The King’s charter for the Proprietorship of Carolina in effect gave Carolina (later North Carolina) the land that was to become Tennessee. The Charter specified Carolina’s boundary as:The Indian Tribes of North America, by John R. Swanton. Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology. Bulletin 145. Government Printing Office, 1953; pp. 215-229.

“. . . All that Province, Territory, or Tract of ground, situate, lying, and being within our Dominions of America aforesaid, extending North and Eastward as far as the North end of Carahtuke River or Gullet; upon a straight Westerly line to Wyonoake Creek, which lies within or about the degrees of thirty six and thirty Minutes [36° 30′], Northern latitude, and so West in a direct line as far as the South Seas; and South and Westward as far as the degrees of twenty nine, inclusive, northern latitude; and so West in a direct line as far as the South Seas