It is this fact of the early independence and self-government of the settlers along the head-waters of the Tennessee that gives to their history its peculiar importance.

They were the first men of American birth to establish a free and independent community on the continent.

Even before this date, there had been straggling settlements of Pennsylvanians and Virginians along the head-waters of the Ohio; but these settlements remained mere parts of the colonies behind them, and neither grew into a separate community, nor played a distinctive part in the growth of the west.
The first step taken by the Watauga settlers,[24] when they had determined to organize, was to meet in general convention, holding a kind of folk-thing, akin to the New England town-meeting.

They then elected a representative assembly, a small parliament or "witanagemot," which met at Robertson's station.

Apparently the freemen of each little fort or palisaded village, each blockhouse that was the centre of a group of detached cabins and clearings, sent a member to this first frontier legislature.[25] It consisted of thirteen representatives, who proceeded to elect from their number five--among them Sevier and Robertson--to form a committee or court, which should carry on the actual business of government, and should exercise both judicial and executive functions.