Editing Mount Gilead, North Carolina (section)

===European-American settlement===
Mount Gilead was incorporated in 1899 as the textile industry built mills in the [[Piedmont (United States)|Piedmont]] region of the state above the [[Atlantic Seaboard Fall Line]]. They processed the [[commodity crop]] of cotton, which had been important to the South since before the [[American Civil War|Civil War]]. The textile mills provided jobs to white residents of the region, later also employing blacks and supporting relative prosperity in the region.

Since the late 20th century, many textile jobs moved offshore in a restructuring of the industry as it sought lower labor costs. Like many small southern towns, Mount Gilead suffered economic and population decline following the loss of these textile jobs.