Burke County is an original county of Georgia, created February 5, 1777, and named for English political writer, Edmund Burke, a Member of Parliament in the Whig Party who favored conciliation with the colonies.

[4] In 1779, Col. John Twiggs and brothers Col. William Few and Benjamin Few, along with 250 men, defeated British in the Battle of Burke Jail.

The county was majority African American in population in this period, as slaveholders wanted high numbers of slaves for laborers to cultivate and process cotton.

Agriculture continued as the basis of the economy for decades after the American Civil War, when most freedmen worked as sharecroppers or tenant farmers.

[5] In the early 20th century, mechanization of agriculture caused many African-American farm workers to lose their jobs.

Part of the decline was related to the Great Migration, as millions of African Americans left the rural South and Jim Crow oppression for jobs and opportunities in industrial cities of the Midwest and the North.

From World War II on, primary migration destinations were West Coast cities because of the buildup of the defense industry.

In addition, whites left rural areas for industrial jobs in cities such as Atlanta.

The southern half of Burke County, defined by a line running along State Route 80 to Waynesboro, then southeast to east of Perkins, is located in the Upper Ogeechee River sub-basin of the Ogeechee River basin.