Winnsboro, South Carolina
| Winnsboro, South Carolina | |
|---|---|
| Town | |
| Motto: "A Town for All Time" | |
 Location of Winnsboro, South Carolina |
|
| Coordinates: 34°22′37″N 81°5′17″W / 34.37694°N 81.08806°W | |
| Country | United States |
| State | South Carolina |
| County | Fairfield |
| Area | |
| • Total | 3.23 sq mi (8.36 km2) |
| • Land | 3.23 sq mi (8.36 km2) |
| • Water | 0.0 sq mi (0.0 km2) |
| Elevation | 535 ft (163 m) |
| Population (2010) | |
| • Total | 3,550 |
| • Density | 1,100/sq mi (424.6/km2) |
| Time zone | Eastern (EST) (UTC-5) |
| • Summer (DST) | EDT (UTC-4) |
| ZIP code | 29180 |
| Area code(s) | 803 |
| FIPS code | 45-78460 |
| GNIS feature ID | 1251474 |
| Website | www |
Winnsboro is a town in Fairfield County, South Carolina, United States. The population was 3,550 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Fairfield County. Winnsboro is part of the Columbia, South Carolina Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Based on archeological evidence, this area was occupied by various cultures of indigenous peoples from as early as the Archaic period, about 1500 BC. Blair Mound is a nearby archeological site and earthwork likely occupied 1300-1400 AD, as part of the late Mississippian culture in the region.
Several years before the Revolutionary War, Richard Winn from Virginia moved to what is now Fairfield County in the upland or Piedmont area of South Carolina. His lands included the present site of Winnsboro, and as early as 1777 the settlement was known as "Winnsborough". Two of his brothers joined him there, adding to family founders.
The village was laid out and chartered in 1785 upon petition of Richard Winn, John Winn and John Vanderhorst. The brothers Richard, John and Minor Winn all served in the Revolutionary War. Richard was a general, said to have fought in more battles than any Whig in South Carolina. John was a colonel. See Fairfield County, South Carolina, for more.
The area was developed for the cultivation of short-staple cotton after Eli Whitney's invention of the cotton gin in 1793, which made processing of this type of cotton profitable. Previously it was considered too labor-intensive. Short-staple cotton was widely cultivated on plantations in upland areas throughout the Deep South, through an interior area that became known as the Black Belt. The increased demand for slave labor resulted in the forced migration of more than one million African-American slaves into the area through sales in the domestic slave market. By the time of the Civil War, the county's population was majority black and majority slave.
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