Tazewell is a town in and the county seat of Claiborne County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 2,165 at the 2000 census, 2,218 at the 2010 census, and 2,348 at the 2020 census. The town is named for Tazewell, Virginia, which itself was named for Henry Tazewell (1753–1799), a U.S. senator from Virginia.
History
In 1750, Dr. Thomas Walker of Virginia publicized the location of Cumberland Gap, which brought a stream of long hunters down the Clinch and Powell valleys into what is now Claiborne County. The land at the time was part of Cherokee and Shawnee hunting grounds, and hostile attacks by members of these two tribes were not uncommon. To protect themselves, hunters, fur traders and early settlers erected a series of small forts and stations along the Powell and Clinch valleys. One such station, known as Fort Butler, was located just west of modern Tazewell.
left|thumb|210px|The Graham-Kivett House, built c. 1810
Among the earliest settlers in the Tazewell area was John Hunt (1750–1822), a militia captain who would later be instrumental in the founding of Huntsville, Alabama. In 1804, three years after the creation of Claiborne County, Tazewell was chosen as the county seat due in part to Hunt's influence (although a local legend states that the residents of Tazewell's rival for the seat, Springdale, were too intoxicated to vote on the day of selection). Hunt was named the county's first sheriff, and the government met at his house until a courthouse was constructed. The original courthouse was a wooden structure which had hitching posts for horses in front.
In 1862, at the height of the Civil War, Confederate troops occupied Tazewell as part of the greater struggle for the strategic Cumberland Gap. When the Confederates evacuated the town in November of that year, a fire followed, destroying much of Tazewell. The town retains a number of historical structures, mostly from the Victorian era, including a historic jail, built in 1819.
In 1890, plans developed for a railroad through the town, connecting nearby Cumberland Gap to Knoxville The town is situated on the northern slope of Wallen Ridge, the northernmost of a series of long, narrow ridges that comprise the Ridge and Valley Province of the Appalachian Mountains. Big Barren Creek rises in the western section of Tazewell and flows southwestward for approximately before emptying into the Norris Lake impoundment of the Clinch River. The streams in the eastern section of Tazewell are part of the watershed of the Powell River, a Clinch tributary that flows westward a few miles north of Tazewell.
Tazewell is centered just east of the junction of , which connects the town to Morristown to the southeast and Middlesboro, Kentucky to the north, and , which connects the town to Maynardville to the southwest and Sneedville and the upper Clinch Valley to the northeast.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of , all land.
Climate
Demographics
2020 census
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:right"
|+Tazewell racial composition
!scope="col"| Race
!scope="col"| Number
!scope="col"| Percentage
|-
!scope="row"| White (non-Hispanic)
| 2,151
| 91.61%
|-
!scope="row"| Black or African American (non-Hispanic)
| 55
| 2.34%
|-
!scope="row"| Native American
| 5
| 0.21%
|-
!scope="row"| Asian
| 3
| 0.13%
|-
!scope="row"| Pacific Islander
| 1
| 0.04%
|-
!scope="row"| Other/Mixed
| 66
| 2.81%
|-
!scope="row"| Hispanic or Latino
| 67
| 2.85%
|}
As of the 2020 United States census, there were 2,348 people, 1,022 households, and 630 families residing in the town.
2000 census
As of the census