Orangeburg County, South Carolina

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,^[4] 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, 1890^a 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:^[4] 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. 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. The 1913 soil maps for Eastern Orangeburg County^[5] and Western Orangeburg County^[6] also display the early 20th century community names, roads, railroads and waterways.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 1,127.89 square miles (2,921.2 km²), of which 1,106.38 square miles (2,865.5 km²) is land and 21.51 square miles (55.7 km²) (1.91%) is water.^[7] It is the second-largest county in South Carolina by land area and fifth-largest by land area.

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.

Orangeburg is a solidly Democratic county in presidential elections; it has not voted Republican since 1972.

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.

• 
  Grain elevator in the county
• 
  Soybeans ready for harvest, with center pivot irrigation setup
• 
  Harvested cotton in modules ready for pickup

In 2022, the GDP was $3.4 billion (about $40,510 per capita),^[33] and the real GDP was $2.8 billion (about $33,219 per capita) in chained 2017 dollars.^[34]

As of April 2024^[update], some of the largest employers in the county include Claflin University, GPM Investments, Husqvarna Group, Love's, Medical University of South Carolina, Orangeburg–Calhoun Technical College, South Carolina State University, Okonite, and Walmart.^[35]

Orangeburg County is home to two state-recognized tribes.

• The Beaver Creek Indian Tribe, headquartered in Salley, is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization and state-recognized tribe, with members primarily located in Aiken County. The tribe was awarded this status by the South Carolina Commission for Minority Affairs on January 27, 2006.^[37] The tribe primarily claims descent from a family who settled in Long Cane Creek (McCormick County) from Virginia in 1760 with its South Carolina progenitor Lazarus Chavis born in Edgefield County.^{[citation needed]} The entity is not presently federally recognized by the Bureau of Indian Affairs^[38]
• The Santee Indian Organization, headquartered in Holly Hill, is a nonprofit organization and state-recognized tribe.^[39] The tribe was awarded this status by the South Carolina Commission of Minority Affairs on March 15, 2006.^[40] The Santee Indian Organization claims descent from the historic Santee people, not to be confused with the similarly named Santee Dakota people. The tribe is not federally recognized.^[38]

• List of counties in South Carolina
• National Register of Historic Places listings in Orangeburg County, South Carolina

1.^aThe 1890 federal census for South Carolina was almost entirely destroyed by a 1921 fire in Washington, D.C..