder of Knoxville, Tennessee (1747-1821)" topic_path: "science/biology" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_White_(general)" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary American politician and founder of Knoxville, Tennessee (1747-1821) ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox officeholder"]

Field	Value
name	James White
office	2nd and 5th Speaker of the Tennessee Senate
term	1797
term2	1801–1805
predecessor	James Winchester
successor	William Blount
predecessor2	Alexander Outlaw
successor2	Joseph McMinn
office3	Member of the Tennessee Senate
term_start3	March 28, 1796
term_end3	1797
successor3	William Blount
constituency3	Knox County (1796–1797)
term_start4	September 21, 1801
term_end4	August 4, 1804
constituency4	Knox County (1801)
Anderson, Knox, and Roane Counties (1803–1804)
predecessor4	John Crawford
successor4	Robert Houston
office5	Member of the North Carolina House of Commons from Hawkins County
term_start5	November 2, 1789
term_end5	December 22, 1789
predecessor5	William Cocke
alongside5	Thomas King
birth_date	1747
death_date
birth_place	Province of North Carolina
death_place	Knoxville, Tennessee, U.S.
resting_place	First Presbyterian Church Cemetery, Knoxville
spouse
children	7, including Hugh Lawson White
allegiance	United States
serviceyears	1779–1781 (North Carolina Militia), 1790–1814
rank	Brigadier General
branch	North Carolina militia
Tennessee Militia
commands	Hamilton District militia
battles
::

James White (1747 – August 15, 1821) was an American politician, pioneer, and soldier who founded Knoxville, Tennessee, in the early 1790s. Born in the Province of North Carolina, White served as a captain in the county militia during the American Revolutionary War. In 1783, he led an expedition into the upper Tennessee Valley, where he discovered the future site of Knoxville. White served in various official capacities with the failed State of Franklin (1784–1788) before building James White's Fort in 1786. In 1789, he was a member of the North Carolina House of Commons from Hawkins County, which later became part of the Southwest Territory. James White's fort was chosen as the capital of the Southwest Territory in 1790, and White donated the land for a permanent city, Knoxville, in 1791. He represented Knox County at Tennessee's constitutional convention in 1796. White was a brigadier general in the Tennessee militia in the Creek War during the War of 1812.

White had a reputation for patience and tactfulness that was often lacking in his fellow settlers on the Appalachian frontier. As lieutenant colonel commandant of the Knox County militia, White managed to defuse a number of potentially hostile situations between the settlers and the local Native Americans. He donated the land for many of Knoxville's early public buildings, and helped establish Blount College (now the University of Tennessee). White's descendants continued to play prominent roles in the political and economic affairs of Knoxville into the twentieth century.

Biography

Early life

James White was born as the son of Moses White and Mary (née McConnel or McConnell) White. James White has been said by some to have been born in Rowan County, North Carolina, in 1747, at which time the county was not in existence, or in what is today Iredell County, North Carolina. According to William J. MacArthur Jr., James White was born in Salisbury, North Carolina.

James White might be the James White who was assaulted by a William Nelson and Willis Smith in 1767 or 1768, who were both charged with assault in the district of Salisbury, tried, and found not guilty. On April 14, 1770, White married Mary Lawson. or the Rowan County Regiment of the North Carolina militia during the American Revolution, which would subsequently entitle him to a tract of land as payment for his service.

As a result of North Carolina's Land Grab Act, which opened up lands in what is now East Tennessee to settlement, White and several others explored the Tennessee Valley as far west as what is now Lenoir City in 1783. White eventually obtained a grant for a 1000 acre tract of land at what is now Knoxville, and in 1784 he was elected to the senate of the new State of Franklin, a position which kept him preoccupied for the next two years. White relocated to what is now Knox County in 1785, initially building a simple cabin at what is now the Riverdale community east of modern Knoxville. Within a year, however, he had moved to his 1000 acre tract along the confluence of First Creek and the Tennessee River, and built what became known as White's Fort. His slaves accompanied him to his new home. The area in which he settled was Cherokee territory according to the Federal Treaty of Hopewell. Also in 1785, White became one of the first speakers of the senate of Franklin, later he became a member of the Franklin House of Commons.

White's Fort

Main article: James White's Fort

In 1786, White and fellow explorer James Connor erected a fort and a cabin on a hill overlooking the confluence of First Creek and the Tennessee River. William Blount, governor of the Territory South of the River Ohio, chose the fort as the Territory's capital. The following year, White set aside a portion of his land for the creation a territorial capital, named "Knoxville" after Henry Knox, the United States Secretary of War. The new city was platted by White's son-in-law, Charles McClung, and lots were sold in October 1791.

Upon creation of Knox County in 1792, White became lieutenant colonel commandant of the new county's militia. This appointment came during the latter years of the Cherokee–American wars, a period of heightened hostilities between the Chickamauga Cherokee and the white settlers. In 1793, White defused a potentially violent situation when he dispersed a mob of angry settlers that had amassed at Gamble's Station for a march against the Overhill towns. The Cherokee considered White a man of honor, and the Creeks praised his "goodness."

In 1796, White represented Knox County at Tennessee's constitutional convention (which took place near his fort). After the admission of the state to the Union, White was elected brigadier general of the new state's Hamilton District (which included what is now Knox, Jefferson, Blount, and Sevier counties), and was elected to the state senate. Upon William Blount's return from the U.S. Senate in 1797, White resigned to allow Blount to run for the seat. In 1798, White helped negotiate the First Treaty of Tellico.

Creek War

Following the Fort Mims massacre of August 1813, Andrew Jackson and John Coffee led the Tennessee militia into northern Alabama in October of that year to engage a contingent of hostile "Red Stick" Creeks. The militiamen scored victories at the Battle of Tallushatchee (November 3) and at the Battle of Talladega (November 9). In the aftermath of the latter, one of the hostile groups, the Hillabee, made peace arrangements with Jackson. However, the Tennessee militia's East Tennessee contingent, led by John Cocke, had arrived around the same time from Fort Armstrong, and was unaware of the peace negotiations.

On November 11, Cocke ordered James White, leader of the Hamilton District militia, to destroy the Hillabee towns. Over the next several days, White attacked the villages of Little Oakfusky and Genalga, burning 123 houses and capturing several Hillabees. On November 18, White dispatched a force of allied Cherokee under Gideon Morgan to surround the main Hillabee town. The Hillabee, believing they had made peace, were unprepared for an attack, and were unable to resist Morgan's assault. The town was destroyed, 64 Hillabees were killed, and several hundred were captured.

The destruction of the Hillabee towns, sometimes called the "Hillabee Massacre," greatly agitated Jackson, who believed the withdrawal of the Hillabee would demoralize the remaining Red Sticks. To further complicate matters, the East Tennesseans' terms of service were about to expire. In December, Jackson ordered Cocke and the East Tennessee militiamen to return home. The enraged Hillabee quickly rejoined the Red Stick Confederacy, and fought until the end of the war.

Later life

In 1800, White moved to his country estate east of Knoxville, perhaps having grown weary of the city, which had developed into a rowdy frontier capital. He was again elected to the state senate in 1801 and 1803. White served as an elder in the Lebanon-in-the-Forks Presbyterian Church, and later served as an elder in the First Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, which stood on land White had set aside for a church in the 1790s. White died on August 15, 1821, at his country estate, and was buried next to his wife in the First Presbyterian Church Cemetery.

Legacy

White's descendants played prominent political and economic roles in Knoxville's development for more than a century after his death. His eldest son, Hugh Lawson White, was a United States Senator, and ran for president on the Whig ticket in 1836. His other descendants include Congressman Joseph Lanier Williams, and playwright Tennessee Williams.

In 1970, White's Fort was reconstructed as a museum in downtown Knoxville. White's cabin, which provides the fort's southwest corner, is the only surviving authentic part of the fort, although it had been dismantled and moved several times over the years before being reassembled at its present location. White's other namesakes in Knoxville include the General James White Memorial Civic Coliseum, the James White Parkway, and the James White Greenway.

In the early 1990s, Pamela Dishongh, who was conducting a survey of the Riverdale Historic District in eastern Knox County for its inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places, discovered what was believed to have been White's first cabin (1785) in Knox County on the front lawn of the McNutt-Campbell-Kennedy House. A subsequent archaeological survey of the site led by University of Tennessee archaeologist Charles Faulkner confirmed the cabin was probably built by White. Faulkner suggests the cabin was a very simple log structure meant to provide temporary shelter.

References

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Rothrock, Mary. (1972). ''The French Broad-Holston Country: A History of Knox County, Tennessee''. Knoxville, Tennessee: [[East Tennessee Historical Society]]. pp. 503-505.
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"[https://web.archive.org/web/20120301121558/http://blogs.metropulse.com/ask_dr_knox/2010/06/james-whites-not-quite-mansion.html James White's Not Quite Mansions]. ''Metro Pulse'', 10 June 2010. Accessed at the Internet Archive, 2 October 2015.
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railroad magnate [[Charles McClung McGhee]], Admiral [[Richmond P. Hobson]],Maiden, Leota Driver. (1958) ''Colonel John Williams''. East Tennessee Historical Society's Publications. Vol. 30. p. 46.
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Faulkner, Charles. (2015). "James White's First Cabin in Knox County: An Archaeological and Historic Study," ''Journal of East Tennessee History'', Vol. 87 (2015), pp. 84-92.

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