Democratic strength is largely concentrated in Nashville, Memphis, and parts of Knoxville, Chattanooga, Clarksville, Murfreesboro, and Jackson.
Overseeing a large population of enslaved African Americans, planters voted to secede at the time of the Civil War in order to protect slavery, which was profitable for them and the commodity crop of cotton.
Eastern Tennessee, by contrast, had a population with higher representation of white yeomen and subsistence farmers and artisans.
Based on the seniority rules of the time and their virtually unrestricted control of seats from Southern states by having disenfranchised most African American at the turn of the century, senior Congressmen and Senators from the South controlled chairmanships of important committees, strongly influencing national policy.
A minority of Republican voters were dominant in the eastern part of the state, which had favored the Union during the Civil War.
[7][page needed] In 1976, Tennessee voted for Democrat Jimmy Carter of neighboring Georgia, a "favorite son" of the South.