Wilkes County, Georgia

Wilkes County
Wilkes County
County
	Wilkes County Courthouse
	Location within the U.S. state of Georgia
	Georgia's location within the U.S.
	Coordinates: 33°47′N 82°44′W / 33.79°N 82.74°W
Country	United States
State	Georgia
Founded	February 5, 1777; 247 years ago
Named for	John Wilkes
Seat	Washington
Largest city	Washington
Area
• Total	474 sq mi (1,230 km2)
• Land	469 sq mi (1,210 km2)
• Water	4.6 sq mi (12 km2) 1.0%
Population (2020)
• Total	9,565
• Density	20/sq mi (8/km2)
Time zone	UTC−5 (Eastern)
• Summer (DST)	UTC−4 (EDT)
Congressional districts	10th, 12th
Website	www.washingtonwilkes.org

Wilkes County is a county located in the east central portion of the U.S. state of Georgia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 9,565.^[1] The county seat is the city of Washington.^[2]

Referred to as "Washington-Wilkes", the county seat and county are commonly treated as a single entity by locals, including the area's historical society^[3] and the Chamber of Commerce.^[4] It is part of the Central Savannah River Area (CSRA).

History

Wilkes County, named for British politician and supporter of American independence, John Wilkes, is considered Georgia's first county established by European Americans; it was the first of eight original counties created in the first state constitution on February 5, 1777. The other seven counties were organized from existing colonial parishes.

Wilkes was unique in being made up of land ceded in 1773 by the indigenous Creek and Cherokee Native American nations in their respective Treaties of Augusta.^[5] Its location was unique due to its close proximity to the Atlantic seaboard fall line.

Between 1790 and 1854, Wilkes County's area was reduced as it was divided to organize new counties following the growth of population in the area. The Georgia legislature formed the counties of Elbert, Oglethorpe, and Lincoln entirely from portions of Wilkes County. Wilkes also contributed part of the lands used in the creation of Madison, Warren, Taliaferro, Hart, McDuffie, and Greene Counties.^[6]

Wilkes County was the site of one of the most important battles of the American Revolutionary War to be fought in Georgia. During the Battle of Kettle Creek in 1779, the American Patriot forces were victorious over British Loyalists.^[7]

During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, colonists depended on enslaved African-American workers and whites to clear land, develop plantations, and cultivate and process cotton in this area. Long-staple cotton would not grow in this upland areas and short-staple cotton was originally too labor-intensive to be profitable.

In 1793, American Eli Whitney perfected his revolutionary invention of the cotton gin at Mount Pleasant, a cotton plantation east of Washington. It allowed mechanization of the processing of short-staple cotton, making its cultivation profitable in the upland areas. As a result, there was a dramatic increase in the development of new cotton plantations throughout the Deep South to cultivate short-staple cotton.

Settlers increased pressure on the federal government to remove Native Americans from the region, including the Five Civilized Tribes from the Southeast. In 1794, Revolutionary War veteran Elijah Clarke, led a group of men from Wilkes County into traditionally Creek lands and established a town and several forts and called it the Trans-Oconee Republic.^[8] While short lived, the incursion was part of a broader movement of incursion into traditionally native lands. Congress passed the Indian Removal Act in 1830 and the government forcibly removed most of the members of these tribes to Indian Territory west of the Mississippi River.

Production of short-staple cotton in the Deep South soon superseded that of long-staple cotton, grown primarily on the Sea Islands and in the Low Country.^[9] Such expansion dramatically increased the demand for slave labor in the Deep South, resulting in a longstanding domestic slave trade that transported more than a million slaves in forced migrations from the Upper South. King Cotton brought great wealth to many planters in the decades before the Civil War.

None of the battles of the American Civil War was fought in or near Wilkes County. But here President Jefferson Davis met for the final time with the Confederate Cabinet, and they officially dissolved the government of the Confederate States of America.^[10] Wilkes County was the last-known location of the gold rumored to have been lost from the Confederate Treasury.^[11]^[12] The present-day Wilkes County Courthouse was built in Washington at the site of the cabinet meeting.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 474 square miles (1,230 km²), of which 469 square miles (1,210 km²) is land and 4.6 square miles (12 km²) (1.0%) is water.^[13] It is located in the Piedmont region above the fall line.

The northern quarter of Wilkes County, in a curved line from Rayle through Tignall to the northeastern corner of the county, is located in the Broad River sub-basin of the Savannah River basin. The eastern portion of the county, from Washington east, and bordered to the north and west by the Broad River sub-basin, is located in the Upper Savannah River sub-basin of the larger Savannah River basin. The rest of the county, south of Washington, is located in the Little River sub-basin of the Savannah River basin.^[14]

Major highways

Adjacent counties

Elbert County (north)
Lincoln County (east)
McDuffie County (southeast)
Warren County (south)
Taliaferro County (southwest)
Oglethorpe County (west)

Communities

City

Washington (county seat)

Towns

Demographics

Changes in agriculture through mechanization, the Great Depression, and a mass migration of African Americans from the area in the mid-20th century have resulted in a decline of population in the rural county since 1930.

Historical population
Census	Pop.	Note	%±
1790	31,500		—
1800	13,103		−58.4%
1810	14,887		13.6%
1820	17,607		18.3%
1830	14,237		−19.1%
1840	10,148		−28.7%
1850	12,107		19.3%
1860	11,420		−5.7%
1870	11,796		3.3%
1880	15,985		35.5%
1890	18,081		13.1%
1900	20,866		15.4%
1910	23,441		12.3%
1920	24,210		3.3%
1930	15,944		−34.1%
1940	15,084		−5.4%
1950	12,388		−17.9%
1960	10,961		−11.5%
1970	10,184		−7.1%
1980	10,951		7.5%
1990	10,597		−3.2%
2000	10,687		0.8%
2010	10,593		−0.9%
2020	9,565		−9.7%
2023 (est.)	9,518	^[15]	−0.5%
U.S. Decennial Census^[16] 1790-1880^[17] 1890-1910^[18] 1920-1930^[19] 1930-1940^[20] 1940-1950^[21] 1960-1980^[22] 1980-2000^[23] 2010^[24]

Wilkes County racial composition 2020^[25]
Race	Num.	Perc.
White	4,952	51.77%
Black or African American	3,838	40.13%
Native American	22	0.23%
Asian	59	0.62%
Other/Mixed	295	3.08%
Hispanic or Latino	399	4.17%

As of the 2020 United States census, there were 9,565 people, 3,979 households, and 2,421 families residing in the county.

Politics

United States presidential election results for Wilkes County, Georgia^[26]
Year	Republican		Democratic		Third party
Year	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%
2020	2,823	56.11%	2,160	42.93%	48	0.95%
2016	2,572	57.33%	1,848	41.19%	66	1.47%
2012	2,635	55.30%	2,087	43.80%	43	0.90%
2008	2,705	53.46%	2,315	45.75%	40	0.79%
2004	2,490	54.75%	2,028	44.59%	30	0.66%
2000	2,044	50.77%	1,940	48.19%	42	1.04%
1996	1,417	39.51%	1,971	54.96%	198	5.52%
1992	1,535	38.74%	1,955	49.34%	472	11.91%
1988	1,810	53.71%	1,549	45.96%	11	0.33%
1984	1,837	53.67%	1,586	46.33%	0	0.00%
1980	1,212	33.45%	2,350	64.86%	61	1.68%
1976	1,067	30.24%	2,461	69.76%	0	0.00%
1972	2,195	77.26%	646	22.74%	0	0.00%
1968	873	24.70%	953	26.96%	1,709	48.35%
1964	1,652	53.48%	1,437	46.52%	0	0.00%
1960	395	18.11%	1,786	81.89%	0	0.00%
1956	304	15.06%	1,714	84.94%	0	0.00%
1952	286	16.01%	1,500	83.99%	0	0.00%
1948	95	7.84%	771	63.61%	346	28.55%
1944	159	14.39%	946	85.61%	0	0.00%
1940	123	10.68%	1,022	88.72%	7	0.61%
1936	78	6.95%	1,031	91.89%	13	1.16%
1932	42	3.43%	1,172	95.75%	10	0.82%
1928	798	51.65%	747	48.35%	0	0.00%
1924	44	4.09%	836	77.77%	195	18.14%
1920	12	1.35%	876	98.65%	0	0.00%
1916	52	6.09%	785	91.92%	17	1.99%
1912	66	9.09%	657	90.50%	3	0.41%