 This can be verified by a study of census rolls which reveal a mostly poor area, where people worked and survived by the labor of their own hands, rather than the forced labor of captive Africans and their descendants.Leading up to the Civil War, DeKalb County was typical of Southern mountain counties in that it voted against secession from the United States.This can be corroborated by a study of the roster of the votes on this issue, county by county.