It was named for John Stokes, an American Revolutionary War captain severely wounded when British Colonel Banastre Tarleton's cavalry practically destroyed Col. Abraham Buford's Virginia regiment in the Waxhaws region in 1780.

After the war, Captain Stokes was appointed a judge of the United States district court for North Carolina.

[4] The Great Wagon Road passed through the eastern portion of the county, and this influenced the pattern of European settlement so that most settlers came from the Virginia Piedmont, and some came from further away in Pennsylvania and other colonies.

[6] During the American Civil War, Moratock Iron Furnace located near Danbury served as a foundry for the Confederate Army.

It was destroyed in April 1865 when Union cavalry under the command of General George Stoneman conducted extensive raiding through the region.

Hanging Rock State Park was formed primarily from blocks of land donated in 1936 and contained 6,921 acres (28.01 km2) in 2005.

[7] The county lies within the Piedmont region of western North Carolina, and most of the terrain consists of gently rolling countryside.

Although the Sauratown Mountains occupy only 5% of Stokes County, they dominate the scenery from almost any direction, abruptly rising from 800 to 1,700 feet (520 m) above the surrounding terrain.

Stokes County is home to Hanging Rock State Park and also has the vast majority of Belews Lake (located in the southeast corner).

Hillary Clinton barely cracked twenty percent in 2016, receiving a proportion smaller than Hubert Humphrey obtained in the three-way 1968 race.

In earlier years Stokes swung from Democratic-leaning during the Third Party System to Republican enough to be alongside Yadkin and Surry as the only North Carolina counties to stick with William Howard Taft during his disastrous 1912 campaign,[21] back to Democratic enough to support Adlai Stevenson II in 1952.

Several medium and small businesses have found success in Stokes, as well as retail stores, restaurants, and service professionals.

[24] For 2023, the North Carolina Department of Commerce rated Stokes as a Tier 2 county, between the state's most prosperous and economically distressed.