Covington County

Early Days Before 1850

Situated in Mississippi’s Piney Woods, Covington developed differently from the cotton-rich river counties. Early settlers—many from the Carolinas and Georgia—pushed in after statehood, raising hogs and cattle, planting small cotton patches on the sandy uplands, and exploiting longleaf pine.

Slaveholding existed from the outset but at comparatively modest levels; large plantations were rare before the 1850s because soils and market access limited profitability. Transport relied on country roads and streams such as the Okatoma, with courthouse-centered trade at Williamsburg.

Formation & boundaries (to 1850)

·       Established: 5 Jan 1819, carved from Lawrence and Wayne Counties; named for Gen. Leonard Covington.

·       Early changes: In 1823 the legislature created Bainbridge County from Covington; it was abolished in 1824 and returned to Covington. Additional small line adjustments followed (e.g., 1 Feb 1825 gains from Lawrence and Wayne).

·       Daughter counties: Jones County was formed in 1826 from parts of Covington and Wayne (affecting Covington’s eastern extent).

Neighboring counties

By 1850—after the 1820s–30s county creations but before the twentieth-century split that created Jefferson Davis and Lamar—Covington was bordered approximately by:

·       Smith (N), Jones (E), Perry (SE/S), Marion (SW/W), Lawrence (W/NW), Simpson (NW).

Population Changes:

·       1820: 2,230

·       1830: 2,551

·       1840: 2,717

·       1850: 3,338

·       1820: 1,824 whites; 406 enslaved (≈18.2% enslaved). This is the key early benchmark and shows Covington as a low-slaveholding “Piney Woods” county compared with river counties.

·       1850: Total 3,338. The federal abstract for Mississippi lists county-level totals (white/free-colored vs. enslaved) for 1850;

·       Trend toward 1860 (context): By 1860 Covington had 2,845 whites and 1,564 enslaved (about 35% enslaved), showing growth in slaveholding on the eve of the war, though still below Black Belt levels. On the 1860 many of the 1850 farmers were listed as "Planters" on the 1870 census they were farmers again. [NOTE see if anything happened during the 1860's]