Rocky Mount is the county seat of Franklin County, Virginia. The first English colonists arrived in 1760, and they named Rocky Mount for a steep cliff near the town. Rocky Mount was founded in 1786, and it was divided into lots in 1804. The future Confederate general Jubal Early, who was born in Franklin County, represented Franklin County in the House of Delegates as a Whig. During the American Civil War, several planter families from the Tidewater region sought refuge at Rocky Mount with their African-American slaves, including Henry A. Wise. In 1873, Rocky Mount was incorporated as a town, and its tobacco industry survived long after the Civil War. Its population grew from 400 in 1870 to 600 in 1897 and 1,100 in 1920, and, in 2018, Rocky Mount had 4,748 residents.
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