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Edgefield County is a county located on the western border of the U.S. state of South Carolina. As of the 2010 census, its population was 26,985.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/45/45037.html )〕 Its county seat is Edgefield.〔(【引用サイトリンク】accessdate=2011-06-07 )〕 Edgefield County has as part of its western border the Savannah River; across the river is Augusta, Georgia. Edgefield is part of the Augusta-Richmond County, GA-SC Metropolitan Statistical Area. == History == The origin of the name Edgefield is unclear; the South Carolina State Library's information on the county's history suggests that the name "is usually described as 'fanciful.'" There is a village named Edgefield in Norfolk, England. Edgefield District was created in 1785, and it is bordered on the west by the Savannah River.〔〔(【引用サイトリンク】 title=The Edgefield County Court House: A Brief History, 1785-1997 )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Edgefield County Chamber of Commerce Home Page )〕 It was formed from the southern section of the former Ninety-Six District when it was divided into smaller districts or counties by an act of the state legislature.〔〔〔 Parts of the district were later used in the formation of other neighboring counties, specifically:〔 *Aiken in 1871; *Saluda in 1895; *Greenwood in 1897; *and, McCormick in 1916. In his study of Edgefield County, South Carolina, Orville Vernon Burton classified white society as comprising the poor, the yeoman middle class, and the elite planters.〔Orville Vernon Burton, ''In My Father's House Are Many Mansions: Family and Community in Edgefield, South Carolina'' (U. of North Carolina Press, 1985)〕 A clear line demarcated the elite, but according to Burton, the line between poor and yeoman was never very distinct. Stephanie McCurry argues that yeomen were clearly distinguished from poor whites by their ownership of land (real property). Edgefield's yeomen farmers were "self-working farmers," distinct from the elite because they worked their land themselves alongside any slaves they owned. By owning large numbers of slaves, planters took on a managerial function and did not work in the fields.〔Stephanie McCurry, ''Masters of Small Worlds: Yeoman Households, Gender Relations, and the Political Culture of the Antebellum South Carolina Low Country'' (1995)〕 During Reconstruction, Edgefield County had a slight black majority. It became a center of political tensions following the postwar amendments that gave freedmen civil rights under the US constitution. Whites conducted an insurgency to maintain white supremacy, particularly through paramilitary groups known as the Red Shirts. They used violence and intimidation during election seasons from 1872 on to disrupt and suppress black Republican voting. In the early summer (year unknown), six black suspects were lynched by a white mob for the alleged murders of a white couple. In the Hamburg Massacre of July 8, 1876, several black militia were killed by whites, part of a large group of more than 100 armed men who attended a court hearing of a complaint of whites against the militia. Some of the white men came from Augusta.〔(Melinda Meeks Hennessy, “Racial Violence During Reconstruction: The 1876 Riots in Charleston and Cainhoy” ), ''South Carolina Historical Magazine,'' Vol. 86, No. 2, (April 1985), 104-106 〕 Due to fraud, more Democratic votes were recorded in Edgefield County than there were total residents; similar fraud occurred elsewhere, as did suppression of black voting. Eventually the election was decided in Hampton's favor, and the Democrats also took control of the state legislature. As a result of a national compromise, Federal troops were withdrawn in 1877 from South Carolina and other southern states, ending Reconstruction. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Edgefield County, South Carolina」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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