Orangeburg County, South Carolina: History
The district was occupied for thousands of years by Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands. By the time of European arrival, tribes such as the Cheraw, Catawba, and Pedee, inhabited the Piedmont area above the fall line.
The Orangeburg Judicial District, named in honor of William IV, Prince of Orange, was chartered by European Americans in 1769 from a mostly unorganized upland area between the Congaree and Savannah rivers. A county, initially of the same name but later called Orange, was organized within the district but deorganized in 1791, after the American Revolutionary War.
The southwest portion bordering on the Savannah River, about half of Orangeburg District, was separated and organized as Barnwell District in 1800. In 1804 the northern third of the district was separated to form the new Lexington District, which gained another, smaller portion of Orangeburg District in 1832.
During the 19th century, the districts and counties were developed chiefly as cotton plantations for short-staple cotton. This development followed the invention of the cotton gin in the late 18th century, which made the processing of short-staple cotton profitable. The county became a center of labor by enslaved Black people on the plantations, who were transported from coastal areas and the Upper South to cultivate and process cotton. Those brought from the coastal areas were likely of the Gullah culture and language. The enslaved African Americans greatly outnumbered the white planters and non-slaveholding whites. Reflecting the patterns of 19th-century settlement, the area is still chiefly agricultural and has a majority African American population.
In 1868, under the revised state constitution during the Reconstruction era, South Carolina districts were organized as counties. Each county had townships, which were also used as census divisions in the 1870, 1880, 1890a and 1900 censuses. The township names were derived from places within a particular area (towns, railroad stops, plantations, etc.), many of which have been overshadowed by the dynamic growth and focus of organizational energy into today's communities. Orangeburg had townships named: Amelia, Branchville, Bull Swamp, Caw Caw (East of Old Orangeburg Rd), Court House, Cow Castle, Edisto, Elizabeth, Goodbyes / Goodbys, Goodland / Good Lands, Hebron, Hopewell, Liberty, Lyons, Middle, New Hope, Orangeburg, Orange, Pine Grove, Poplar, Providence, Union, Willow, Vance and Zion.
Resident voters following the 1868 changes were enabled to elect their state representatives rather than having them chosen by the state legislature, as was done previously. Election of representatives by the state legislature had kept the districts dominated by the elite owners of major plantations in the Low Country and elsewhere. The changes in rules expanded participation in the franchise by more male residents. Emancipation of slaves after the war under newly ratified federal constitutional amendments resulted in freedmen voting. …