Editing Cabarrus County, North Carolina (section)

===Agricultural and industrial development===
Located in the Piedmont region, the county was developed largely for subsistence farming, but did have some cotton plantations. By 1860 the population was about one-third enslaved African Americans, with few [[free people of color]]. The first cotton mill was constructed as early as 1839. More mill development took place after the American Civil War, when railroads reached the region.

Among the owners of new mills in the area were men of the rising black middle-class of [[Wilmington, North Carolina]], such as [[John C. Dancy]] (appointed as collector of customs at the port), and others. [[Warren Clay Coleman]], a Concord African-American businessman, joined them in organizing [[Coleman Manufacturing Company]] in 1897, on a site about two miles from Concord. They built and operated what is believed to have been the first cotton mill in the nation to be owned by blacks.<ref name="edmonds">[[Helen G. Edmonds|Edmonds, Helen G.]] ''The Negro and Fusion Politics in North Carolina, 1894–1901'' (1951/reprint 2013) pp 89–92. Quote, p. 92: Dancy wrote: "This is the first genuine cotton mill yet built and controlled by colored men in the history of the country. It stands two miles from Concord, North Carolina, in the midst of a plot of about 140 acres of fertile soil. ...There is no good reason why there should not be a splendid town there governed by ourselves in the near future."</ref> They wanted to promote economic security for people of color. [[Richard B. Fitzgerald]] was its first president. While blacks had been hired for tobacco manufacturing, they were generally excluded from white-owned [[textile mill]]s.

The [[Wilmington Insurrection of 1898]], with white attacks on blacks, their homes and businesses, destroyed much of what the people had built there since the war. In 1900 Dancy was among more than 2000 blacks who left the city permanently after the riot, resulting in its becoming majority white. He moved to [[Washington, D.C.]], where he was appointed as the federal [[recorder of deeds]].<ref>Edmonds (1951/2013), "The Negro and Fusion Politics," p. 92</ref>

Agriculture has played an important part in the economic life of the county for over 200 years. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, textiles became a vital part of the local economy, especially in the northern portion of the county. Today, the local economy has a more varied base.