History Brooks County, Georgia

1 history

1.1 native americans , spanish
1.2 history
1.3 establishment
1.4 civil war
1.5 reconstruction , jim crow
1.6 modern

history
native americans , spanish

historic native peoples occupying area @ time of european encounter apalachee , lower creek. first europeans in brooks county spanish missionaries colony in florida, arrived around 1570.

early history

the area become brooks county first opened european-american settlement in 1818 when irwin county established. coffee road built through region in 1820s. lowndes county s first court session held @ tavern owned ran sion hall on coffee road, near morven, georgia in brooks county.

establishment

many residents of lowndes county unhappy when atlantic , gulf railroad announced june 17, 1858 had selected planned route bypass troupville. on june 22 @ 3:00 am, lowndes county courthouse @ troupville set aflame william b. crawford, fled south carolina after being released on bond.

on august 9, meeting convened in academy building in troupville @ decided create area of lowndes county west of withlacoochee river new county called brooks county.

on december 11, 1858, brooks county organized parts of lowndes , thomas counties , named preston brooks, member of congress prior civil war. best known vicious physical assault in congress of older senator charles sumner, anti-slavery advocate massachusetts.

the county developed cotton plantations, dependent on enslaved laborers, many of whom transported south in domestic slave trade during antebellum years. cotton brought high return local , international markets, making large planters wealthy. @ time of 1860 federal census, brooks county had white population of 3,067, free people of color population of 2, , slave population of 3,282. atlantic , gulf railroad reached quitman on october 23, 1860.

civil war

during civil war, county main producer of food confederacy; became known smokehouse of confederacy. {history of brooks county georgia 1858-1948}

some confederate army regiments raised men of brooks county. plantation owners, county officials, , slave patrol members exempt military conscription, caused contention between different economic classes in brooks county.

in august 1864, local white man named john vickery began plotting slave rebellion. plan called killing slave owners, stealing weapons find, setting fire quitman, going madison, florida, burning town, getting union troops gulf coast, , returning quitman. on evening before rebellion, slave arrested theft , interrogated. vickery arrested well. vickery , 4 slaves given military trial local militia. 2 confederate deserters florida believed have been involved, not caught time of trial. on august 23, 1864 @ 6:00 p.m., vickery, slave named sam, slave named nelson, , slave named george publicly hanged in quitman. court not reach decision on guilt of slave named warren, owned buford elliot.

reconstruction , jim crow

after war, many freedmen worked sharecroppers or tenant farmers, in effort preserve independence planters. following war , reconstruction era, brooks county 1 of areas high rate of racial violence whites against blacks. county in georgia had highest number of lynchings 1880 1930, when georgia state highest number of such murders in country of such extrajudicial murders. there confirmed killings of 24 persons lynching in period, half killed in rampage in may 1918.

in 1918, @ least 13 african americans killed during manhunt after sidney johnson killed abusive white planter. johnson had been forced work under state s convict lease system. among killed hayes turner, , next day wife mary turner, 8 months pregnant. parents of 2 children. mary turner had condemned mob s killing of husband. abducted in brooks county , brutally murdered @ folsom s bridge on little river on lowndes county side; unborn child cut body , killed separately. johnson killed in shootout police. many 500 african americans fled lowndes , brooks counties rather risk such treatment in future.

mary turner s lynching drew widespread condemnation nationally, , formed impetus anti-lynching crusaders campaign 1922 dyer bill, sponsored leonidas dyer of st. louis. proposed make lynching federal crime, southern states never prosecuted crimes. in 2010, state historical marker, encaptioned mary turner , lynching rampage, installed @ folsom s bridge in lowndes county inform public of these atrocities.

modern

in 21st century, brooks county classified being in plantation trace tourist region.