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Please add profiles of those who were born, lived or died in Haywood County, Tennessee.
Official Website
Haywood County was created from part of Madison County in 1823–24, and was named for Tennessee judge and historian John Haywood.
For much of the county's history, agriculture, especially growing cotton as a commodity, was the basis of the local economy.
After Emancipation in 1865, many planters hired freedmen as tenant farmers and sharecroppers to produce the cotton crops, which were still important to the state.
On June 20, 1940, Elbert Williams, a black man, was killed in Brownsville for "attempting to qualify to vote" and "an interest in Negro affairs." He had organized a local chapter of the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People). He was the last recorded lynching victim in the state. Like other southern states, Tennessee had raised barriers at the turn of the century to voter registration to disenfranchise blacks. Whites maintained the political exclusion, sometimes with violence. Williams was murdered and his body was thrown into the Hatchie River and was later recovered.
Adjacent Counties
Cities, Towns & Communities
- Belle Eagle
- Bird Bower
- Brownsville (County Seat)
- Christmasville
- Dancyville
- Nutbush
- Poplar Corner
- Stanton
- Wellwood
Links
Hatchie National Wildlife Refuge
