User:Jengod/Slavetraderbio

Andrew Jackson Orr and Dickinson W. Orr, often advertising as A. J. & D. W. Orr, were American brothers, merchants, planters, railroad contractors, and slave traders based in Macon, Georgia. The Orrs were originally from the Charlotte, North Carolina area but moved to central Georgia early in their lives and remained there, first working as local merchants and then transitioning into the interstate slave trade. They then became railroad contractors as well, using groups of enslaved men to build railroad tracks throughout the state. A. J. Orr was beaten to death by a slave in 1855. D. W. Orr continued working as a railroad contractor until the second half of the American Civil War shut down railroad development in the region. He died in 1867.

Early lives and careers
The Orr brothers were natives of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, which has Charlotte as its county seat. D. W. Orr came to Georgia "when he was quite young" and made it his home for the rest of his life. By 1843, when they were in their 20s, the Orrs were partners in a retail shop at the corner of Cotton Avenue and Cherry Street in Macon, Georgia, from which they sold hardware, dry goods, clothing, accessories, and shoes. D. W. Orr also had some kind of business in Columbus, Georgia, where $3,000 worth of property was destroyed in October 1846 in a fire that leveled almost six square blocks.



In 1846, D. W. Orr wrote a letter to South Carolina planter and slave trader John Springs III:

"[M]y brother has charge of the mercantile business at home and I have been engaged the majority of my time for twelve mos [months] in the purchase and sale of Negroes. It is my business here [Richmond, Virginia] at present. I have purchased nearly all I want and will leave for Macon in a few days...We can borrow money at home or in NCa at a much lower rate of interest at six mos but in the business in which I am engaged you are aware that their [sic] is times that Negroes are slow sale and I dont want to be placed in a situation to have to force sales to meet our notes.... I think you know our general character to[o] well to have any fears on the subject and I will here remark that you are the only person that we have offered more than common interest."

In the summer of 1847, the brothers Orr decided they were done with retailing dry goods and clothing, and announcing they were selling their inventory "at cost" in order to get out of the business hastily. The following January, they wrote Springs that the reason for the sale was "to enable us to give our exclusive attention to the Negro trade, and we have sold this winter about sixty Negroes." The financial agreement between Springs and that Orrs continued until at least 1849. In May 1848, D. W. Orr placed a runaway slave ad in the Augusta Daily Constitutionalist that indicated the Orrs had ties to Augusta, Georgia and the Hamburg, South Carolina slave market, which was used until 1856 as a means to circumvent Georgia's anti-slave trading law.

"Ran away from the Subscriber at the United States Hotel, in this city, 17th inst., a Negro fellow named JOHN, of dark yellow complexion, 5 feet, 6 or 8 inches high, stout built, weighing about 170 lbs., a Shoemaker by trade, dressed in a blue Kentucky Jeans coat with pickets on the outside. He came from Richmond, Virginia, and it is supposed be will go in that direction. The above reward will be paid for his apprehension and delivery to Messrs. Trowbridge & Cureton, Hamburg, So. Ca., or half the above reward will be paid for his confinement in any Jail in Georgia or Carolina so that I may get him. D. W. ORR at Macon Ga."



A. J. Orr seemingly ran a "negro house" on Cotton Avenue in Macon circa 1849–1850, and frequently advertised specific people he had for sale, including a "valuable blacksmith," a "superior tanner and currier," and a "number-one Meat, Bread, and Pastry Cook, she can make Pickles, Preserves, &c." By September 1850, however, the Orrs had left that location and another firm was advertising "100 Negroes for Sale" at the "old stand of Messrs. A. J. & D. W. Orr." The following year, the Orrs were again advertising a storefront in Macon, specifically "the building next to Messrs. Field & Adam's Fire-Proof Warehouse, where can be found at all times a choice lot of likely young Negroes for sale."

As property-owning white males, the Orrs were legally permitted to participate in democratic processes in Georgia, such as in 1852 when D. W. Orr served on the Bibb County grand jury. In April 1853, Orr was apparently buying people in Richmond, as the newspaper mentioned him in a police docket item: "Sally, an aged free negress, slave to Mrs. John Wade, wrs arrested for going at large without a pass, on Sunday evening last. Mr Hill stated that he sold the woman to D. W Orr for $35 without warranty of soundness of mind, on the 20th instant. Since then, Mr O. believing that Sally was insane, refused to keep her or to pay the $35, and she has been wandering to and fro in our streets until arrested by the police. Sally was committed to jail until the question is settled as to her ownership."

D. W. Orr served on the Bibb County grand jury again in 1855.

Killing of A. J. Orr
In July 1855, A. J. Orr was brutally murdered, apparently by a recaptured escaped slave, while Orr was working as a "railroad contractor" for the Savannah, Albany, and Gulf Railroad. Railroad contractor in this context meant he had "ninety hands (negroes) in his employ." These were likely chain gangs of slaves clearing the right-of-way and laying ties and track, although it's unclear who legally owned the workers. The murder of Orr is poorly documented, with the majority of detail found in Charleston and Savannah newspapers. The Charleston Courier reported on the discovery of Orr's body on August 1, 1855:

"The body of A. J. Orr of Macon, a contractor on the Savannah and Albany Rail Road was found on Sunday morning about eight miles from Hinesville where he had been most brutally murdered. It appears that a negro belonging to Mr. Orr had been ran away for some time and had been arrested and lodged in jail in this State whither Mr. Orr had gone to bring him back. On Wednesday evening last they were seen on their way home the negro walking handcuffed but with a stick in his hands behind Mr. Orr. This circumstance becoming known to Mr. O's overseer his suspicions were for the first aroused at his absence and on Saturday several persons were sent in search in the direction in which Mr. Orr and his negro were seen. The search was unsuccessful and yesterday morning it was resumed all the negros in the camp being sent out. The body was found within about a mile and a half of his camp. His head was broken in several places and his throat bearing the mark of his having been stabbed. It is supposed the negro struck him from behind and knocked him from his horse and afterwards inflicted the other wounds and then dragged the body into the woods about one hundred yards. The saddle on which Mr. Orr rode was also found but his horse, watch, and money were taken. The negro is still at large. Mr. Orr was a very extensive contractor and is described as having been a kind and generous master."

The same day the body was reported found, the Savannah Morning News reported "The slave supposed to have murdered his master, Mr. A. J. Orr, was arrested on Monday at Dillon's Bridge, by the keeper of the Toll Gate, John Hart, and Cornelius Connelly, who brought him to the city and lodged him in jail."

The Liberator, abolitionist newspaper of Boston, briefly covered the incident on October 19, 1855.

1856 to 1867
Lawsuit names

Patsy redhibition case chorea or Saint Vitus' dance

"A former mayor seemed to find a novel and pleasing sensation in looking into the distant past and describing conditions he was familiar with in his youth. “...A. J. and D. W. Orr also had a slave-trading place on Cotton Avenue. Charles F. Stubbs was another trader. These were the big dealers. There were still others...The largest dealers, such as Dean, Phillips, the Orrs and Stubbs, regularly went to Richmond and brought back slaves; Richmond was the headquarters. The barbarity of that traffic was unconscionable. I was born in Georgia and my father had slaves. For my brother, I once bought of the Orrs a negro girl named Charlotte and paid $575.'"

1856

1867 Georgia Reconstruction Oat books

Politics
Democratic-Republican against Henry Clay in 1844