Hancock County
County
Hancock County Courthouse and Confederate Monument in Sparta
Hancock County Courthouse and Confederate Monument in Sparta
Map of Georgia highlighting Hancock County
Location within the U.S. state of Georgia
Map of the United States highlighting Georgia
Georgia's location within the U.S.
Coordinates: 33°16′N 83°00′W / 33.27°N 83°W / 33.27; -83
Country United States
State Georgia
FoundedDecember 17, 1793 (1793-12-17)
Named forJohn Hancock
SeatSparta
Largest citySparta
Area
 • Total479 sq mi (1,240 km2)
 • Land472 sq mi (1,220 km2)
 • Water6.8 sq mi (18 km2)  1.4%
Population
 (2020)
 • Total8,735
 • Density19/sq mi (7/km2)
Time zoneUTC−5 (Eastern)
 • Summer (DST)UTC−4 (EDT)
Congressional district10th
Websitewww.hancockcountyga.gov
Thomas Cheely House, ca. 1825

Hancock County is a county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 8,735.[1] The county seat is Sparta.[2] The county was created on December 17, 1793, and named for John Hancock, a Founding Father of the American Revolution.[3][4]

Hancock County is included in the Milledgeville, Georgia micropolitan statistical area.

History

Before the Civil War, Hancock County was developed for cotton plantations, as international demand was high for the commodity. The land was developed and the cotton cultivated and processed by thousands of enslaved African Americans. This area is classified as part of the Black Belt of the United States, primarily due to its fertile soil. It was later also associated with the slave society. Enslaved persons made up 61% of the total county population in the 1850 Census.[5] Unusually for such a plantation-dominated society, the county's representatives at the Georgia Secession Convention, who were overwhelmingly white and Democratic, voted against secession in 1861.[6]

But the secession conventions were dominated by men who voted for separation, and Georgia soon seceded and entered the war.

After the war, the freed black population predominated by number in the county for decades. After emancipation and granting of citizenship and the franchise, most freedmen joined the Republican Party, which they credited with gaining their freedom. Conservative white Democrats resisted political domination by blacks, although they were outnumbered. In the later years of Reconstruction, whites used violence, intimidation and fraud to suppress black voting. In 1908 the white-dominated legislature passed an amendment that effectively disenfranchised most black voters and many poor whites ones.

Contemporary voting issues

According to the 2010 census[7] estimate, the racial makeup of the county seat of Sparta was 84% African American, 15% White, 0.50% from two or more races, 0.30% Asian, and 0.10% Native American. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.70% of the population.

Since the late 20th century, most African Americans support the Democratic Party and conservative whites support the Republican Party.

In August 2015, the majority-white Hancock County Board of Elections initiated an effort to purge voters from the rolls. They directed deputy sheriffs to the homes of more than 180 black people residing in Sparta (these constituted some 20% of the city's total registered voters) to inform them they would lose their voting rights unless they appeared in court to prove their residency. A total of 53 voters were removed the voting rolls, but a federal judge overturned the Board's actions. It was asserted that these actions were racially based.[8]

In 2021, the African-American elections superintendent for the City of Sparta was referred to the Georgia Secretary of State's Office for prosecution for allegedly imposing illegal requirements for candidates in the 2017 municipal election.[9]

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 479 square miles (1,240 km2), of which 472 square miles (1,220 km2) is land and 6.8 square miles (18 km2) (1.4%) is water.[10]

The western portion of Hancock County, which is defined by a line running southeast from White Plains to the intersection of State Route 22 and Springfield Road, then running southwest along State Route 22, is located in the Upper Oconee River sub-basin of the Altamaha River basin. The southern portion of the county, defined by a triangle made of State Route 22 and State Route 15, with Sparta at its apex, is located in the Lower Oconee River sub-basin of the same Altamaha River basin. The northeastern portion of Hancock County is located in the Upper Ogeechee River sub-basin of the Ogeechee River basin.[11]

Major highways

No Interstate Highway

Adjacent counties

Communities

Demographics

Historical population
CensusPop.Note%±
180014,456—
181013,330−7.8%
182012,734−4.5%
183011,820−7.2%
18409,659−18.3%
185011,57819.9%
186012,0444.0%
187011,317−6.0%
188016,98950.1%
189017,1490.9%
190018,2776.6%
191019,1895.0%
192018,357−4.3%
193013,070−28.8%
194012,764−2.3%
195011,052−13.4%
19609,979−9.7%
19709,019−9.6%
19809,4665.0%
19908,908−5.9%
200010,07613.1%
20109,429−6.4%
20208,735−7.4%
U.S. Decennial Census[12]
1790-1880[13]1890-1910[14]
1920-1930[15] 1930-1940[16]
1940-1950[17] 1960-1980[18]
1980-2000[19] 2010[20] 2020[21]
Hancock County, Georgia – Racial and Ethnic Composition
(NH = Non-Hispanic)
Note: the US Census treats Hispanic/Latino as an ethnic category. This table excludes Latinos from the racial categories and assigns them to a separate category. Hispanics/Latinos may be of any race.
Race / Ethnicity Pop 2000[22] Pop 2010[20] Pop 2020[21] % 2000 % 2010 % 2020
White alone (NH) 2,141 2,212 2,413 21.25% 23.46% 27.62%
Black or African American alone (NH) 7,820 6,959 6,025 77.61% 73.80% 68.98%
Native American or Alaska Native alone (NH) 16 21 23 0.16% 0.22% 0.26%
Asian alone (NH) 9 47 37 0.09% 0.50% 0.42%
Pacific Islander alone (NH) 0 1 1 0.00% 0.01% 0.01%
Some Other Race alone (NH) 2 0 10 0.02% 0.00% 0.11%
Mixed Race/Multi-Racial (NH) 34 50 163 0.34% 0.53% 1.87%
Hispanic or Latino (any race) 54 139 63 0.54% 1.47% 0.72%
Total 10,076 9,429 8,735 100.00% 100.00% 100.00%

As of the 2020 United States census, there were 8,735 people, 2,974 households, and 1,755 families residing in the county.

Politics

Hancock County has been one of the most consistently Democratic counties in the entire nation since the Civil War. But the composition of the party voters and policies they support have undergone major changes since the late twentieth century, switching from whites to African Americans.

The majority of county voters have voted for the Democratic presidential nominee in every election since 1852 except that of 1972, when George McGovern lost every county in Georgia. McGovern did perform better here than elsewhere in the state, losing by only 93 votes. Apart from Richard Nixon in that election, Barry Goldwater in 1964 was the only Republican since at least 1912 to gain 30 percent of the county's vote.[23] That year, most of the county's African-American majority was still largely disenfranchised and could not vote at all. The conservative white minority favored Goldwater because its traditional Democratic loyalties had frayed.

In 1980 Hancock County gave its "favorite son" candidate Jimmy Carter his second best county in the nation.[24] In 1984 it supported Walter Mondale, who won more than 76.6 percent of Hancock County ballots, making it his fourth-best county outside the District of Columbia. He was otherwise within 3,819 votes of losing all fifty states.[25]

United States presidential election results for Hancock County, Georgia[26]
Year Republican Democratic Third party
No. %No. %No. %
2020 1,154 27.79% 2,976 71.66% 23 0.55%
2016 843 23.49% 2,701 75.28% 44 1.23%
2012 769 18.80% 3,308 80.88% 13 0.32%
2008 795 18.28% 3,535 81.30% 18 0.41%
2004 822 23.12% 2,715 76.37% 18 0.51%
2000 662 21.45% 2,414 78.22% 10 0.32%
1996 438 16.55% 2,135 80.69% 73 2.76%
1992 506 16.03% 2,461 77.95% 190 6.02%
1988 621 23.99% 1,947 75.20% 21 0.81%
1984 644 23.39% 2,109 76.61% 0 0.00%
1980 573 20.40% 2,205 78.50% 31 1.10%
1976 651 23.52% 2,117 76.48% 0 0.00%
1972 1,595 51.50% 1,502 48.50% 0 0.00%
1968 381 10.44% 2,165 59.32% 1,104 30.25%
1964 925 46.27% 1,074 53.73% 0 0.00%
1960 286 26.83% 780 73.17% 0 0.00%
1956 354 29.16% 860 70.84% 0 0.00%
1952 267 17.66% 1,245 82.34% 0 0.00%
1948 111 14.38% 441 57.12% 220 28.50%
1944 109 22.29% 380 77.71% 0 0.00%
1940 153 23.36% 501 76.49% 1 0.15%
1936 57 10.00% 504 88.42% 9 1.58%
1932 18 3.27% 529 96.01% 4 0.73%
1928 118 17.61% 552 82.39% 0 0.00%
1924 22 7.14% 272 88.31% 14 4.55%
1920 53 9.62% 498 90.38% 0 0.00%
1916 30 4.89% 562 91.53% 22 3.58%
1912 13 2.16% 549 91.35% 39 6.49%

Notable people

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Census - Geography Profile: Hancock County, Georgia". United States Census Bureau. Retrieved December 27, 2022.
  2. ↑ "Find a County". National Association of Counties. Retrieved June 7, 2011.
  3. ↑ "Hancock County". Georgia.gov. Archived from the original on August 27, 2008. Retrieved March 20, 2018.
  4. ↑ Gannett, Henry (1905). The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States. Govt. Print. Off. pp. 148.
  5. ↑ "Census of 1850" (PDF). U.S. Census Bureau. Archived (PDF) from the original on January 24, 2005. Retrieved August 1, 2016.
  6. ↑ Joslyn, Mauriel (2003). "Hancock County". New Georgia Encyclopedia. Georgia Humanities Council.
  7. ↑ "Annual Estimates of the Resident Population for Incorporated Places: April 1, 2010 to July 1, 2015". Archived from the original on June 2, 2016. Retrieved July 2, 2016.
  8. ↑ "Critics See Efforts by Counties and Towns to Purge Minority Voters From Rolls". The New York Times. July 31, 2016. Retrieved August 1, 2016.
  9. ↑ "Voting violations cases sent to prosecutors, including one in Hancock County", WRDW, 19 February 2021
  10. ↑ "US Gazetteer files: 2010, 2000, and 1990". United States Census Bureau. February 12, 2011. Retrieved April 23, 2011.
  11. ↑ "Georgia Soil and Water Conservation Commission Interactive Mapping Experience". Georgia Soil and Water Conservation Commission. Retrieved November 20, 2015.
  12. ↑ "Decennial Census of Population and Housing by Decades". US Census Bureau.
  13. ↑ "1880 Census Population by Counties 1790-1800" (PDF). US Census Bureau. 1880.
  14. ↑ "1910 Census of Population - Georgia" (PDF). US Census Bureau. 1910.
  15. ↑ "1930 Census of Population - Georgia" (PDF). US Census Bureau. 1930.
  16. ↑ "1940 Census of Population - Georgia" (PDF). US Census Bureau. 1940.
  17. ↑ "1950 Census of Population - Georgia -" (PDF). US Census Bureau. 1950.
  18. ↑ "1980 Census of Population - Number of Inhabitants - Georgia" (PDF). US Census Bureau. 1980.
  19. ↑ "2000 Census of Population - Population and Housing Unit Counts - Georgia" (PDF). US Census Bureau. 2000.
  20. 1 2 "P2 HISPANIC OR LATINO, AND NOT HISPANIC OR LATINO BY RACE – 2010: DEC Redistricting Data (PL 94-171) – Hancock County, Georgia". United States Census Bureau.
  21. 1 2 "P2 HISPANIC OR LATINO, AND NOT HISPANIC OR LATINO BY RACE – 2020: DEC Redistricting Data (PL 94-171) – Hancock County, Georgia". United States Census Bureau.
  22. ↑ "P004 HISPANIC OR LATINO, AND NOT HISPANIC OR LATINO BY RACE – 2000: DEC Summary File 1 – Hancock County, Alabama". United States Census Bureau.
  23. ↑ Scammon, Richard M. (compiler); America at the Polls: A Handbook of Presidential Election statistics 1920-1964, pp. 97, 100, 103, 106, 109 ISBN 0405077114
  24. ↑ Dave Leip's U.S. Election Atlas; 1980 Presidential Election Statistics
  25. ↑ Dave Leip's U.S. Election Atlas; 1984 Presidential Election Statistics
  26. ↑ Leip, David. "Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections". uselectionatlas.org. Retrieved March 20, 2018.

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