The State of Franklin (also the Free Republic of Franklin or the State of Frankland) was an unrecognized and autonomous territory located in what is today eastern Tennessee, United States. Franklin was created in 1784 from part of the territory west of the Appalachian Mountains that had been offered by North Carolina as a cession to Congress to help pay off debts related to the American War for Independence. It was founded with the intent of becoming the fourteenth state of the new United States.