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Jefferson Morrow

Thomas Jefferson Morrow, a Black Orange County man in his early 40s, lived with his wife Lucinda and six children and had written to Governor Holden seeking protection for his son Nelson. On October 14, 1869, masked riders attacked his home, and he was found hanged from a tree about half a mile away.

Source: Orange County Community Remembrance Coalition: Those We Honor

Orange County Indexed has not yet linked an indexed work directly to Jefferson Morrow. The biography and the dated events on this page provide sources about Jefferson Morrow’s life and work. Suggest a source.

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Life and Orange County connections

Storylines this person is part of, in date order. Each has its own page.

StorylineRacial-terror lynchings in Orange County1869–1898 · 41 events · Six people are documented as lynched in Orange County: Washington Morrow, Thomas Jefferson Morrow, Daniel Morrow, Wright Malone and Cyrus Guy in 1869, and Manly McCauley in 1898. Sworn testimony before Congress in 1871 gives the same count for 1869, four men hanged and one shot (Josiah Turner Jr.), or five Black men killed (constable W. G. Turrentine), though names differ: the Senate committee's list and two Orange witnesses name a man called Wood, hanged east of Hillsborough, and two sources a William Guy, who may be Cyrus Guy. In September 2022 the county commissioners apologized for racial-terror lynchings and approved markers, citing five cases without naming the victims.

Dated events connected with this person, in date order. See these 3 dated events in the chronology →

  1. Washington Morrow, Thomas Jefferson Morrow and Daniel Morrow are lynched Early on August 7, 1869, about 100 disguised white men took Washington Morrow and his brother Nelson from the Hillsborough jail, where they were held on barn-burning charges, and shot Washington as they fled; he died of the wound. On October 14 a mob hanged their father, Thomas Jefferson Morrow, and their uncle, Daniel Morrow. People: Washington Morrow, Daniel Morrow, Jefferson Morrow, Thomas Jefferson Morrow Place: Countywide · Also mentions: Hillsborough jailJames Madison University, Memorializing Racial Terror: The Lynching of Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Daniel Morrow
  2. Lucinda Morrow of Hillsborough testifies at Governor Holden's impeachment trial Called by Holden's defense, Lucinda Morrow, then living in Hillsborough, described disguised men breaking into her Cane Creek home in Orange County in the fall of 1869 and hanging her husband, Thomas Jefferson Morrow, together with her brother, at the time of fall oat sowing. She said she had not named the men at the inquest because she feared they would come back and kill her. Prosecution counsel William A. Graham objected to her evidence, and Augustus S. Merrimon argued it was irrelevant unless tied to Alamance County. People: William A. Graham, Jefferson Morrow, Thomas Jefferson Morrow Place: North Carolina Senate chamber, Raleigh · Also named: Lucinda Morrow, Augustus S. MerrimonInternet Archive: Trial of William W. Holden, Governor of North Carolina, vol. 2 (1871) · Also: Trial of William W. Holden
  3. Soil collection ceremony at the Orange County courthouse honors Cyrus Guy and four other 1869 lynching victims The Orange County Community Remembrance Coalition held a soil collection ceremony for Washington Morrow, Wright Malone, Daniel Morrow, Thomas Jefferson Morrow and Cyrus Guy, all lynched in 1869. One jar for each man was to go to the Equal Justice Initiative's memorial collection in Montgomery, Alabama, and a second jar was to stay in Orange County. People: Cyrus Guy, Daniel Morrow, Jefferson Morrow, Washington Morrow, Wright Malone, Thomas Jefferson Morrow, Renée Price Place: Orange County Courthouse, HillsboroughSearch the index · Chapelboro: 'Do Not Forget Us': Soil Collection Ceremony Held for 5 Orange County Lynching Victims (May 1, 2023)

Places in this person’s story

Buildings, schools, churches and other sites named in the dated events on this page, the most often named first. The map shows them all.

Map tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors. Site locations from the N.C. State Historic Preservation Office survey, Open Orange, Orange County GIS, OpenStreetMap and a few other published sources named on each site’s page; town and community pins show approximate locations.

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People named in the same events

People named in the same dated entries as Jefferson Morrow, those sharing the most entries first. Each line links one of the shared entries in the chronology, where its source is cited. A shared entry shows these people in the same event, not how well they knew each other.

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Background

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Collections and databases

  • NC LIVE: prepared search for Jefferson Morrow Library card Search NC LIVE for this subject and Orange County. You can change the search terms. Sign in through your North Carolina library to access the materials.
  • Ancestry Library Edition In the libraryOrange County Public Library Census, birth, death and marriage records, and more, free on the public computers at OCPL libraries

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