America at its Best.
Freedom
Freedom to Grow Food and Tilapia Fish. Religious Freedom. Freedom to build. Freedom to Homeschool. Religious Exemption from vaccinations. Tiny house Freedom. Off-grid Freedom. Freedom to Hunt Wild Game. Tennessee’s land-use regulations are flexible, and so are labor policies. Tennessee has long been one of the economically freest states, and one of the personally freest states in the South. Tennessee is one of the best states for gun rights, although rules around open carry are fairly strict. In Tennessee, parents have the option to educate their children at home, an option known as homeschooling or home education.
Freedom to Grow Food and Tilapia Fish. Religious Freedom. Freedom to build. Freedom to Homeschool. Religious Exemption from vaccinations. Tiny house Freedom. Off-grid Freedom. Freedom to Hunt Wild Game. Tennessee’s land-use regulations are flexible, and so are labor policies. Tennessee has long been one of the economically freest states, and one of the personally freest states in the South. Tennessee is one of the best states for gun rights, although rules around open carry are fairly strict. In Tennessee, parents have the option to educate their children at home, an option known as homeschooling or home education.
Beauty
Tennessee is home to some of the most beautiful natural sights.
Tennessee is home to some of the most beautiful natural sights.
Cost of Living
The cost of living in Tennessee is lower compared to other states. Tennessee's cost of living is 3.8% Lower than the U.S. average. Grocery, Health, Housing & Utilities, are below the country's median average. Taxes
Tennessee does not tax individual wage income earned by its residents. It does, however, collect taxes on interest and dividend earnings. The Tennessee income tax does not apply to salaries and wages, but most income from stocks, bonds and notes receivable is taxable at a flat rate of 6%. The first $1,250 in taxable income received by a single filer is exempt. The first $2,500 in taxable income received by a joint filer is exempt. People older than 65 and who have total income of less than $37,000 for a single filer or $68,000 for a joint filer also are exempt. Tennessee Agriculture
Tennessee farming is far from the mule-and-plow stereotype of the past. Staying attuned to the technological times, embracing sustainability and innovation in an ever-changing industry is how agriculture and forestry have remained vital sectors in the Volunteer State, contributing approximately $74.8 billion to Tennessee’s economy each year. Leading agricultural commodities are cattle and calves, broilers and milk, and also soybeans, corn, hay, wheat, cotton, tobacco, and a variety of fruits and vegetables. With just over 67,300 farms spread across 9 million acres of land and $4.28 billion in cash receipts, Tennessee contains many prosperous traditional farming operations. More than 349,000 Tennesseans are employed in both the agricultural and forestry industries. The state is also a hotbed of agricultural innovation and entrepreneurship. Manufacturing Boom Towns
A big cluster of industrial hotspots is in the Southeast. Manufacturing has been heading to the region for several decades, recently primed by major investments from German and Japanese companies, among others. A prime example is Nashville-Davidson-Murfreesboro, Tenn., where manufacturing employment has jumped 23.9% since 2009. Japan’s Nissan and Bridgestone have establishing manufacturing plants in Central Tennessee, which has also created opportunities for small domestic parts companies in the region. Nissan also relocated its U.S. headquarters to the area in 2006 from Southern California. The South, notes a recent Brookings study, now has the highest number of workers in the country employed in “advanced industries,” which tend to be the higher paying, more technically oriented parts of the factory economy. |
Fun Facts
Tennessee is known as the Volunteer State because of its high number of volunteers during the War of 1812, specifically at the Battle of New Orleans. Greeneville, TN has the only monument in the country dedicated to both Union and Confederate soldiers. Nashville, Tennessee's capital, is home to the longest running live radio program in the world. The Grand Ole Opry has been broadcasting every weekend since 1925. Oak Ridge, TN is known as the Energy Capital of the World for its work on the atomic bomb and continuing research into energy usage. Tennessee is home to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the country's most visited national park. Tennessee was the last state to succeed from the Union during the Civil War. Likewise, it was the first state to be readmitted once the war had ended. Sweetwater, TN is home to the country's largest underground lake- the Lost Sea. The state of Tennessee gets its name from the Yuchi Indian word "Tana-see." This word means "the meeting place." Tennessee ties Missouri for the most neighborly state seeing as it is bordered by 8 other states. The Memphis Cotton Exchange handles roughly one third of the United States' entire cotton crop. Graceland, Elvis's home in Memphis, is the second most visited home in the country. Hattie Caraway, a Tennessee native, was the first woman ever to be named a United States Senator. Tennessee's state flower is the iris and its state bird is the Mockingbird. Nashville, TN is known as Music City and is the country music capital of the world. Tennessee is the home of Mountain Dew, which was originally created as a soda to mix with whiskey. Famous Tennessee natives include Dolly Parton, Samuel L. Jackson, Aretha Franklin, Justin Timberlake, Davy Crockett, Morgan Freeman and Kathy Bates. Tennessee's major industries include mining, uranium products, farming and music. Tennessee was admitted as a state on June 1, 1796, making it the 16th state. Andrew Johnson, a Tennessee native, held every local, state and federal level elective office - including President of the United States. He was also the first president to be impeached. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was killed outside the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. The motel has now been preserved as the American Civil Rights Museum. |
Southern charm and politeness.
Tennesseans are known for their sweet tea, honey-dipped accents, turn of phrase, and Southern hospitality. They know how to "mind our manners" and more often than not, you'll be greeted in a friendly way when visiting Tennessee. If you're born and raised in the south, you answer an adult's query with a "sir" or ma'am" after your "yes" or "no." It has nothing to do with race, class or creed. It's a matter of respecting your elders and Southern hospitality, which still exists in heaps. No Crowds
Except in major Cities like Memphis, Nashville and Knoxville, Tennessee has a very limited amount of those crowded or traffic infested spaces. The biggest traffic danger you’ll get caught up in is the church parking lot on Sunday mornings. Nobody leans on the horn or revs the engine, Southerners are just too polite for that sort of thing. Tennessee literature.
Where does Tennessee literature begin? With the poems and stories composed and handed down orally by the Native Americans long before the white explorers and settlers came? With the accounts of the Spanish expeditions of Hernando de Soto and Juan Pardo? Tennessee perhaps begins with the accounts written by early travelers, especially those chronicling their journeys between Nashville and Knoxville as they passed through the “wilderness,” the land controlled by the Native Americans as late as 1838. Among them were the Methodist Bishop Francis Asbury; Andre Michaux, the French botanist; Louis Philippe, Duke of Orleans and future king of France; and the Moravian missionaries Abraham Steiner and Frederick Schweinitz–all of whom left a record of their journeys made between 1795 and 1802. The poet James Weldon Johnson, well known for God's Trombones (1927), The Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man (1912), and Lift Every Voice, which became a kind of national anthem for African Americans. Still earlier was George Marion McClellan, a Fisk graduate of 1885 who published three collections of poetry and a collection of short stories, Old Greenbottom Inn (1906). Surely no Tennessee writer has achieved greater fame than Alex Haley. Roots (1976), tracing his family's origins back to the African Kunta Kinte, achieved phenomenal success. |