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Burke County is an original county of Georgia, created February 5, 1777, and named for English political writer, Right Hon. Edmund Burke, a Member of Parliament in the Whig Party who favored conciliation with the colonies. In 1779, Col. John Twiggs and brothers Col. William Few and Benjamin Few, along with 250 men, defeated British in the Battle of Burke Jail.
Burke County is located within the CSRA (the Central Savannah River Area). During the antebellum period, it was developed by slave labor for large cotton plantations. The county was majority African American in population in this period, as slaveholders wanted high numbers of slaves for laborers to cultivate and process cotton.
The military tradition continued during the American Civil War, when Burke County provided volunteers for numerous units: the 2nd Regiment Georgia Infantry Company D (Burke Sharpshooters), 3rd Regiment Georgia Infantry Company A (Burke Guards), 32nd Regiment Georgia Infantry Company C (Williams Volunteers), 32nd Regiment Georgia Infantry Company K (Alexander Greys), 48th Regiment Georgia Infantry Company D (Burke Volunteers), Cobb's Legion Infantry company E (Poythress Volunteers), and the Cobb's Legion Cavalry Company F (Grubb's Hussars).
Agriculture continued as the basis of the economy for decades after the American Civil War, when most freedmen worked as sharecroppers or tenant farmers. Cotton was the major commodity crop. In the early 20th century, mechanization of agriculture caused many negro farm workers to lose their jobs.
As can be seen from the census tables below, the county lost population from 1910 to 1920, and from 1930 to 1970. Part of the decline was related to the Great Migration, as millions of African Americans left the rural South and Jim Crow oppression for jobs and opportunities in industrial cities of the Midwest, North. From World War II on, primary migration destinations were West Coast cities because of the buildup of the defense industry. In addition, whites left rural areas for industrial jobs in the North, in cities such as Chicago and Detroit.