Geographic and cultural region of Tennessee, United States
Grand Division in Tennessee, United States
West Tennessee
Grand Division
Clockwise, from top left: The Memphis Pyramid, Graceland, Beale Street, Pinson Mounds, Shiloh National Military Park, Reelfoot Lake
Nickname(s):
West TN, West Tenn.
The counties of Tennessee highlighted in red that are designated part of West Tennessee.
Country
United States
State
Tennessee
Largest city
Memphis
Area
• Land
27,600 km2 (10,650 sq mi)
Population
(2020)
1,557,649
• Density
56.47/km2 (146.26/sq mi)
Demonym
West Tennessean
West Tennessee is one of the three Grand Divisions of Tennessee that roughly comprises the western quarter of the state.[1] The region includes 21 counties between the Tennessee and Mississippi rivers, delineated by state law.[2] Its geography consists primarily of flat lands with rich soil and vast floodplain areas of the Mississippi River.[3][1] Of the three regions, West Tennessee is the most sharply defined geographically, and is the lowest-lying.[4] It is both the least populous and smallest, in land area, of the three Grand Divisions. Its largest city is Memphis, the state's second most populous city.
West Tennessee was originally inhabited by the Chickasaw, and was the last of the three Grand Divisions to be settled by Europeans. The region officially became part of the United States with the Jackson Purchase in 1818, 22 years after Tennessee's statehood. As part of the Mississippi River basin, West Tennessee enjoys rich soil that led to large-scale cotton farming during the antebellum period that was heavily dependent on slave labor.[4] As a result, it forms the northwestern tip of the Black Belt.[5]
^ ab"Tennessee | Capital, Map, Population, History, & Facts". Encyclopædia Britannica. Archived from the original on 2019-12-15. Retrieved 2019-10-15.
^"Tennessee Blue Book 2015-2016" (PDF). Nashville: Tennessee Secretary of State. 2015. p. 639. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2018-09-10. Retrieved June 5, 2021.
^"West Region". www.tn.gov. Archived from the original on 2019-10-29. Retrieved 2019-10-15.
^ ab"Tennessee Culture - Tennessee History - Grand Divisions - THS". Tennessee Historical Society. 2017-03-13. Archived from the original on 2022-04-07. Retrieved 2019-10-15.
^Billy Corriher (2021-12-16). "Fighting gerrymandering in the South's Black Belt". Facing South. Archived from the original on 2022-06-11. Retrieved 2022-07-03.
WestTennessee is one of the three Grand Divisions of Tennessee that roughly comprises the western quarter of the state. The region includes 21 counties...
and legally divided into three Grand Divisions of East, Middle, and WestTennessee. Nashville is the state's capital and largest city, and anchors its...
"Army of West Tennessee"; these were the troops under the command of Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant in the Union's District of WestTennessee. This article...
eight conference championships with the most recent coming in 2019. WestTennessee State Normal School's football team had their first season in 1912....
of Tennessee" or "the three Tennessees". The three Grand Divisions, East, Middle, and WestTennessee, are formally defined in state law at Tennessee Code...
economically divided into three Grand Divisions: East Tennessee, Middle Tennessee, and WestTennessee. Tennessee is in the Southeastern United States. Most of...
university in WestTennessee outside of Memphis. UTM operates a large experimental farm and several satellite centers in WestTennessee. Although UT Martin...
WestTennessee State Penitentiary (WTSP) is a Tennessee Department of Correction prison located in unincorporated Lauderdale County, Tennessee, near Henning...
(Southern Baptist Convention). It is a union of several different schools: WestTennessee College, formerly known as Jackson Male Academy; Union University of...
The flag of Tennessee displays an emblem on a field of red, with a strip of blue bordered by white on the fly. The emblem in the middle consists of three...
American Civil War significantly affected Tennessee, with every county witnessing combat. During the War, Tennessee was a Confederate state, and the last...
Tennessee defines the boundary between two of Tennessee's Grand Divisions: Middle and WestTennessee. The Tennessee–Tombigbee Waterway, a U.S. Army Corps of...
book called The Sketches and Eccentricities of Col. David Crockett, of WestTennessee, which was reprinted that same year in The London Literary Gazette....
Forrest's Expedition into WestTennessee was a raid conducted by Confederate Brigadier General Nathan Bedford Forrest in Tennessee from December 1862 to January...
members of the United States House of Representatives from the state of Tennessee. For chronological tables of members of both houses of the United States...
state had to choose between two sites to build the new college for WestTennessee: Jackson and Memphis. Memphis was chosen, one of the main reasons being...
Global Information
United States
Tennessee