Editing Scotland County, North Carolina (section)

===Great Depression===
[[File:Cotton field and barn in Scotland County.png|thumb|Cotton field and barn in Scotland County {{circa|1923}}. County cotton production peaked in 1920.]]
Scotland's black population increased in the 1910s and early 1920s as tenant cotton farmers moved north from the [[Deep South]] to escape areas infested by the [[boll weevil]].{{sfn|Covington|Ellis|1999|p=4}} County cotton production peaked in 1920 as farmers diversified their operations and began growing fruits and melons.{{sfn|Covington|Ellis|1999|p=5}} Cotton nevertheless remained the dominant crop through the 1920s despite stagnating prices.{{sfn|Marks|2021|p=59}} The area suffered heavily during the [[Great Depression]], as two banks in Laurinburg failed and a state report indicated that one fourth of the local population was destitute.{{sfn|Covington|Ellis|1999|p=16}} Many smallholding farmers lost their lands in foreclosures and bankruptcies. The county nonwhite population dropped, and urbanization increased as people relocated to towns.{{sfn|Marks|2021|p=59}} In May 1934, 500 workers at textile mills in [[East Laurinburg, North Carolina|East Laurinburg]] went on strike in protest of work conditions and living conditions in their company-provided housing. The strike gained state-wide media attention after the strikers engaged in a brawl with loyalist workers, with nine people wounded by gunfire, before the dispute was resolved by arbitration.{{sfn|Covington|Ellis|1999|pp=21–22}} The United States [[Resettlement Administration]] purchased much of the low-quality land in the [[Sandhill]]s portion of the county and turned it into a recreational area. The federal [[Agricultural Adjustment Act]] and [[Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act of 1936]] incentivized landowners to reduce production, and as a result, many local tenant farmers and sharecroppers were put out of work and migrated north in search of employment.{{sfn|Marks|2021|p=59}}