The Cumberland Compact was signed at a Longhunter and native American trading post and camp near the French Lick[1] aka the "Big Salt Springs" on the Cumberland River on May 13, 1780, by 256 settlers led by James Robertson and John Donelson, where the group settled and built Fort Nashborough, which would later become Nashville, Tennessee.
The only surviving copy of the Cumberland Compact was discovered in 1846 inside a trunk that once belonged to early pioneer and founder Colonel Samuel Barton.
The compact did establish a contract and relationship between the settlers of the Cumberland region and limited the punishment that could be meted out by the judicial system.
Serious capital crimes were to be settled by transporting the offending party to a location under the direct jurisdiction of the State of North Carolina for a proper trial.
Henry Baker became the first capital punishment case in Davidson County with the first death sentence of "hanged by the neck until he is dead" for stealing a horse.