As monuments to white supremacy around the world continue to fall, this might be a good time for North Carolinians to learn more about Zebulon Vance.
Vance was born in Buncombe County in 1830 to a family that owned 18 slaves. He served as a Confederate officer during the Civil War before becoming Governor of North Carolina and later a US Senator.
According to 1860 census documents, Vance himself owned six slaves, ranging in age from 26 to 2. Their names are not included on the records.
In letters he wrote shortly after the end of the Civil War, Vance revealed his feelings about emancipation:
“There are indications that the radical abolitionists … intend to force perfect negro equality upon us. Should this be done, and there is nothing to prevent it, it will revive an already half formed determination in me to leave the U.S. forever.”
In 1870, when Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner introduced legislation aimed at ending racial discrimination in juries, schools, transportation and public accommodations, Vance argued against the bill, claiming he was in favor of civil rights for Black Americans but concerned about what he termed “social rights”:
“There is no railway car in all the South which the colored man cannot ride in. That is his civil right. This bill proposes that he should have the opportunity or the right to go into a first-class car and sit with white gentlemen and white ladies. I submit if that is not a social right. There is a distinction between the two.”
Vance began giving a speech in 1870 called “The Scattered Nation,” which he would repeat hundreds of times. In it he called for religious freedom and tolerance among all Americans for Jewish people. “The Scattered Nation” made mention of
“…the African negro, the descendants of barbarian tribes who for 4,000 years have contributed nothing to though in close contact with civilization”
Despite his steadfast support for the institution of slavery and his consistent racist ideology, Zebulon Vance is celebrated in North Carolina through various monuments and public buildings that are named after him.
A statue of Zebulon Vance stands outside the State Capitol in Raleigh, and in downtown Asheville, a 75 foot obelisk bears his name. (A move is currently underway to remove or rename the Asheville obelisk)
North Carolina schools named after Vance include Vance High School in Charlotte, Vance Elementary in Asheville, and Zeb Vance Elementary in Kittrell.
Kittrell, NC lies in Vance County, a county which was formed in 1881 from Franklin, Warren and Granville counties in an effort to concentrate Black votes (which typically went Republican at the time) in one area and preserve surrounding counties as Democratic strongholds.
Zebulon Vance was absolutely tickled to have a North Carolina county named after him and thereafter referred to Vance County as “Zeb’s Black baby.“
It’s important to understand our history and to learn from it, but there’s a not-so-fine line between learning from our history and celebrating historical figures who fought for the right to own and brutalize other human beings.
If North Carolina is ready to do some soul searching, taking a hard look at the practice of making our students attend schools named for Zebulon Vance would be a good place to start.
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Thank you to my friend and North Carolina Social Studies Teacher of the Year Rodney Pierce for pointing me in the right direction on historical documents.
We may need to change the names of schools as well!
You left out the Town of Zebulon in Wake County.
Zebulon is Franklin County
Zebulon is in Franklin and Wake County.
I work for wake county and see children in Zebulon. It’s definitely part of wake county..
We need to have this mans name removed from everything except where he’s referred to as a racists slave owner and an enemy of equality… because that’s all he was and should be remembered as..
And then there’s Vanceboro in Craven County, between Greenville and New Bern…
Ashville has removed his monument but the plaque remains. We can not Memorialize a man who would not have wanted the Majority of the students attending the high school (Minorities) to even have the ability to read and write.
#TAKEITDOWN
Incorrect. They just voted to take it down. They have not removed it yet.
Thank you for a great history lesson in highlighting why his name should not be honored on anything.
I agree with all that has been stated. I will add if we are to correct the injustice and brutality off our Nation’s history we will need to change way more than schools and take down monuments. This land was renamed AMERICA from its original name of Turtle Island as the natives called it.
The facts remain that areas of our country where named to reflect the reality of the times they where in. We must teach our nation it’s own history before we teach of other lands.
We need to stand together to get every monument down every name changed all across the world. God made us all just different colors not better than no one else. We have to treat people the way we want to be treated.
CMS should’ve never named a public school after a known racist.
Yes, take his name off EVERYTHING but his gravestone, and keep the schools to educate a more informed and humane generation, and keep the monument (Obelisk) in downtown Asheville to educate with some skilled copy on an adjoining plaque to inform future generations why it is NO LONGER named for a racists bigot, but remains as an object of beauty and enlightened inspiration toward a more just future. Vance is horrible history, ADVance is our destiny.