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==History== [[File:Maple Hall Rockbridge County Virginia.JPG|thumb|right|Maple Hall, [[Antebellum architecture|antebellum]] house in Rockbridge County north of [[Lexington, Virginia|Lexington]]]] The [[Monacan Indian Nation]] inhabited the area for thousands of years before American settlers arrived in the area. Multiple mounds were constructed near the modern towns of Rockbridge and Rockbridge Baths.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Vest |first1=Jay |title=The Legend of Jump Mountain: Narrative Dispossession of the Monacan in Postcolonial Virginia |journal=American Indian Culture and Research Journal |date=2012 |volume=36 |issue=3 |pages=99-116 |doi=10.17953/aicr.36.3.6jt8367282957424 |url=https://escholarship.org/content/qt4kg6k4gz/qt4kg6k4gz.pdf?t=rxy05q |access-date=26 November 2024}}</ref> Rockbridge County was established in October 1777, from parts of now neighboring [[Augusta County, Virginia|Augusta]] and [[Botetourt County, Virginia|Botetourt]] counties, and the first county elections were held in May 1778. Rockbridge County was named for [[Natural Bridge (Virginia)|Natural Bridge]], a notable landmark in the southern portion of the county. Rockbridge County was formed during an act of assembly intended to reduce the distance that residents had to travel to the nearest courthouse, and to ensure trials were held fairly, and among neighbors rather than strangers. The first court session in Rockbridge County was held at the home of Samuel Wallace on April 7, 1778. Because there were many subsistence farmers in the area, residents held fewer enslaved African Americans in Rockbridge County than in many parts of Virginia. The anti-slavery movement was stronger in Rockbridge than in the Tidewater or Piedmont regions. Several faculty members at Washington College (now [[Washington and Lee University]]) vigorously opposed slavery. But, many of the wealthiest residents of Rockbridge County were planters and large landowners; they held numerous slaves and bequeathed them as property to their widows and children, or gave them as wedding gifts.<ref>See, e.g., [http://blurblawg.typepad.com/files/rockbridge-county-probate.pdf Alfred L. Brophy & Douglas Thie, "'Land, Slaves, and Bonds': Trust and Probate in the Pre-Civil War Shenandoah Valley," West Virginia Law Review vol. 119 (2016):345.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180208004256/http://blurblawg.typepad.com/files/rockbridge-county-probate.pdf|date=February 8, 2018}}</ref> [[Cyrus McCormick]] grew up on his father's plantation in Raphine. His father held 41 enslaved African Americans and was a major property owner in real estate as well. McCormick invented the mechanical [[reaper]] near [[Steeles Tavern, Virginia|Steele's Tavern]] at the northern end of the county.
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