Editing Gates County, North Carolina (section)

===1800s===
In 1806, white settlers established Middle Swamp Baptist Church as the first [[Baptist]] church in Gates County. This accompanied the [[Second Great Awakening]] revival in [[Southern United States|the South]] after the American Revolution, which was led by Baptist and [[Methodist]] preachers. In 1811, Savages United Methodist Church was established, the oldest Methodist Church in Gates County. Both denominations preached both to [[slavery|enslaved]] blacks as well as white residents, and they accepted slaves and free blacks as members and sometimes even as preachers.{{citation needed|date=October 2024}}

The Chowanoke Indians lost their last 30-acre plot of communal land in 1821. Although Gates County residents were mostly yeomen farmers who owned few slaves, the South overall still had a slave society which classified people as either black or white. However, the Native Americans managed to maintain their culture and absorbed people of other races in their [[matrilineal]] [[kinship system]]s. The Chowanoke were increasingly classified as [[free people of color]], as where [[Free Negro|free blacks]] and [[mulatto]]s.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Milteer Jr. |first=Warren E. |date=January 2016 |title=From Indians to Colored People: The Problem of Racial Categories and the Persistence of the Chowans in North Carolina |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44113316 |journal=The North Carolina Historical Review |volume=93 |issue=1 |pages=28–57 }}</ref> In the antebellum, Gates County—like several other North Carolina border counties—also became to home to a substantial number of free blacks who sought better treatment in North Carolina than in other states, with 361 recorded in the [[1860 United States census|1860 census]].<ref name= medlin>{{cite web| url = https://coastalreview.org/2022/02/for-centuries-rural-character-has-defined-gates-county/| title = Rural character has defined Gates County for centuries| last = Medlin| first = Eric| date = February 28, 2022| website = Coastal Review| publisher = North Carolina Coastal Federation| access-date = September 16, 2023}}</ref>

In 1825, the [[Marquis de Lafayette]] travelled through Gates County and was entertained at Pipkin's Inn.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Isaac S. |first=Harrell |url=https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/13570 |title=Gates County to 1860 |publisher=East Carolina University Digital Collections |year=1916 |isbn= |location=[[Greenville, North Carolina]] |pages=60–61 |language=en-US}}</ref> The town of Gatesville was incorporated in 1830.<ref name= medlin/> The [[Gates County Courthouse|old courthouse]] was built in 1836. Its oldest remaining component is its Federal-style bell, which the town had purchased in 1781.

According to the [[1850 United States census|1850 census]], only 15 of the county's 717 farms produced cotton. In 1851, the Reynoldson Academy was established. [[Free people of color]], who were often of mixed race, organized New Hope Baptist Church in 1859.{{citation needed|date=October 2024}}