Southampton County is a county located on the southern border of the Commonwealth of Virginia. North Carolina is to the south. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 17,996. Its county seat is Courtland.

History

In the early 17th century, the explorer Captain John Smith founded the settlement of Jamestown; in the next decades of the colony's history, Jamestown settlers explored and began settling the regions adjacent to Hampton Roads. The Virginia Colony was divided into eight shires (or counties) with a total population of approximately 5,000 inhabitants in 1634. Most of Southampton County was originally part of Warrosquyoake Shire. The shires were soon to be called counties. In 1637 Warrosquyoake Shire was renamed Isle of Wight County.

In 1749, the portion of Isle of Wight County west of the Blackwater River was organized as Southampton County. Later, part of Nansemond County, which is now the Independent City of Suffolk, was added to Southampton County. This area was cultivated for tobacco and later for mixed crops, dependent on the labor of enslaved African Americans after a relatively short period when many white indentured servants came to the colony.

In August 1831, an enslaved preacher named Nat Turner led a slave rebellion in Southampton County against local white residents, killing about 60 people. The rebellion ended, and Turner and his rebels were tried, convicted, and executed. Meanwhile, white mobs had seized and lynched nearly 200 black residents of Southampton County, most of them enslaved.

Southampton County may have been named by Virginian settlers for Southampton, a major port city in Hampshire. Alternatively, it may have been named for Henry Wriothesley, one of the founders of the Virginia Company.

Geography

275px|right|thumb|Southampton County from 1895 map of Virginia

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which is land and (0.5%) is water.

Southampton County is bounded by the Blackwater River on the east and the Meherrin River on the west. The Nottoway River flows through the center of the county. All three rivers are tributaries of the Chowan River, which flows south into Albemarle Sound, North Carolina. The Blackwater River separates Southampton County from Isle of Wight County, and the Meherrin River separates it from Greensville County.

Adjacent counties

  • Surry County – north
  • Isle of Wight County – northeast
  • City of Franklin – east
  • City of Suffolk – southeast
  • Hertford County, North Carolina – south
  • Northampton County, North Carolina – southwest
  • Greensville County – west
  • Sussex County – northwest

Demographics

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Notable people

  • Bill Bailey, tap dancer who was the first person recorded doing the moonwalk dance
  • Pearl Bailey, actress and singer
  • Antonio Banks, gridiron football player and coach
  • Earl E. Bell, Virginia House of Delegates
  • Henry Taylor Blow, United States House of Representatives and Commissioner of the District of Columbia
  • Benjamin Blunt, Virginia House of Delegates
  • Benjamin Blunt Jr., Virginia House of Delegates and member of the Virginia Ratifying Convention
  • John Brown, author and former slave
  • Samuel Butts, US Army officer
  • Charlotte Taylor Blow Charless, founder of the Home of the Friendless in St. Louis for elderly, indigent women
  • George B. Cary, United States House of Representatives
  • Colgate Darden, Governor of Virginia, United States House of Representatives, president of the University of Virginia, and Chancellor of the College of William and Mary
  • Percy Ellsworth, professional football player
  • Anthony W. Gardiner, ninth president of Liberia
  • William Y. Gholson, Justice of the Ohio Supreme Court
  • Katherine Godwin, First Lady of Virginia
  • S. Bernard Goodwyn, chief justice of the Supreme Court of Virginia
  • John C. Gray, United States House of Representatives and Virginia House of Delegates
  • Joseph Gray, House of Burgesses
  • Thomas R. Gray, attorney, author, and diplomat, known for writing The Confessions of Nat Turner
  • Benjamin F. Hicks, inventor
  • Samuel Kello, Virginia Ratifying Convention and clerk of the Southampton County Court
  • Menalcus Lankford, United States House of Representatives
  • William Mahone, United States Senator, Virginia Senate, Confederate States Army general, and chief engineer of the Norfolk and Petersburg Railroad
  • William V. Rawlings, Virginia Senate
  • Dred Scott, enslaved man known for the Dred Scott Decision of the Supreme Court of the United States
  • Hack U. Stephenson, Virginia House of Delegates
  • Henry Taylor, Virginia House of Delegates and House of Burgesses
  • George Henry Thomas, general in the Union Army during the American Civil War
  • James Trezvant, United States House of Representatives, Virginia Senate, and Virginia House of Delegates
  • William H. Tucker, Wisconsin Senate
  • Edith Turner, leader of the Nottoway people
  • James Turner, Governor of North Carolina, United States Senate, North Carolina Senate, and North Carolina House of Representatives
  • Nat Turner, leader of a rebellion of enslaved people

See also

  • National Register of Historic Places listings in Southampton County, Virginia
  • Nat Turner's Rebellion

References

  • Southampton County Website
  • Hampton Roads Economic Development Alliance – serving Southampton County