[2] In the early 17th century, the explorer Captain John Smith founded the settlement of Jamestown; in the next decades of the colony's history, Jamestown settlers explorer and began settling the regions adjacent to Hampton Roads.

The Virginia Colony was divided into eight shires (or counties) with a total population of approximately 5,000 inhabitants in 1634.

This area was cultivated for tobacco and later for mixed crops, dependent on the labor of enslaved African Americans after a relatively short period when many white indentured servants came to the colony.

[citation needed] In August 1831, an enslaved preacher named Nat Turner led a slave rebellion in Southampton County against local white residents, killing about 60 people (mainly women and children).

Meanwhile, white mobs had seized and lynched nearly 200 black residents of Southampton County, most of them enslaved.

Alternatively, it may have been named for Henry Wriothesley, one of the founders of the Virginia Company.

As of the census[13] of 2010, there were 18,570 people, 6,279 households, and 4,502 families residing in the county.

24.90% of all households were made up of individuals, and 11.10% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.