Editing Pulaski County, Virginia (section)

==History==
Pulaski County was formed on March 30, 1839, from parts of Montgomery and Wythe counties, becoming the 87th county of the Commonwealth of Virginia. It was named for Count [[Casimir Pulaski]], an exiled Polish nobleman who fought during the American Revolution as part of George Washington's army. He joined the army in 1777 and became a brigadier general and chief of cavalry in the Continental Army. He was fatally wounded at Savannah and died on October 11, 1779.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20130702130923/http://www.pulaskicounty.org/PDF_Docs/History%20of%20Pulaski%20County.pdf History of Pulaski County] ([[PDF]])</ref>

This area of the [[Blue Ridge Mountains|Blue Ridge]] has rolling hills and was settled by mostly small farmers, recent Scots-Irish and German immigrants and their descendants who migrated down the Shenandoah Valley from Pennsylvania in the mid to late-18th century. They pushed out or killed most Native Americans in the area. The new settlers were yeomen, who held fewer slaves than in the Tidewater area. Nonetheless, by 1840 about one-quarter of the population was made up of [[Slavery in the United States|enslaved black Americans]]. The county had 3,739 persons, consisting of 2,768 free whites, and 971 blacks. Some 17 of the latter were [[free people of color|free blacks]].