Zebulon Vance

cabin in the 19th century Vance was born in a log cabin in the settlement of Reems Creek in Buncombe County, North Carolina, near present-day Weaverville, and was baptized at the Presbyterian church on Reems Creek. He was the third of eight children of David Vance Jr., a farmer and innkeeper, and his wife, Mira Margaret (née Baird). His maternal grandfather was Zebulon Baird, a state senator from Buncombe County, North Carolina. There, David Vance operated a stand, providing drovers with provisions as they moved hogs and other animals along the Buncombe Turnpike to markets to the south and east. Both were far enough from home that he had to board with others. Vance received an LL.D in 1852 and repaid the loan from the university with interest. ==Pre-Civil War career==

Attorney On January 1, 1852, Vance was admitted to the North Carolina Bar and received his county court license in Raleigh. He predicted that Vance would have "a brilliant career in the editorial line". One of the stories Vance wrote was about the search for Dr. Elisha Mitchell who disappeared in June 1857, having fallen to his death while trying to prove which peak was the highest in North Carolina. Vance was elected for a term starting in December 1858. Despite his support for the institution of slavery, Vance was openly against North Carolina's secession from the union, preferring a strategy where both slavery and the union could be preserved. However, Vance was in favor of a secession convention so that the people of North Carolina could make their own decision. In March 1861, Vance traveled throughout North Carolina, trying to persuade the state not to follow South Carolina by seceding. In April, he was addressing a large crowd when a telegraph was read announcing the firing on Fort Sumter and President Lincoln's call for 75,000 volunteers. At that moment, Vance recalled sadly changing into a secessionist, as he "preferred to shed northern rather than southern blood." On the spot, he shifted his speech to a call to fight for South Carolina. After the Battle of Fort Sumter, Vance resigned from Congress and headed home to Buncombe County. == Civil War ==

Soldier On May 4, 1861, two weeks before North Carolina seceded, Vance raised a company of local men known as the Rough and Ready Guards and became their captain. Vance's first objective was to confine the Union troops in the eastern counties, hold the state's main port Wilmington, and protect the Weldon Railroad.'' His testimony questioned the legality of Pickett's decision to hang Confederate deserters who had later sided with the Union and put Pickett at risk of prosecution for war crimes. Historian Selig Adler wrote, "As war governor, Vance endeared himself forever to his people. He mitigated the horrors of war by insisting on the precedence of civil law, and stoutly protected the state from the uncomfortable militarism of the Confederate government." Vance wrote to Sherman requesting a meeting, hoping to prevent the state's capital city from being pillaged. Two of Vance's men met with Sherman; although they did not reach an agreement about ending the war, they did save Raleigh. He then surrendered to General John M. Schofield in the west parlor of Blandwood Mansion in Greensboro, North Carolina on May 2, 1865. Schofield accepted Vance's surrender and told him to go to Statesville, North Carolina where Mrs. Vance and their children were living, as he had no orders for Vance's arrest. On May 29, 1865, William Woods Holden, Vance's former political opponent, was appointed governor of North Carolina by President Andrew Johnson. Prisoner Vance was arrested in Statesville on May 13, 1865, his 35th birthday, by General Hugh Judson Kilpatrick. Samuel Wittkowsky, the man who gave prisoner Vance a wagon ride to the train station, noted that Vance was silently shedding tears at first. Vance was formally pardoned on March 11, 1867; although no formal charges were filed against him before his arrest, during his imprisonment, or during his parole. ==Postwar career==

Attorney After the war, Vance practiced law in Statesville briefly before moving to Charlotte, North Carolina, where he formed a practice with Clement Dow and R. D. Johnson. To the end of his life, Vance maintained that Dula was innocent. The Dailey Standard noted that the convention was noteworthy for its hatred of the government and formerly enslaved people. Historian Leonard Rogoff, president of Jewish Heritage North Carolina, also notes that Vance established a relationship with Samuel Wittkowsky, a Jew and fellow Mason. Education As a postwar governor, Vance was considered progressive for his era. He proposed agricultural reforms, the expansion of teacher training through normal schools, and the addition of more public schools, including separate but equal access for African Americans. The State Colored Normal School became Fayetteville State University. Another problem facing Vance was that this railroad was the greatest engineering challenge east of the Rockies, requiring a climb of some in just over . Criticism of Reconstruction In one of his earliest speeches before the Senate, Vance addressed an array of issues that had arisen during Reconstruction, in support of H.R. 2, which called for the removal of military oversight in Southern elections, the repeal of laws that gave Federal marshals control of Southern elections, and the removal of the requirement for Federal Court jurors to take the oath of allegiance.Vance opposed important legislation of the era such as the McKinley Tariff, civil service programs, the internal revenue service, and the repeal of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act—gaining a reputation as an opposition senator. Vance was also against capitalistic monopolies and the government purchasing railroads and telegraph lines, as well as a monopoly by national banks. However, he did not believe railroads or other non-government entities should be allowed to own more public land than was needed for their primary function. Vance supported increasing the volume of currency and silver coinage; at the time, the amount of paper and coin money released could not exceed the gold in the treasury. Vance made his last speech in the Senate on September 1, 1893, speaking against House Bill 1, regarding the unconditional repeal of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act that was approved in 1890. Although noticeably weakened from illness, Vance spoke for two hours and gave what many consider the best speech of his career. Early in the speech, Vance simply explains, "When money is abundant prices are high; when money is scarce the prices of all products are low. Therefore, he that increases the abundance of money benefits the production and enhances prices and wages, and he that contracts or diminishes the amount of this money depreciates everything which is for sale, including wages...The effect upon the well-being of mankind which would follow the destruction of one-half of this currency—it is impossible to accurately describe." == Vance and the Ku Klux Klan ==

Following the Civil War, the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) emerged as an organization that engaged in terrorism and intimidation throughout the South, including North Carolina. Modern detractors and some modern biographers claim that Vance was a member of the Ku Klux Klan. The first known source to connect the two is an affidavit from Thomas A. Hope of Lincoln County, North Carolina, submitted to the US Congress's Joint Select Committee to Inquire into the Condition of Affairs in the Late Insurrectionary States, which published its report in 1872. In his affidavit, Hope states, "[I] frequently heard it talked among the KKK members that Z. B. Vance was the chief of the State; do not know this of my own knowledge, have only heard it talked of." Davis had a history of fakery and appears to have plagiarized a 1906 historical romance novel by Thomas Dixon Jr. when writing her nonfiction Klan history. Horne writes, "Ex-Governor Zebulon Baird Vance was generally supposed to be the Grand Dragon of the Realm, and the testimony of the confessed Ku Klux was to the effect that within the Klan Vance was generally looked upon as the chief of state." The statement issued by Vance reads: "I opposed the Ku Klux from the start...refusing to have anything to do with such an organization on the grounds that it was a secret society...I not only refused to approve of it but made a speech in a certain county against such organizations." Regardless of what Vance was writing or saying, historian Joe T. Mobley says it is important to consider Vance's "acquiescence to the violence of the Ku Klux Klan during Reconstruction." Vance also capitalized on "the tension created by the Klan in the mountain region to help the Conservatives sweep the western counties." == Personal life ==

in the 19th–century Around 1851, Vance began to court Harriett "Hattie" Newell Espy, the orphaned daughter of Presbyterian minister Robert Espy. When he moved to Charlotte after the Civil War, Vance attended Phalanx Lodge No. 31. That lodge quickly grew in size with Vance's membership. In February 1865, Vance had a stroke that caused temporary paralysis and "the muscles of the left cheek and eye to occasionally jerk and twitch...." Vance joined the church for the first time at the age of 48, choosing his wife's Presbyterian church. However, his wife Harriett died on November 3, 1878, after a long and painful illness, just one month after the death of Vance's mother. Martin was a wealthy Catholic widow from Louisville, Kentucky, with a twelve-year-old son. They did not have any children. In a kindness not always seen by political opponents, the entire Senate voted to pay for a private secretary for Vance from their contingency funds. Thousands of people lined the railroad tracks "to pay their last respects to one whom they loved and admired very much" as the funeral train headed south and west and stopped at towns and cities such as Richmond, Danville, Greensboro, Durham, and Raleigh. Vance was buried by his first wife, Harriett, in Riverside Cemetery in the Vance family plot. Later, his second wife Florence had Vance moved to a grave in her family's plot in Riverside Cemetery. Vance's children, who were all born to his first wife, successfully petitioned to court to return Vance to his original burial site. Thus, Vance was buried three times in the same cemetery. At the time of his death, Vance had $152.07 in the bank; when his effects and property were sold, his estate totaled less than $5,000. == Honors ==

, Raleigh, North Carolina , National Statuary Hall State Historic Site In 1953, Frontis W. Johnston wrote, "North Carolina has loved, idolized, and rewarded no other man in her history as she has Zebulon Baird Vance." • The Vance Monument, a granite obelisk was dedicated in Asheville, North Carolina in 1897 (demolished May 2021). • A statue of Vance by Henry Jackson Ellicott was dedicated on the grounds of the North Carolina State Capitol in Raleigh on August 22, 1900. It was moved from its original pedestal and relocated to Raleigh's Union Square in 1949. • A small monument is located where his post-war home once stood at Sixth and College Streets, in Charlotte, North Carolina. • The Asheville Lodge of the B'nai B'rith dedicated a memorial plaque to Vance at Calvary Episcopal Church in Fletcher, North Carolina on October 14, 1928. The plaque is mounted on a large granite boulder that is part of the Open–Air Westminster Abbey of the South. Several locations, schools, and more bear Vance's name: • Vance County, North Carolina was named in his honor in 1881. • The town of Vanceboro in Craven County, North Carolina • The World War II United States liberty ship SS Zebulon B. Vance • Kerr-Vance Academy in Henderson, North Carolina • Northern Vance High School in Henderson, North Carolina • Vance Hall at the University of North Carolina at Asheville (name changed in 2020). • Zebulon B. Vance High School in Charlotte, North Carolina (name changed on October 13, 2020). • Zeb Vance Elementary School in Kittrell, North Carolina There are many historic markers and historic sites about Vance: • The Vance Birthplace is a State Historic Site in Weaverville, North Carolina. • The Historic Vance House and Civil War Museum is located in Statesville, North Carolina in his former residence. • The "Zeb Vance House" North Carolina State Highway Historical Marker is in Statesville, North Carolina. • The "Zebulon B. Vance" North Carolina State Highway Historical Marker is in Buncombe County, North Carolina. • The "Camp Vance" North Carolina State Highway Historical Marker is near Morganton, North Carolina. • The "Brothers in Service" Civil War Trails marker in Weaverville, North Carolina is about Vance and his brother Robert. Several organizations bear his name: • Vance Masonic Lodge A.F.&A.M. No. 293 in Weaverville, North Carolina • The Sons of Confederate Veterans Camp No. 15 is called the Zebulon Baird Vance Camp • Vance Policy Institute think tank for Asheville and Buncombe County • The Zeb Vance Ruritan Club in Kittrell, North Carolina • The Henderson, North Carolina chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy is the Zeb Vance Chapter • The United Confederate Veterans Camp No. 681 was called the Zebulon Vance Camp in his honor. • Vance County Schools in Henderson, North Carolina Also, on January 19, 1895, the United States Senate opened its floor for orations in his honor. == Legacy ==

About Vance, F. Lane Williamson wrote, "Did he moderate his racial views in later years? Perhaps, but who knows? It's fair to say, though, that his legacy is that he set the stage for North Carolina to be perceived as at least somewhat more racially tolerant and culturally progressive than its Deep South neighbors, a tradition that held through the 20th–century and beyond until quite recently." Samuel Wittkowsky, a Jewish intimate of Vance, wrote, "I speak for my race in North Carolina...the deceased has even by his words and writings demonstrated that he was their friend. His lecture on the Scattered Nation will ever remain green in the memory of my race, and will be one of the brightest jewels in his ever-liberal, fair, and untarnished escutcheon. And I venture the assertion that in the history of North Carolina, no Israelite has cast a vote against Z. B. Vance." She was also inspired to write The Ballad of Tom Dula because of Vance, saying "Despite his family's hard times after the early death of his father, Zeb Vance managed to get an education, read law, and get himself elected governor by the age of thirty. I thought that Vance could counteract the [negative Appalachian] stereotypes..." Always a controversial political figure, Vance became even more of an issue in the early 21st century because of his connection to slavery and his history of racism. Kimberly Floyd, site manager of the Vance Birthplace and symposium co-convener said, "Zebulon Vance was a prominent figure in our state for four decades, and his is the story of both a hero and scoundrel." In August 2020, the board of trustees of the University of North Carolina at Asheville voted to rename Vance Hall because Vance "maintained racist stances that do not align with UNC Asheville's core values." Also in 2021, Asheville City Schools changed the name of its Vance Elementary School. ==See also==