State of Franklin - History Day 2008

A Dream Deferred: The Lost State of Franklin. A History Day documentary by Alexander Atallah, senior division.

Though my entry to the Colorado History Day competition only made it to the final round, I was happy to have completed a project of this magnitude for the first time. With the help of many historians and helpful reviewers, I conducted my research on the "lost" State of Franklin -- Tennessee's first attempt at statehood, when settlers under the leadership of John Sevier unofficially separated from North Carolina and began a trend of western state-making. The de facto government was a product of the revolutionary mindset of the time, which lasted into the later history of both North Carolina and Tennessee while adversely affecting Native Americans.

Overall, I learned a great deal about the larger ideas of the American Revolution and westward expansion through the research and analysis I conducted for my limited 10-minute documentary. National History Day is a truly life-changing project, and if you're a newcomer to the program, I'd be happy to answer any questions or chat about anything in the comments below the movie.

Enjoy, and let me know what you think! A list of all my movie revisions is located at http://gallery.mac.com/alexander.atallah#100182

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• documentary
• interview
• NHD
• National
• History
• Day
• Colorado
• Alexander
• Atallah
• State
• Franklin
• west
• frontier
• american
• Final
• Cut
• Express
• iMovie

[tricofilms]

Great video! Whats the music at 6:00 ??? I like it!!

[alexanderatallah]

@tricofilms It's "Storm" by Craig Armstrong and A.R. Rahman, from the movie "Elizabeth."

[Jaser200]

Great video, but I can see why you didn't win. You seem to (even if you aren't) mostly state facts or generally accepted theories on some event or person . You need to contribute your own point of view effectively, state arguments between historians, make it into your own unique project, and discuss similar events happening in present. There' even more to it then what I just said. I failed to turn in my application form on time, but hopefully I can enter it next year somehow.

[alexanderatallah]

@Jaser20 Thanks for the feedback! The reason stated on the ballot was that I needed more primary source images, which is true, albeit hard to fix, because most of them were accidentally burned during the Civil War. There also werent any Franklinite artists back then... This info was in my bibliography and annotations, but at 25 pages it must have been drowned out. I completely prefer and agree with your feedback: I realized that drawback a bit later after re-watching it with new eyes. Thanks!

[autistipton]

My 5th Grand Father is Colonel John Tipton it's good to see true history for a chnge.

[autistipton]

@webbcityglassman My 5th Grand Father is Colonel John Tipton it's good to see true history for a chnge.

[csplendrig]

nicely done thanks for putting this together

[Jaser200]

@alexanderatallah Np. Yeah most kids are wrongly accused of having attention issues when it is probably the critics and reviewers they need to check out.

[Gldnvalleyboi]

Nice video. The Franklin family is still strong in the village of Linville Falls NC. The nearby Mt. Pisgah Cemetery has graves going back to Ben Franklin's brother and can be traced to the local families. Several roads are named after Franklin heirs. Church on Sunday, they can be found on their family pews. The area seems to be as pristine as one would have expected when Indians were living there. Water can still be sipped from the springs.

[itchweeed]

very nicely done...i live in the state of franklin...in my mind we are a seperate state from tennessee..once you enter franklin..you know it

[Jaser200]

This is still an amazing video! There are tons of competitors and its not easy to convince the judges that your project was the best. You've given me ideas on what I should do for my project (class not competition).