Franklin and Southampton County are a statistical region in Central Virginia made up by Franklin, an independent city with around 8,500 citizens, and Southampton County, a county just short of 20,000 citizens.

Settlements

• Franklin
• Boykins
• Branchville
• Capron
• Courtland, the county seat
• Ivor
• Newsoms

Understand

Some of the most famous fugitives from slavery were born in this county; see transatlantic slave trade and Black Belt for context.

• John Brown (c.1810 – 1876, not to be confused with the namesake abolitionist) is known for his 1855 memoir Slave Life in Georgia: A Narrative of the Life, Sufferings, and Escape of John Brown, a Fugitive Slave, Now in England.
• Anthony W. Gardiner became the ninth President of Liberia
• Dred Scott was subject to the Dredd Scott decision.
• Nat Turner led the Nat Turner rebellion.