Qualla: Accomack County, Virginia

Accomack County, Virginia: Introduction

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Virginia Department of Education, CC BY 2.0. Two thirds of Accomack County is water. The county covers 1,310 square miles in all, but only 450 square miles is land; the other 861 square miles is the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic and the shallow bays between the mainland and the barrier islands. This makes Accomack, somehow, the largest county in Virginia by total area while being one of its least populated, with about 33,400 people scattered across fourteen incorporated towns — the most of any county in the Commonwealth, twice the number of any other.

Image: Virginia Department of Education | CC BY 2.0

Accomack County, Virginia: Accawmack Becomes Accomack

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Doug Kerr from Albany, NY, United States, CC BY-SA 2.0. The Accawmacke Indians were living here when the English first sailed up the bay around 1603, with a network of small towns along the marshes and tidal creeks of the southern Delmarva Peninsula. The colonists adopted the name. Accomac Shire was established in 1634 as one of the o...

Image: Doug Kerr from Albany, NY, United States | CC BY-SA 2.0

Accomack County, Virginia: Fourteen Towns

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Packer1028, CC0. Accomack County has fourteen incorporated towns: Accomac, Belle Haven, Bloxom, Chincoteague, Hallwood, Keller, Melfa, Onancock, Onley, Painter, Parksley, Saxis, Tangier, and Wachapreague. That's double the next-most-towned county in Virginia, a number that reflects how the Easter...

Image: Packer1028 | CC0

Accomack County, Virginia: Chickens and Soybeans

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Judy Gallagher, CC BY 2.0. Accomack is one of the two poorest counties in Virginia, a designation it has shared with neighboring Northampton for decades. The economy runs on agriculture and poultry processing. Large chicken plants owned by Perdue Farms and Tyson Foods anchor much of the wage employment, an...

Image: Judy Gallagher | CC BY 2.0

Accomack County, Virginia: Sons and Daughters

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Josh Kopel from Seattle, WA, United States, CC BY-SA 2.0. Accomack has sent its people out into history with regularity. James Hamilton, born here around 1710, became mayor of Philadelphia. James Henry, born in 1731, served as a delegate to the Continental Congress. Henry A. Wise, born 1806, was Minister to Brazil, Governor of Virginia,...

Image: Josh Kopel from Seattle, WA, United States | CC BY-SA 2.0