Hampton County, South Carolina: History
The county is named for Wade Hampton III, one of the country's leading slaveowners and a Lieutenant General for the Confederacy during the American Civil War. After the war, he led the Redeemers and Red Shirts on a campaign to reestablish Democratic rule South Carolina. At the end of the Reconstruction era he became Governor and then U.S. Senator from South Carolina.
The county had a peak of population in 1910, when agriculture was still the mainstay of the economy. Thousands of African Americans left after that for urban areas, especially in the North, in the Great Migration. The mechanization of agriculture reduced farm jobs.
On April 13, 2020, a powerful EF4 tornado devastated several communities within Hampton County, with the worst damage occurring in Estill and Nixville. Over 30 houses were destroyed, and 5 people were killed with another 60 sustaining injuries from the tornado.