Editing Hyde County, North Carolina (section)

===Later history===
Local residents were divided by the outbreak of the [[American Civil War]], though a number enlisted into the [[Confederate States Army]]. Several skirmishes took place in the county between federal and Confederate forces during 1863 and 1864, and a substantial number of slaves fled to federally-held territory to seek their emancipation.{{sfn|Wolfram|Thomas|2008|p=58}}

During the [[Reconstruction era]] after the war, some residents, white and newly freed blacks, migrated out of Hyde.{{sfn|Wolfram|Thomas|2008|p=59}} In 1870, Hyde County was reduced to its present dimensions, when its northeastern part was combined with parts of Currituck County and [[Tyrrell County, North Carolina|Tyrrell County]] to form [[Dare County, North Carolina|Dare County]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Criner |first=Allyson C. |year=2006 |editor-last=Powell |editor-first=William S. |title=Dare County |url=https://www.ncpedia.org/geography/dare |access-date=September 9, 2023 |website=NCpedia |publisher=University of North Carolina Press}}</ref> Northern investors also took an interest in the county during Reconstruction, particularly in the harvest of timber.{{sfn|Wolfram|Thomas|2008|p=59}} Between 1870 and 1920, the county experienced some economic prosperity due to the logging of cypress, juniper, and oak trees.{{sfn|Cecelski|1994|p=17}} Several sawmills and railroads were established. The industry declined as the county's forests thinned, before being overcome by the [[Great Depression]].{{sfn|Wolfram|Thomas|2008|p=60}} Hyde County received its first paved road in the 1920s and gained electric service in 1935.{{sfn|Wolfram|Thomas|2008|pp=61–62}}

By the mid-20th century, the agriculturally-reliant county was in economic and demographic decline, benefiting none from the public infrastructure investments and industrial growth of the [[postwar economic boom]] occurring elsewhere in the state. Several towns that had prospered in the early 1900s were left totally abandoned,{{sfn|Cecelski|1994|pp=17–18}} and the vast majority of county residents were impoverished.{{sfn|Cecelski|1994|p=21}} The timber industry continued to provide some employment, while after [[World War II]] the seafood [[Meat-packing industry|packing]] industry grew.{{sfn|Wolfram|Thomas|2008|pp=63–64}} [[Jim Crow]] racial segregation took hold after the close of the 19th century and persisted, depriving blacks of political and economic opportunities available to whites.{{sfn|Cecelski|1994|pp=21–23}} In 1950, about one third of white residents had access to hot running water and flushing toilets, while no blacks had such amenities, and tended to live near small creeks and drainage canals.<ref name="saunders"/> Racial separation was less pronounced on Ocracoke Island, where blacks and whites lived in closer physical proximity to one another.{{sfn|Wolfram|Thomas|2008|pp=163–164}}