Hancock County is a county located in the East Central part of the U.S. state of Georgia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 8,735.^[1] The county seat is Sparta.^[2] The county was created on December 17, 1793, and named for John Hancock, a Founding Father of the American Revolution.^[3][4]

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Hancock County
County
Hancock County Courthouse and Confederate Monument in Sparta
Location within the U.S. state of Georgia
Georgia's location within the U.S.
Coordinates: 33°16′N 83°00′W
Country	United States
State	Georgia
Founded	December 17, 1793; 230 years ago (1793-12-17)
Named for	John Hancock
Seat	Sparta
Largest city	Sparta
Area
• Total	479 sq mi (1,240 km2)
• Land	472 sq mi (1,220 km2)
• Water	6.8 sq mi (18 km2)  1.4%
Population  (2020)
• Total	8,735
• Density	19/sq mi (7/km2)
Time zone	UTC−5 (Eastern)
• Summer (DST)	UTC−4 (EDT)
Congressional district	10th
Website	www.hancockcountyga.gov

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Hancock County is included in the Milledgeville, Georgia micropolitan statistical area.

Before the Civil War, Hancock County was developed for cotton plantations, as international demand was high for the commodity. The land was developed and the cotton cultivated and processed by thousands of enslaved African Americans. This area is classified as part of the Black Belt of the United States, primarily due to its fertile soil. It was later also associated with the slave society. Enslaved persons made up 61% of the total county population in the 1850 Census.^[5] Unusually for such a plantation-dominated society, the county's representatives at the Georgia Secession Convention, who were overwhelmingly white and Democratic, voted against secession in 1861.^[6]

But the secession conventions were dominated by men who voted for separation, and Georgia soon seceded and entered the war.

After the war, the freed black population predominated by number in the county for decades. After emancipation and granting of citizenship and the franchise, most freedmen joined the Republican Party, which they credited with gaining their freedom. Conservative white Democrats resisted political domination by blacks, although they were outnumbered. In the later years of Reconstruction, whites used violence, intimidation and fraud to suppress black voting. In 1908 the white-dominated legislature passed an amendment that effectively disenfranchised most black voters and many poor whites ones.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 479 square miles (1,240 km²), of which 472 square miles (1,220 km²) is land and 6.8 square miles (18 km²) (1.4%) is water.^[10]

The western portion of Hancock County, which is defined by a line running southeast from White Plains to the intersection of State Route 22 and Springfield Road, then running southwest along State Route 22, is located in the Upper Oconee River sub-basin of the Altamaha River basin. The southern portion of the county, defined by a triangle made of State Route 22 and State Route 15, with Sparta at its apex, is located in the Lower Oconee River sub-basin of the same Altamaha River basin. The northeastern portion of Hancock County is located in the Upper Ogeechee River sub-basin of the Ogeechee River basin.^[11]

As of the 2020 United States census, there were 8,735 people, 2,974 households, and 1,755 families residing in the county.

Hancock County has been one of the most consistently Democratic counties in the entire nation since the Civil War. But the composition of the party voters and policies they support have undergone major changes since the late twentieth century, switching from whites to African Americans.

The majority of county voters have voted for the Democratic presidential nominee in every election since 1852 except that of 1972, when George McGovern lost every county in Georgia. McGovern did perform better here than elsewhere in the state, losing by only 93 votes. Apart from Richard Nixon in that election, Barry Goldwater in 1964 was the only Republican since at least 1912 to gain 30 percent of the county's vote.^[24] That year, most of the county's African-American majority was still largely disenfranchised and could not vote at all. The conservative white minority favored Goldwater because its traditional Democratic loyalties had frayed.

In 1980 Hancock County gave its "favorite son" candidate Jimmy Carter his second best county in the nation.^[25] In 1984 it supported Walter Mondale, who won more than 76.6 percent of Hancock County ballots, making it his fourth-best county outside the District of Columbia. He was otherwise within 3,819 votes of losing all fifty states.^[26]

• James Abercrombie, (1795–1861) was born in Hancock County.
• Amanda America Dickson was born in Hancock County.
• William Henry Harrison, state legislator from Hancock County.
• Harvey Grant, twin brother of Horace Grant.
• Horace Grant, twin brother of Harvey Grant.
• Thomas "Tommy" Jackson, "Hurricane" Jackson.
• Biddy Mason was born in Hancock county
• Hiram George Runnels wasborn in Hancock County.
• William Terrell, member of Georgia House of Representatives,representing Hancock County

• Central Savannah River Area
• National Register of Historic Places listings in Hancock County, Georgia
• Glen Mary Plantation
• List of counties in Georgia