Tennessee Needs French

It has already been established that foreign language study in Tennessee is essential to its economic present and future, and it has been effectively argued that the study of foreign languages cultures should be a core educational experience in Tennessee schools. But what about French in particular?

Population statistics from the 2000 census show the following about Tennessee ancestries

Of Tennessee's Foreign-born population according to the 2000 census, 28,390 are European, 7,174 are African and 5,569 are Northern American (other than Latin American). Among these, there are likely to be more citizens of French-speaking heritage.

The number of native French speakers (including patois, creole and cajun) living in Tennessee is estimated by Miquelon.org above 18,000, which puts it in the top 50% of states for its French-speaking population. The number of Cajun French speakers gives Tennessee a 7th ranking. Clearly though French instruction in Tennessee schools is not primarily to facilitate the understanding the neighbor who moved in next door, nor is it for understanding the language of the fastest growing labor force in the state. Three chapters of the Alliance Française indicate the desire of some Tennesseans to get together to speak or learn French, and to enjoy aspects of French culture:

http://home.att.net/~claudinevc/afk.html

http://www.frenchtennessee.org/afmemphis

http://www.afnashville.org/

Tennessee is in the service area of the French and Canadian Consulates in Atlanta:

http://www.consulfrance-atlanta.org/

http://www.dfait-maeci.gc.ca/can-am/atlanta/

but there is another Canadian Consulate office opening near-by:

http://www.dfait-maeci.gc.ca/can-am/raleigh/

The closest Belgian consular representative is also in Atlanta:

as well as a trade office for Quebec Province:

Sister Cities

One of Nashville's officially registered sister cities (Sister Cities International) is Caen, France.

IB: In addition to expected programs in standard public and private schools and colleges, Tennessee has several International Baccalaureate programs:

The American Association of Teachers of French is developing its advocacy capabilities all over the country:

http://www.frenchteachers.org

http://www.utm.edu/staff/globeg/advofr.shtml

There is a very active Tennessee chapter of the AATF, whose past president

http://www.frenchtennessee.org/tnaatf

http://www.frenchtennessee.org/

Pellissippi State Community College has sports exchange program with the Institut Universitaire de Technologie, Cherbourg, France:

          Connections
          http://www.pstcc.edu/connections/summer_08/vivlafrance.html

Tennessee Cajun Community:

http://www.cajunsintn.com

http://cajun.meetup.com/13/

Tennessee Hatian Community:

http://www.haitiforum.com/index.php/cat181

French Meetups:

http://french.meetup.com/658/

Some French Moments in Tennessee History

The role of France in the history of this interior Mid-Southern state is surprisingly significant, as the following informal chronology will demonstrate.

1663 British established colony of Carolina which included all of Tennessee French from the Mississippi Valley also claimed the land.

1673: Louis Joliet (fur trader) and Father Jacques Marquette explored the western part of the state for France, including the Chickasaw Bluffs, near Memphis.

1682 - Robert Cavalier Sieur de La Salle, witha party of over 50 traveled down the Mississippi, landed near the first Chickasaw bluff of what id now Memphis claimed the Tennessee Region for France. He had a stockade named Prudhomme built near the mouth of the Hatchie River, because he almost lost one of his party, Pierre Prudhomme on a hunting expedition.

1689 - Martin Chartier, a courier-de-bois who deserted from La Salle's expedition for love of an Indian maiden, daughter of a great Shawnee chief, explored the Cumberland Valley of Middle Tennessee, and left with the tribe in 1692.

1691 - Martin Chartier believed to have visited what is now Clay County in Tennessee, and may have been earlier in Jefferson County.

By 1692 French traders had established posts along the Cumberland River (la rivi_rèe des Chaouesnons) near a salt springs, a site which later became known as the French Lick. It was reestablished early the next century by a Frenchman, Charles Charleville. The post was called "French Lick", since it was near Big Salt Springs. This was the beginning of active trading with the Shawnees, until they were driven out. In 1779, the old French post evolved into "Nashboro" (Nashville), with the arrival of James Robertson and a small group of settlers.

1696 Jean Couture, a renegade French coureur-de-bois, explored Tennessee River valley, trying to find a rout to Charles Town.

late 1600's - The Tennessee River becomes a part of the French trade route between the Mississippi Valley and Charleston, South Carolina.

Much of the early French exploration of this area is illustrated in a map:

http://www.ancestry.com/ancestry/FreeImages.asp?ImageId=344

1699: Jean-Francois Buisson de Saint-Cosme, a French missionary born in Quebec was the first European to write about a New Madrid fault earthquake which he survived in the Memphis area.

1700 - In October, on a trip down the Mississippi, Père Jacques Gravier, missionary and linguist, saw the Rivière à Mayot (Tennessee portion of the Wolf River).

Early 1700's - The French begin to establish trading posts along the Tennessee river.

1701- The Tennessee River is found on a French map, described as a route by which French hunters and traders return to Carolina. The French were most likely the first white navigators of this river.

between 1692 and 1714 - M. Charleville, a French Trader from New Orleans, built store on French Lick Creek.

1710-14 - Jean du Charleville from New Orleans made a deserted Shawnee fort at the French Lick into a warehouse

1717 - French Canadian fur traders established the first trading post in Middle Tennessee.

1736 - French were exploring Mississippi bluff positions in the Memphis area to determine a suitable position for a garrison.

1739 - The French built a garrison, Fort Assumption (named after the feast of the Assumption, August 15, when it was completed), on the river bluffs. He organized an army of 1200 French along with 2400 blacks and Indians.

1750 - Third Chickasaw alliance succeeded in defeating the French-allied Choctaw. [ Major war between Cherokees and Creeks; Creeks finally driven from Little Cedar Mountain area. ]

1754 - Beginning of French and Indian War. Tennessee was part of the disputed lands. In 1763, the Treaty of Paris surrendered all French land east of the Mississippi to England. The Tennessee region became part of the English colony North Carolina.

In 1760, a French explorer which all sources name "Marquis De Montcalm" recommended to the King Louis XV of France building a connecting waterway between the Tennessee River and the Tombigbee River, creating a water route to the Mobile Bay.

1760s - A French-Canadian soldier who had fought in the battle of Quebac, Timothé de Monbreun, began hunting near Nashville. He traded in the area, and decided to settle there amongst English-speaking colonists.

1760s - French name the Cumberland River "Rivière des Chauouanons" for the Shawnees. Trappers first arrived in Wilson County.

1761: The Old French Store (first structure by European men built in area ) was established at the present site of Chattanooga at a spot below Lookout Mountain, just above Moccasin Bend on the Tennessee River.

Fort Assumption passed from French to British hands in 1763, at the end of the French and Indian War (Treaty of Paris).

1767 - A French trapper accompanied Uriah Stone in his exploration of what is now called the Stone River

1778 - Bledsoe's Lick or Bledsoe's Fort was built near Castalian Springs Tennessee. Davy Crockett (1786-1836) was a descendant of Huguenot ancestors, who go back to Gabriel Gustave De Crocketagne, second in command of the Guard for Louis XIV, King of France.

Several Tennessean who fought in the Revolutionary War, served in the French army.

John Sevier, Revolutionary war leader, who became the only governor of the state of Franklin until 1788, served 12 years as the first governor of Tennessee, and then as U.S. Representative from the state of Tennessee, from 1811 until his death in 1815, was a descendant of the noble Huguenot Xavier family of Navarre, France.

Noted French botanist and explorer André Michaux explored Tennessee from the end of the eighteenth to the beginning of the nineteenth century.

1796 - Famous French botanist, André Michaux, discovers The yellowood tree (named Tennessee's State Bicentennial Tree in 1996) near the Cumberland River.

In 1797, the then Duke Louis-Phillipe of France (King from 1830-1848) and two brothers visited Tennessee (Dixon Springs, Knoxville) during a grand tour of America.

1798 - When James Robertson and the Watauga settlers came to establish Fort Nashborough, Jacques-Timothée Boucher, Sieur de Montbrun was already living there.

1802 - André Michaux explored the Roaring River (Overton CO) and trekked through the county as he moved west across the state. During his visit to Nashville the same year, he spoke enthusiastically on the wealth to be made from growing and selling cotton. .

1803 - Edward Bondurant bought 450 acres of land (near Old Hickory, TN) from John Coffee and eventually became one of the largest landowners in the Bend. Bondurant is considered by some historians to be the first permanent settler in the Bend. The Bondurants and Dismukes were French Huguenots and left France due to the Catholic persecution.

1824 - Fayette County is named after the Marquis de Lafayette, French general and statesman.

1825 - The Marquis de Lafayette came to Nashville, where he was met by a crowd of thousands, including Revolutionary War veterans from all over the state. A dinner and ball were held in his honor and he went to The Hermitage to spend a day with Andrew Jackson.

In a very cold December of 1831, Alexis de Tocqueville and Gustave de Beaumont visted Tennessee. We have an account of the trip in exerps from Beaumont's correspondances and from Tocqueville's famous work, Democracy in America (1835):

http://www.tocqueville.org/tn.htm

1840s - Rosine Parmentier. In the 1840s, with the aid of a New York associate, Parmentier purchased 50,000 acres of land and encouraged French, German, Italian, and Austrian colonization of what she called "Vineland", in Polk County's Sylco Mountains. .

1848 - Begining of Knox County's "Swiss Colony" . Rev. Adrien Chavannes and his family settled on a 275-acre farm four miles north of Knoxville. In the ensuing sixty-five years seventy-five more Swiss fanmilies settled in the Knoxville area.

1854 - Lobelsville is a post-village on the west side of Buffalo River, about five miles below Beardstown. It was established in 1854 and named after Henry De Lobel, a French immigrant.

Sargent Alvin York - October 8, 1918 in the Argonne forest, Northeastern France, then Corporal York and 16 other American soldiers wound up behind enemy line and engaged in a brief fire fight. As a result of York's ingenuity and heroism 25 Germans were killed and 132 taken prisoner. The US awarded him the Distinguished Service Cross and Medal of Honor. French gave him the Croix de Guerre, the Légion d'Honneur, and the Médaille Militaire.

B-17 "MEMPHIS BELLE" played an important role during WWII, flying 17 of its famous 25 missions over France in 1942 and 1943.

Tennessee Williams (1911-1983) was a descendant of French Huguenots.

Here are some interesting links concerning historical connections between French speakers and Tennessee:

Louis Philippe and the Dixons
http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/FRENCH-NOBILITY/2003-01/1042129984

FORT ASSUMPTION
http://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/imagegallery.php?EntryID=F036

FORT PRUDHOMME AND LA SALLE
http://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/imagegallery.php?EntryID=F047

FRENCH LICK
http://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/imagegallery.php?EntryID=F071

SWISS SETTLERS, KNOXVILLE
http://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/imagegallery.php?EntryID=S121

Martin Chartier: 1691
http://lakecumberland.com/history.php?chartier

Early History of Middle Tennessee (Timothy DEMONBREUN)
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~tnsumner/early.htm

Timothy Demonbreun
http://www.answers.com/topic/timothy-demonbreun

TIMOTHY DEMONBREUN HERITAGE SOCIETY
http://www.genealogy.com/users/d/e/m/Timothy-Demonbreun/

AmeriQuests, et quoy plus
http://ejournals.library.vanderbilt.edu/ameriquests/viewarticle.php?id=4&layout=html

The effective introduction of French horses in to New France came in 1665 when Louis XIV sent two stallions and twenty mares from the royal stables to the colony. For hundreds of years, the French horses bred with little influence from outside breeds. Because they evolved under the adverse conditions of harsh weather, scarce food, and hard work they are extremely sturdy, and referred to as "The Little Iron Horse". Many purebred French Canadian horses were entered in to the early stud books of the Morgan, Standardbred, and American Saddlebred. Foundation sires of these breeds were often pure Canadian or were mated to Canadian mares. The Tennessee Walking Horse can claim this Canadian ancestry.

With a wealth of French contact in our history, it is no surprise that Tennessee has some French place names: Allons, Belleville, Bellevue, Bon Aqua, Bon Eau (Hardin) , Bordeaux Hills, Fayetteville, Heloise , Lafayette, La Follette, Jeannette,La Grange, La Vergne, Lenoir City, Lobelsville, Louisville, Meux Corner, Port Royal, Dupont, Valdeau, Verdun, Versailles, Paris

The French Broad River probably got its name because it flowed west toward the Mississippi Valley lands claimed by French explorers and fur traders.

The city flag for Paris is the French Tricole emblazoned with the city seal. Instead of the key to the city, it awards a certificate of ""Marquis de Paris,"" and one of its proudest possessions is a 60-foot model of the Eiffel Tower. .

Tennessee's Role in International Business

Foreign tourists overall spent nearly $362 million in Tennessee in 2006

French-American Chamber of Commerce - Atlanta Chapter: Tennessee
http://www.facc-atlanta.com/information-about-the-southeastatl/state-id/tennessee.html

Tennessee: Exports, Jobs, and Foreign Investment
http://www.ita.doc.gov/td/industry/OTEA/state_reports/tennessee.html

Tennessee Draws Global Investment
http://tnedg.com/index.php/site/articles/business_climate/tennessee_draws_global_investment

World Trade Council of Middle Tennessee
https://www.wtcmt.org/

Impact of Foreign Exports on Tennessee Counties (1999)
http://www.rural.org/publications/Vishwanathan99-5.pdf

Middle Tennessee Industrial Association
http://www.mtida.org/

U.S. Government International Trade Links / Tennessee
http://www.buyusa.gov/tennessee/govtradelinks.html

Export Handbook Tennessee Agribusiness
http://web.utk.edu/~aimag/pubs/sp9805.pdf

Tennessee International Trade News
http://www.einnews.com/tennessee/newsfeed-tennessee-international-trade

Foreign-Owned Companies with Headquarters in Memphis
http://www.memphischamber.com/Articles/DoBusiness/pdfForeign_Comps.aspx

What kind of role does the French-speaking world play in the economics of Tennessee? Since our's is perhaps the nation's most trade-dependent interior state, we might start with exports. In 2004, the value of Tennessee exports was $16,122,900,000, a revenue of around $2732 per capita. Tennessee may have some room for improvement in the export focus of its manufacturing sector (that is manufacturing export sales per manufacturing worker), where it ranks only 30th in the US.

In 2006, Tennessee's export revenue hit an astonishing record of $22,020,000,000. With this figure, Tennessee earns ranks 14th nationally for total export value, while the 89% growth in Tennessee's total since 2002 ranks it 6th. Even in this climate of rapid growth, countries in the French-speaking world are still the origin of nearly 39% of Tennessee's export revenue from its top 25 trading partners. In 2006, Canada-Tennessee alone trade supported 146,000 U.S. jobs. Tennessee's biggest growth market, in dollar terms, was Canada. From 2002 to 2006, export shipments to Canada rose from $3.9 billion to $6.9 billion, an increase of $3.0 billion. Not surprisingly, Tennessee is among Canada's top 10 state trading partners. In 2009, Canadians made more than 360,200 visits to Tennessee, spending $82 million. 146,00 Tennessee jobs were supported by Canada-U.S. trade, and Canada was Tennessee's largest foreign export market.

In 2011 Tennessee Foreign Trade was up 15.5% in revenue from 2010.

$19,079,000,000 from our tope 25 trading partners

exports from countries where French is an official language $9,704,00,0000 or nearly a third of all the revenues from our top 25 trading partners, and sustained or created nearly 58,800 Tennessee jobs producing exportable goods or services.

http://www.canadianembassy.org/statetrade/tn-en.asp

Is there room for a French-speaking Tennessean, who understands francophone cultures in these operations?

Tennessee plays a stellar role in the area of foreign-direct investment. Its 2003 figure, $19.8 billion is up from from $17.5 billion in 2002, with the result. In 2002 5.7% of Tennessee's work force was employed by foreign companies, making it ninth in the US in that category as well as the country's most foreign direct investment dependent interior state. In 2005, foreign-controlled companies employed 125,900 workers in Tennessee, and in 2006 that figure was 140,300. The following document:

http://www.state.tn.us/ecd/pdf/growth/forjul03.pdf

shows 114 companies owned four francophone investor countries. These account for over fifth of the work force employed by foreign companies in Tennessee. Fast forward to a time when our national economy was crumbling into recession, 2008. Documents from that year show even healthier foreign direct investment from countries where French is an official language:

          State Of Tennessee. Foreign Direct Investment and Employment. Current Through September 2008
          http://www.state.tn.us/ecd/research/state_economic.../foreigndirect_08.pdf

          Foreign Subsidiaries In Tennessee State of Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development
          (look for Belgium, Canada, France, Switzerland)
          http://www.tennessee.gov/ecd/research/state_economic_data/pdf/foreigndirect_08.pdf

In 2008, Site Selection Magazine named Tennessee the most competitive state in the U.S. for business investment. Now, in 2009, it is quite clear that French speakers will be helping Tennessee to recover from the recession. The 2009 document summary shows that the number of subsidiaries of companies in countires where French is an official language grew by over 34% in one year, from 138 to 185. Together, these firms account for 22,649 of Tennessee's private-sector jobs.

           State Of Tennessee. Foreign Direct Investment and Employment. Current Through September 2009.
           http://www.state.tn.us/ecd/pdfs/FornDirectInvest0909.pdf

Impact? In the Memphis area, French-owned Technicolor Videocassette, Inc. (Wholesales video cassette recorders & accessories), with 3500 employees is the largest employer among area foreign subsidiaries. Don't forget salaries at foreign-owned companies are generally higher than those of purely American companies.

There are also smaller companies run or owned by French residents of Tennessee, such as

           Amélie De Gaulle Interiors
           http://www.organicdesigner.com/

Would French-speaking Tennesseans who understand francophone cultures be helpful in bringing in more foreign-direct investment?

The 2009 figures do not tell the whole story. For example, Nissan North America, Inc. is in many ways a Franco-Japanese company. Though one may simply call it multi-national, the controling stock interest in French. Equally hard to sort out is the fact that CANBERRA is a US subsidiary of AREVA (French nuclear power company). One of its 3 production and engineering plants in the United States is in Oak Ridge. Aerowing in Nashville is 88% French owned.

           About Aerowing in Nashville (88% French owned)
           http://www.bulletins-electroniques.com/actualites/60214.htm

Kentucky-Tennessee Clay, owned by Imerys SA, a French investment group, has an important operation in Greenfield TN (Weakley County). Chattem, one of Chattanooga's oldest companies, which was reccently sold for 1-point-9 billion dollars to French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi-Aventis, and there are anticipated expansions:

          Drug Maker Sanofi-Aventis Buys Chattem for $1.9 Billion
          http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/22/business/global/22drug.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss

French oil giant, Total, is a research and development partner in solar cell components for a 1.2 billion dollar joint venture (Hemlock Semiconductor, Dow Corning and its partners) to build a polysilicon plant in Clarksville, TN.

What other Tennessee economic stories are not being told by the data? There are French-owned or controlled companies without major administrative offices in Tennessee. Sodexho food service is French owned. French-owned Renault became a controlling shareholder in Nissan in 1999. Nissan moved its American headquarters from Gardenia, CA to Brentwood, TN. The French company, Groupe Danone, owns Purity Dairy in Nashville. In entertainment MCA Nashville and Mercury Nashville are Vivendi (French media giant) companies. Even though these labels are not exclusively country and western, we must not loose sight of the fact that the French have developed a taste for these Tennessee genres, as can be seen in the web site below:

http://www.country-france.com/

Still in the area of entertainment, Technicolor Home Entertainment Services' parent company, Soci_t_ Thomson (digital content solutions), is expanding its Memphis facilities for DVD and other packaged media to 4.3 million square feet. With already the largest distribution facilities in the world, this $50 million expansion will give it the capacity to produce over 1.5 billion DVDs annually by the end of 2004.

I believe there are a number of small importers, services (French restaurants, etc.), craftsman and perhaps micro-manufacturing concerns not covered in the online data provided by the state.

Perhaps a French-speaking Tennessean, who understands francophone cultures would enhance one of these operations.

Federal Express, the Memphis freight-forwarding Fortune 100 giant has an important commitment to business in Europe, through its $220 million hub at the Roissy-Charles De Gaulle airport, operational since September 6, 1999. The hub's area is 77,000 square meters, and the rest of its facilities make its airport the largest cargo platform in Europe, running nearly 1000 tons of freight throu the hup per day. FedEx France serves all of France's cities and employs 2500.

http://www.fedex.com/fr/

There is also a smaller agency office in Toulouse, which opened in April, 2004. Fedex is not the only Tennessee company operating in France. Some others are

France is not the only French-speaking place where Tennessee companies invest. Tennessee-based DiaTech Oncology to choose Montréal for its new clinical pathology laboratory, in April 2004. The need is there. How can we participate?

Tennesseans can learn French in their public and private schools and colleges, their International Baccalaureate programs, the Alliance Française as well as the Tennessee Foreign Language Institute. Certainly French is one of several solid choices for International business, the powerful motor, driving Tennessee's economic recovery. Not supporting the study of foreign languages and cultures is a disengagement from the forces forging that recovery, and an attitude not in solidarity with Tennessee's economic interests.

French-Speaking Tennesseans in the Big Time

Millie from the Millie & Chuck team in CBS's "The Amazing Race" is a Tennessean who speaks French.

Sydney Penny stars as "Samantha Kelly" in "The Bold and the Beautiful". She played "Young Meggie" in the ABC mini-series, "The Thorn Birds", "Julia Santos" on the ABC daytime drama, All My Children, in in the WB series, "Hyperion Bay", "Josie Oliver," in "Beverly Hills 90210". She was born in Nashville, Tennessee, and she speaks French fluently.

Shannen Doherty, television and movie star (Beverly Hills, 90210; A Burning Passion: The Margaret Mitchell Story; Charmed; Scare Tactics; View of Terror, etc.) was born in Memphis Tennessee. She speaks French.

Ashley Judd has had movie roles in "Till Death Do Us Part," "Kiss the Girls," and "Ruby in Paradise" (New York Film Critics Circle award for Best Actress and a Sundance Film Festival Independent Spirit award), and television shows like "Star Trek: The Next Generation", and "Sisters". She is a Tennessee resident, and she majored in French at the University of Kentucky.

Morgan Freeman was born in Memphis, Tennessee, and he speaks French. Among his memorable roles in the movies are ones in "Street Smart," "Driving Miss Daisy," "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves," "Unforgiven," "The Shawshank Redemption," and "Chain Reaction".

Tennessee State Senator Douglas Henry (Democrat, District 21) speaks fluent French.

Kathryn Robinson, of Dayton, Tennessee, a Career Member of the Senior Foreign Service, class of Minister-Counselor, is Ambassador to Ghana, and speaks French.

The Honorable W. Robert Pearson of Tennessee, is a Career member of the Senior Foreign Service, Class of Career Minister, was Deputy Chief of Mission of the US Embassy to France from July 1997 to July 2000, Deputy Permanent Representative to the US Mission to NATO, chair of NATO's Political Committee,Executive Secretary of the Department of State, Ambassador to Turkey and currently Director General of the U.S. Foreign Service. He speaks French.

Tim McCoy, a Tennessean, Vice President for Member Services of the Corporate Council on Africa, a vital trade association focusing on strengthening commercial relationships between the United States and the African continent, and whose members represent nearly 85 percent of total US private sector investments in Africa. He speaks fluent French.

Those interested in a wider and more general set of reasons why knowing French and being familiar with French-speaking cultures is important, should consult the following web site:

French Advocacy Wiki
https://frenchadvocacy.wikispaces.com

On the Importance of Knowing French
http://www.utm.edu/~globeg/profren.shtml

Here are some important addresses for direct advocacy in Tennessee:

Tennessee General Assembly (Senate & House)
http://www.legislature.state.tn.us/

Tennessee Department of Education K12
http://www.state.tn.us/education/

Tennessee State Board of Education
http://www.state.tn.us/sbe/

Tennessee Higher Education Commission
http://www.state.tn.us/thec/

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