Edgecombe County, North Carolina: History
This area eventually comprising Edgecombe County was historically home to the Tuscarora, a Native American people. The first European settlers arrived in the Tar River region in the mid-1730s. On May 16, 1732, Royal Governor of the Province of North Carolina George Burrington, in response to a petition and with the consent of his council, authorized for the representation of an Edgecombe Precinct in the North Carolina General Assembly, named in honor of British politician Richard Edgcumbe. This decision was vetoed by the assembly and subsequently debated for several years. In 1741, the assembly acceded to the creation of the precinct. The reason for why the eventual county's name is spelled differently than the honoree's name or when this discrepancy came into practice is unknown.
In 1746 part of Edgecombe County became Granville County. In 1758 a portion, including the county seat of Enfield, became Halifax County, while another portion in the south became part of Dobbs County. In 1777 yet another part became Nash County.
In 1763 the county seat was designated at the town of Tarboro. The first U.S. Census in 1790 recorded a total population of 10,255. In 1840 the Wilmington and Raleigh Railroad—later renamed the Wilmington and Weldon Railroad—was completed with a line through the county, which spurred the development of the communities of Rocky Mount, Battleboro, and Sharpsburg. By 1850, the county produced significant amounts of cotton and recorded a population 17,189. In 1855, parts of Nash, Edgecombe, Johnston, and Wayne counties were combined to form Wilson County.
At the onset of the American Civil War, secessionist sentiment predominated in Edgecombe. From its population six companies were raised for service with the Confederate States Army. In 1863, federal forces conducted a raid on Rocky Mount, destroying railroad infrastructure and several industrial sites. Another federal incursion in December 1864 led to significant damage to property in the county east of Tarboro. In the aftermath of the war, the economy of eastern North Carolina was adversely affected. In the Reconstruction era, freedmen gained political power and, as a result, three black men were elected to the North Carolina General Assembly between 1868 and 1872 and black people held significant influence in local government. In 1871, after significant political controversy, all parts of Edgecombe County west of the Wilmington and Weldon Railroad were annexed to Nash leading to the bifurcation of the Edgecombe communities of Battleboro and Sharpsburg between the two counties. In 1883, the county was reduced to its present dimensions when part of it was annexed to Wilson.
From the Reconstruction era until the Great Depression in the 1930s, the county experienced demographic increases and the development of industry.