Historic Sites in Brooks County

The history of Brooks County

Brooks County was organized on December 11, 1858, from portions of Lowndes and Thomas counties along the Florida line. It was named for Preston S. Brooks, a South Carolina congressman and defender of slavery who on May 22, 1856, beat Massachusetts senator Charles Sumner with a cane on the floor of the U.S. Senate, a choice that reflected the sectional passions of the late 1850s. Quitman has been the county seat since the county's founding. Settlers reached the area along the Coffee Road from central Georgia, and agriculture became the foundation of local life. The Atlantic and Gulf Railroad reached Quitman in 1860, and during the Civil War the county was known as a major source of food for the Confederacy. The Civil War delayed construction of the courthouse, which was completed in 1864 and remains in use. The county also carries the memory of severe racial violence. In May 1918, after a white planter was killed, white mobs in Brooks and Lowndes counties lynched at least thirteen African Americans, including Hayes Turner and his wife, Mary Turner, who was eight months pregnant; hundreds of Black residents fled the area afterward. In the twentieth century Quitman embraced camellia growing and became known as the Camellia City.

Sources: georgiaencyclopedia.orgen.wikipedia.orgzinnedproject.org