Southwest Territory (Tennessee): William Blount

While he was not part of the U.S. Marshal Service, as Governor 

of the Southwest Territory, William Blount conducted the 1790 

Census for his area. Like a majority of his contemporaries,

Blount was both a veteran of the American Revolution and 

dedicated public servant in the arena of state and national 

politics. Born in Bertie County, NC, on March 26, 1749, William 

Blount worked in his family’s mercantile business before the 

outbreak of the American Revolution in April 1775.200 When 

hostilities commenced between the British and the American 

colonies, Blount quickly joined the 3rd North Carolina regiment 

as its paymaster.201 As the paymaster of the 3rd North Carolina, 

Blount accompanied his regiment as it marched north in time 

to participate in Washington’s 1777 Philadelphia Campaign.202 

Two years later, Blount returned to North Carolina and became 

the deputy paymaster general for North Carolina’s militia forces. Finally, Blount’s military 

career concluded after he witnessed British General Horatio Gates’ defeat at the battle of 

Camden, SC on August 16, 1780.203

Having served his state and new nation as a soldier, Blount began his political career as a 

member of North Carolina’s House of Commons (1780-1784), but quickly entered the national 

political scene as one of North Carolina’s delegates to the Continental Congress (1782, 1783, 

1786, and 1787).204 During his time as a congressional delegate, Blount championed a series of 

legislative acts that provided settlers and land-speculators, like himself, with increased access 

to frontier land that is located in present-day Tennessee.

205

 Perhaps, it was Blount’s active role 

in state politics that led to his appointment as one of North Carolina’s delegates to the 1787 

Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia.

206

 Despite his lack of active participation in the 

debates surrounding the creation of the U.S. Constitution, Blount added his signature to it on 

September 17, 1787.207 Blount’s role as one of the signers of the U.S. Constitution proved 

 

200 Toomey, Michael, “William Blount (1749-1800),” North Carolina History Project, last estimated release 2016, 

https://northcarolinahistory.org/encyclopedia/william-blount-1749-1800/. (Accessed November 14, 2019). 

201 Toomey, Michael, “William Blount (1749-1800).”

202 “William Blount: North Carolina,” U.S. Army Center for Military History, 

https://history.army.mil/books/RevWar/ss/blount.htm. (Accessed November 14, 2019). 

203 Toomey, Michael, “William Blount: North Carolina.”

204 “Blount, William, (1749 - 1800),” Biographical Directory of the United States Congress: 1774-Present, last 

estimated release November 14, 2019, http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=b000570. 

(Accessed November 14, 201).

205 Toomey, Michael, “William Blount: North Carolina.”

206 “William Blount/North Carolina,” National Archives and Records Administration, last estimated release 

November 14, 2019, http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/conlaw/marrynorthcar.html. (Accessed 

November 14, 2019).

207 Toomey, Michael, “William Blount: North Carolina.”

William Blount

Courtesy U.S. Senate Historical Office
instrumental in his future career as a politician because he was able to meet George 

Washington, who served as the president of the Constitutional Convention.

208 209

After returning home to North Carolina from the Constitutional Convention, Blount continued 

to strategically position himself to personally benefit from the formation of a new national 

government and westward expansion. He continued to buy land in the western part of North 

Carolina with the hope that it would become more valuable as explorers, settlers, and 

entrepreneurs developed the land and its resources.210 Meanwhile, Blount participated in both 

of North Carolina’s conventions to ratify the U.S. Constitution (July 21-August 4, 1788 and

November 16-23, 1789) and served as a state senator for almost two years (1788- 1790).

211

 

Because Blount had almost decade of political experience and had strongly supported the U.S. 

Constitution, President Washington appointed him as the governor of “Territory of the United 

States, South of the River Ohio,” also known as the “Southwest Territory,” on June 8, 1790.212

213

Approximately five months after receiving his 

appointment as governor of the Southwest 

Territory and a simultaneous appointment as 

the Superintendent of Indian Affairs (1790-

1796), Blount left North Carolina and 

established the Southwest Territory’s 

temporary capital in a present-day, Piney Flats, 

TN.

214 215 Almost immediately afterwards,

Blount worked to forge peace between the 

distinctive Native American tribes and settlers, 

train a professional state militia, and, among a host of other tasks, oversee the enumeration of 

the territory’s population.216 

Initially, Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson wrote to Blount saying, “As the census of all the 

rest of the Union will be taken in the course of this summer... it is thought extremely desirable 

 

208 Toomey, Michael, “William Blount: North Carolina.”

209 “North Carolina: William Blount (1749–1800),” National Constitution Center, last estimated release November 

14, 2019, https://constitutioncenter.org/learn/educational-resources/founding-fathers/north-carolina. (Accessed 

November 14, 2019).

210 Toomey, Michael, “William Blount: North Carolina.”

211 “Blount, William, (1749 - 1800).”

212

“From Territory to State,” Tennessee Secretary of State: Tre Hargett, last estimated release 2017, 

https://sos.tn.gov/products/territory-state. (Accessed November 14, 2019).

213 Masterson, William H., William Blount (Baton Rouge, Louisiana: Louisiana State University Press, 1954). 

Retrieved from: https://archive.org/details/williamblount00mast/page/176. (Accessed November 14, 2019). 

214 Toomey, Michael, “William Blount: North Carolina.”

215 “Rocky Mount,” The Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture, last estimated release September 30, 2007, 

https://web.archive.org/web/20070930170936/http://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/imagegallery.php?EntryID=R04

8. (Accessed November 14, 2019). 

216 Toomey, Michael, “William Blount: North Carolina.”

Map of Tennessee c. 1817

Courtesy of the Library of Congress.
that of your Government should be taken also, and arranged under the same classes as 

prescribed by the Act of Congress for the general census. Yet that act has not required it in your 

Territory, nor provided for any expense which might attend it”.217 As W.S. Rossiter, former 

Chief Clerk of the Census Bureau, observed Blount did not have to carry out an enumeration of 

the Southwest Territory’s population, especially since the federal government was unable to 

pay his militia captains who acted as enumerators.218 

Yet, Blount provided Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson with an almost completed 1790 

census return on September 19, 1791, thus demonstrating the dedication of Blount and his 

militia captains in serving the interests of their community and the federal government.219 220 

After tabulating the results from Blount’s 1790-91 census return, the Southwest Territory had a 

population of 35,691 people, which meant that, according to the Northwest Ordnance of 1787, 

it failed to meet the threshold of 60,000 people required for a territory to become a state. 221

222

 Undeterred, Blount and his fellow “Tennesseans” conducted another census in 1795 and 

were able to meet the 60,000 population threshold with a population of 77,262 people.223 224 In 

this way, Blount succeeded in laying the administrative and political foundations for Tennessee

obtaining statehood on June 1, 1796.

Shortly afterwards, on August 2, 1796, Blount was elected as one of Tennessee’s first U.S. 

Senators.

225

 Blount’s term came to an end, when he was expelled from the Senate for his 

involvement in a conspiracy to incite Native American tribes and the British to conquer the 

Spanish territory of West Florida.

226

 Although Blount never participated in national politics 

 

217 From Thomas Jefferson to William Blount, 12 March 1791. Found in W.S. Rossiter, “The First Census of the 

United States,” in A Century of Population Growth/1790-1900, ed. S.N.D. North, Director (Washington, DC: 

Government Printing Office, 1909), pg. 45.

218 W.S. Rossiter, “The First Census of the United States,” pg. 45.

219 According to Blount’s 1790 census return, the numbers in his return were from July 1791 and they were the 

results from the militia captains, who were able to complete their enumerations not long after the May 2, 1790 

deadline. 

220 “Territory of the United States of America, South of the River Ohio”. Return of the whole number of persons 

within the several districts of the United States: according to "An act providing for the enumeration of the 

inhabitants of the United States," passed March the first, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-one, pg. 56. PDF. 

Retrieved from https://www.census.gov/content/census/en/library/publications/1793/dec/number-ofpersons.htm. (November 14, 2019).

221 “Territory of the United States of America, South of the River Ohio”. 

222

“Northwest Ordinance (1787),” www.ourdocuments.gov, last estimated release 2001, 

https://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=false&doc=8. (Accessed November 14, 2019).

223 Toomey, Michael, “William Blount: North Carolina.” 

224 Finger, John, "Southwest Territory," Tennessee Frontiers (Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University Press, 2001), 

pgs. 125–151. Google Book. Retrieved from 

https://books.google.com/books?id=1H2_CwAAQBAJ&pg=PA345&lpg=PA345&dq=John+Finger,+%22Southwest+T

erritory,%22+Tennessee+Frontiers&source=bl&ots=EIHdZAhQsA&sig=ACfU3U3-

H8ZdwPSrXkU62TzBx3NOz3ffTw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwimoI6O5PvlAhUqw1kKHd5RBlYQ6AEwBXoECAoQAQ

#v=onepage&q=John%20Finger%2C%20%22Southwest%20Territory%2C%22%20Tennessee%20Frontiers&f=false. 

(Accessed November 14, 2019). 

225 “Blount, William, (1749 - 1800).”

226 “Blount, William, (1749 - 1800).”
again, he served a state senator and as the president of Tennessee’s state senate, until 

September 1799.227 William Blount died in Knoxville, Tennessee on, March 21, 1800.228 

 

227 Ibid.

228 Toomey, Michael, “William Blount: North Carolina.”