Orangeburg County, South Carolina

The district was occupied for thousands of years by succeeding cultures of indigenous peoples. By the time of European encounter, Siouan-speaking tribes, such as the Pee Dee, Cheraw and Catawba, inhabited the Piedmont area above the fall line.

The Orangeburg Judicial District 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 nineteenth 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 eighteenth century, which made the processing of short-staple cotton profitable. The county became a center of labor by black slaves 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 nineteenth-century settlement, the area is still chiefly agricultural and majority-African American in population.

In 1868, under the revised state constitution during the Reconstruction era, South Carolina districts were organized as counties. Resident voters 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. Using voter intimidation, white Democrats took control of the state legislature by the end of the century; they passed state electoral laws and a new constitution that essentially disfranchised most blacks, a situation that lasted until after the federal legislation of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

A small western portion of Orangeburg County was annexed in 1871 to the newly formed Aiken County during the Reconstruction era.

In 1908 the northern portion of the County along the Congaree River was separated and included in the newly formed Calhoun County, with its seat at Saint Matthews. In 1910 a small western portion of Berkeley County, around Holly Hill and Eutawville, was annexed to Orangeburg County, thus bringing the county to its present size.

First Baptist Church, downtown Orangeburg, SC

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 1,128 square miles (2,920 km²), of which 1,106 square miles (2,860 km²) is land and 22 square miles (57 km²) (1.9%) is water.[4] It is the second-largest county in South Carolina by land area and fifth-largest by land area.

Region within the state

Orangeburg county is a fairly big county, covering 1,128 square miles, it is about 60 miles from the western part of the county to the eastern part of the county. Orangeburg county lies within 3 "regions" of South Carolina. The western part of the county lies in the "CSRA" (Central Savannah River Area). The middle part of Orangeburg county is included in the "Midlands" Region. The eastern and south eastern part of the county are located in the "Lowcountry" region of the state.

The Beaver Creek Indians and its splinter Pee Dee Indian Nation of Beaver Creek) traditionally came into the area from Virginia occupying land at Long Cane Creek. Some Beaver Creek members still live in this area. In 1998 the tribe established its government as a non-profit organization, known as the Beaver Creek Indians and achieved state recognition as a tribe on January 27, 2006.

The Pine Hill Indian Tribe resettled into the Pine Hill area of Orangeburg County after forced removal by the United States Government from their original land at the Congaree-Wateree River Basin in Richland County, identified in pre-colonial records as the center of Cofitachequi. Removal allowed the creation of Camp Jackson. Camp Jackson was deregulated and then reinstated as the military reservation now known as Fort Jackson, South Carolina. The Pine Hill Indian Tribe is acknowledged by the United States Government, recognized by the State of South Carolina, and is associated to the Treaty of New Echota signed by its ancestor John Fields.

Orangeburg County is one of the largest agricultural producing counties in South Carolina, with fertile, slightly rolling land. Major crops are cotton, soybeans, corn, turf grass and watermelons.

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  Grain elevator in Orangeburg, SC
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  Soybeans ready for harvest, with center pivot irrigation setup, Orangeburg County, South Carolina
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  Harvested cotton in modules ready for pickup, Orangeburg County, SC

• Lake Marion
• National Register of Historic Places listings in Orangeburg County, South Carolina

• Media related to Orangeburg County, South Carolina at Wikimedia Commons