122-459: The Confederate Monument, University of North Carolina , commonly known as Silent Sam , is a bronze statue of a Confederate soldier by Canadian sculptor John A. Wilson , which once stood on McCorkle Place of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) from 1913 until it was pulled down by protestors on August 20, 2018. Its former location has been described as "the front door" of
244-679: A centralized federal government in Richmond, Virginia , and enacted the first Confederate draft on April 16, 1862. By 1865, the Confederacy's federal government dissolved into chaos, and the Confederate States Congress adjourned , effectively ceasing to exist as a legislative body on March 18. After four years of heavy fighting, nearly all Confederate land and naval forces either surrendered or otherwise ceased hostilities by May 1865. The most significant capitulation
366-400: A "Pro-Confederate Rally" in support of Silent Sam was announced for October 25; the protestors were from Alamance County , and had no connection with the university. They were met by three times as many counterdemonstrators, "most of them students". One of the students handed out 158 copies of W.E.B. DuBois ' seminal 1903 book The Souls of Black Folk — 158 being, according to the student,
488-477: A covenant that we, too, will do our task with fidelity and courage. The dedication speech which has attracted the most subsequent notice was given by Julian Carr , a prominent industrialist, UNC alumnus and trustee, former Confederate soldier, and the largest single donor towards the construction of the monument. This speech has been described by UNC history professor W. Fitzhugh Brundage as one in which Carr "unambiguously urged his audience to devote themselves to
610-511: A defender of the "Anglo Saxon race" and bragged about whipping an African-American woman "until her skirts hung in shreds", became a galvanizing force in activists' efforts to get the statue removed. On September 1, 2011, a group variously known as the Real Silent Sam Movement or Committee held a protest "to attract attention to the statue's history". That group "campaigned over the past two years [2011–2013] to replace
732-527: A graduate student in history at UNC, later assistant professor of history at the College of Charleston ), wrote a letter to The Daily Tar Heel entitled "Why Silent Sam was built: A historian's perspective". The letter highlighted Julian Carr's speech at the dedication of the statue, which Domby had uncovered in the university archives in 2009. Carr's speech, in which he praised the Confederate soldier as
854-434: A heavy object off a pedestal, it was the probable confrontations between pro- and anti-Confederate demonstrators from outside the university. Folt stated that if UNC could remove the statue it would, but was prohibited by the 2015 law cited above. Cooper responded to Spellings, saying UNC could remove the statue if there was "a real risk to public safety," but did not himself say that the risk existed. Folt replied that despite
976-613: A letter to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, requesting that it petition the North Carolina Historical Commission to immediately remove Silent Sam from campus "in the interest of public safety." "The possibility of a breach of the peace is high, and with it the likelihood that Silent Sam could suffer substantial damage." On August 20, 2017, protestors singing " We Shall Overcome " draped Silent Sam in black, as had just been proposed for
1098-519: A man for "spray-painting a message on Silent Sam". Already in August 2017, it was reported that Silent Sam "has been vandalized multiple times in recent years". "Silent Sam has been a target for protest and vandalism for decades." "The push to get UNC to remove the statue...took off in earnest in August 2017", after the proposed removal of Confederate statues in Charlottesville, Virginia led to
1220-557: A negro wench until her skirts hung in shreds, because upon the streets of this quiet village she had publicly insulted and maligned a Southern lady, and then rushed for protection to these University buildings where was stationed a garrison of 100 Federal soldiers. I performed the pleasing duty in the immediate presence of the entire garrison, and for thirty nights afterwards slept with a double-barrel shot gun under my head. The monument appears on an undated, early 20th-century postcard. A picture from 1918, with two soldiers in front, appeared in
1342-573: A normal government, the expression of popular will". Fremantle went on to write in his book Three Months in the Southern States that he had: ...not attempted to conceal any of the peculiarities or defects of the Southern people. Many persons will doubtless highly disapprove of some of their customs and habits in the wilder portion of the country; but I think no generous man, whatever may be his political opinions, can do otherwise than admire
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#17327797484641464-420: A panel of historians emphasized in 2011, "while slavery and its various and multifaceted discontents were the primary cause of disunion, it was disunion itself that sparked the war." Historian David M. Potter wrote: "The problem for Americans who, in the age of Lincoln, wanted slaves to be free was not simply that southerners wanted the opposite, but that they themselves cherished a conflicting value: they wanted
1586-462: A presidential proclamation issued April 15, 1861. It called for troops to recapture forts and suppress what Lincoln later called an "insurrection and rebellion". Mid-war parleys between the two sides occurred without formal political recognition, though the laws of war predominantly governed military relationships on both sides of uniformed conflict. Once war with the United States began,
1708-628: A sectional balance in the Senate but not in the House of Representatives , as free states outstripped slave states in numbers of eligible voters. Thus, at mid-19th century, the free-versus-slave status of the new territories was a critical issue, both for the North, where anti-slavery sentiment had grown, and for the South, where the fear of slavery's abolition had grown. Another factor leading to secession and
1830-518: A speech espousing white supremacy , while Governor Locke Craig , UNC President Francis Venable and members of the UDC praised the sacrifices made by students who had volunteered to fight for the Confederacy. The program for the unveiling simply referred to the statue as "the Confederate Monument", with the name "Soldiers Monument" also being used around the same time. The name Silent Sam
1952-411: A statement supporting Folt, saying: "Above all, regardless of the circumstance, the chancellor has a responsibility to the people of North Carolina to uphold all state laws. With this new law, it is relatively easy for many individuals to speculate about its meaning or offer possible loopholes as ways to operate around the law. It would be unwise and imprudent for the University to take any action regarding
2074-556: A statement supporting or recognizing the Confederacy. In November 1863, Mann met Pope Pius IX and received a letter supposedly addressed "to the Illustrious and Honorable Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America"; Mann had mistranslated the address. In his report to Richmond, Mann claimed a great diplomatic achievement for himself, but Confederate Secretary of State Judah P. Benjamin told Mann it
2196-491: A stronger position on the removal of Silent Sam . UNC's board of governors also criticized Folt for her request of the Governor, saying that the request "was a 'wholly unacceptable' unilateral decision by Spellings and Bissette". They said the letter to the governor should have been reviewed and approved by the entire board, instead of only the board's committee chairs. They said they would not have given their approval to send
2318-537: A view that has been disproven by the overwhelming historical evidence against it, notably some of the seceding states' own secession documents . The principal political battle leading to Southern secession was over whether slavery would be permitted to expand into the Western territories destined to become states. Initially Congress had admitted new states into the Union in pairs, one slave and one free . This had kept
2440-431: A virgin walked by, but never did (he was silent) because he never saw any. In 1937 this story was called an "old local wisecrack". In 1971, the monument was defaced with paint following a basketball victory. In 1986, the statue was temporarily removed and shipped to Cincinnati, where it was cleaned and restored by bronze specialists Eleftherios and Mercene Karkadoulias. They repaired cracks, removed green oxidation, and gave
2562-436: Is an epic poem in bronze. Its beauty and its grandeur are not limited by the genius of the sculptor. The soul of the beholder will determine the revelation of its meaning. It will remind you, and those who come after you of the boys who left these peaceful classic shades for the hardships of armies at the front, for the fierce carnage of titanic battles, for suffering and for death. We unveil and dedicate this monument today, as
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#17327797484642684-409: Is first recorded in 1954, in the student newspaper The Daily Tar Heel . Beginning in the 1960s, the statue faced opposition on the grounds of its racist message, and it was vandalized several times during the civil rights movement . Protests and calls to remove the monument reached a higher profile in the 2010s, and in 2018, UNC Chancellor Carol L. Folt described the monument as detrimental to
2806-477: Is only a matter of time before an attempt is made to pull down Silent Sam in much the same manner we saw in Durham ... An attempt may occur at any time." They also asked the governor to convene the North Carolina Historical Commission to take up the question of what to do with the statue," although "the panel has little leeway to remove the statue permanently." The danger was not just the physical risks of taking such
2928-457: Is too great, save that of honor". The message stated that if the French or British governments made their recognition conditional on anything at all, the Confederacy would consent to such terms. European leaders all saw that the Confederacy was on the verge of defeat. The Confederacy's biggest foreign policy successes were with Brazil and Cuba . Militarily this meant little. Brazil represented
3050-455: The Charlottesville statues of Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson, whose removal, at least for the moment, had recently been blocked (see Removal of Confederate monuments and memorials#Virginia ). On August 21 Chancellor Folt issued a message urging students not to attend the rally scheduled for the next day, "considering the potential for a highly charged atmosphere and the very real possibility for confrontation with outside groups." The rally
3172-496: The Cultural History Artifact Management and Patriotism Act of 2015 , which states that "An object of remembrance [defined as "monument, memorial, or work of art"] located on public property may not be permanently removed". It does allow an object to be permanently relocated, provided that it is "relocated to a site of similar prominence, honor, visibility, availability, and access, ...within
3294-575: The General Assembly from Jefferson City. The executive committee of the convention called the members together in July, and declared the state offices vacant and appointed a Unionist interim state government. The exiled governor called a rump session of the former General Assembly together in Neosho and, on October 31, 1861, it passed an ordinance of secession . The Confederate state government
3416-530: The Jim Crow laws through activities such as building Confederate monuments and influencing the authors of textbooks . The modern display of the Confederate battle flag primarily started during the 1948 presidential election , when the battle flag was used by the Dixiecrats . During the civil rights movement , racial segregationists used it for demonstrations. A consensus of historians who address
3538-597: The Unite the Right rally on August 11–12, and on August 14, the toppling of the Confederate Soldiers Memorial in nearby Durham . Beginning in August there was "a year of sit-ins, rallies and protests involving students, faculty and community members". On August 15, 2017, a video taken by a passer-by shows a man beating the statue with a hammer. On August 17, 2017, Chapel Hill mayor Pam Hemminger sent
3660-709: The "peoples most identical to us in Institutions", in which slavery remained legal until the 1880s and the abolitionist movement was small. Confederate ships were welcome in Brazilian ports. After the war, Brazil was the primary destination of those Southerners who wanted to continue living in a slave society, where, as one immigrant remarked, Confederado slaves were cheap. The Captain–General of Cuba declared in writing that Confederate ships were welcome, and would be protected in Cuban ports. Historians speculate that if
3782-443: The 1961 yearbook Yackity Yack . The statue was called the "Soldiers Monument" in the first student newspaper reference to it in 1913, but was referred to as the "Confederate Monument" in the program for its unveiling, and this name was used from the 1920s through the 1940s. The earliest known use of the name " Silent Sam " is from 1954, in the campus newspaper The Daily Tar Heel . A story developed that "Sam" would fire his gun if
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3904-611: The 1992 Rodney King trial. In 1997, a Martin Luther King Jr. Day march focusing on issues facing UNC housekeepers ended at the monument. In 2003, Gerald Horne , at that time director of the Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History , in a letter to The Daily Tar Heel , called the monument "an eyesore ". Several protests in the late 2010s were directed toward the statue, along with calls for its removal. In January 2011, Adam Domby (then
4026-454: The 21st century agree on the centrality of slavery in the conflict, they disagree sharply on which aspects of this conflict (ideological, economic, political, or social) were most important, and on the North 's reasons for refusing to allow the Southern states to secede. Proponents of the pseudo-historical Lost Cause ideology have denied that slavery was the principal cause of the secession,
4148-777: The British Coldstream Guards , who entered the Confederacy via Mexico, Fitzgerald Ross of the Austrian Hussars , and Justus Scheibert of the Prussian Army . European travelers visited and wrote accounts for publication. Importantly in 1862, the Frenchman Charles Girard 's Seven months in the rebel states during the North American War testified "this government ... is no longer a trial government ... but really
4270-529: The British merchant fleet. In mid-1862, fears of a race war (like the Haitian Revolution of 1791–1804) led to the British considering intervention for humanitarian reasons. John Slidell, the Confederate States emissary to France, succeeded in negotiating a loan of $ 15,000,000 from Erlanger and other French capitalists for ironclad warships and military supplies. The British government did allow
4392-419: The Confederacy asserted its independence and appointed dozens of diplomatic agents abroad. None were recognized by a foreign government. The US government regarded the Southern states as being in rebellion or insurrection and so refused any formal recognition of their status. The US government never declared war on those "kindred and countrymen" in the Confederacy but conducted its military efforts beginning with
4514-512: The Confederacy by counties in East Tennessee were checked by martial law. Although slaveholding Delaware and Maryland did not secede, citizens exhibited divided loyalties. Regiments of Marylanders fought in Lee's Army of Northern Virginia . Overall, 24,000 men from Maryland joined Confederate forces, compared to 63,000 who joined Union forces. Delaware never produced a full regiment for
4636-404: The Confederacy counted about one-fourth its population. They voted 43% for pro-Union candidates. The four states which entered after the attack on Fort Sumter held almost half the population of the Confederacy and voted 53% for pro-Union candidates. The three big turnout states voted extremes; Texas, with 5% of the population, voted 20% for pro-Union candidates; Kentucky and Missouri, with one-fourth
4758-419: The Confederacy had achieved independence, it probably would have tried to acquire Cuba as a base of expansion. Most soldiers who joined Confederate national or state military units joined voluntarily. Perman (2010) says historians are of two minds on why millions of soldiers seemed so eager to fight, suffer and die over four years: Francis Preston Venable Too Many Requests If you report this error to
4880-556: The Confederacy on March 16, 1861, and appointed Dr. Lewis S. Owings as the new territorial governor. They won the Battle of Mesilla and established a territorial government with Mesilla serving as its capital. The Confederacy proclaimed the Confederate Arizona Territory on February 14, 1862, north to the 34th parallel . Marcus H. MacWillie served in both Confederate Congresses as Arizona's delegate. In 1862,
5002-585: The Confederacy pinned its hopes for survival on military intervention by the UK or France . The Confederate government sent James M. Mason to London and John Slidell to Paris. On their way in 1861, the U.S. Navy intercepted their ship, the Trent, and took them to Boston, an international episode known as the Trent Affair . The diplomats were eventually released and continued their voyage. However, their mission
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5124-418: The Confederacy to exclude students in their final two years from conscription, and this was granted in 1863, but revoked a year later. Swain was able to keep the university open throughout the war by educating the few students unable to fight—those too young to enlist, exempt because of ill health, or discharged because of war injuries—though the senior class in the spring of 1865 had only one student. In 1907,
5246-700: The Confederacy valiantly fighting for a just cause, emerged in the decades after the war among former Confederate generals and politicians, and in organizations such as the United Daughters of the Confederacy and the Sons of Confederate Veterans . Intense periods of Lost Cause activity developed around the turn of the 20th century and during the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s in reaction to growing support for racial equality . Advocates sought to ensure future generations of Southern whites would continue to support white supremacist policies such as
5368-418: The Confederacy, but neither did it emancipate slaves as did Missouri and West Virginia. District of Columbia citizens made no attempts to secede and through the war, referendums sponsored by Lincoln approved compensated emancipation and slave confiscation from "disloyal citizens". Citizens at Mesilla and Tucson in the southern part of New Mexico Territory formed a secession convention, which voted to join
5490-464: The Confederacy. The war itself began on April 12, 1861, when Confederate forces bombarded the Union's Fort Sumter , in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina . Background factors in the run up to the Civil War were partisan politics , abolitionism , nullification versus secession , Southern and Northern nationalism, expansionism , economics , and modernization in the antebellum period . As
5612-709: The Confederate New Mexico campaign to take the northern half of the U.S. territory failed and the Confederate territorial government in exile relocated to San Antonio, Texas. Confederate supporters in the trans-Mississippi west claimed portions of the Indian Territory after the US evacuated the federal forts and installations. Over half of the American Indian troops participating in the War from
5734-578: The Confederate States of America. The new provisional Confederate President Jefferson Davis issued a call for 100,000 men from the states' militias to defend the newly formed Confederacy. All Federal property was seized, including gold bullion and coining dies at the U.S. mints in Charlotte , North Carolina; Dahlonega , Georgia; and New Orleans . The Confederate capital was moved from Montgomery to Richmond, Virginia, in May 1861. On February 22, 1862, Davis
5856-431: The Confederate population, voted 68% for pro-Union. Following South Carolina's unanimous 1860 secession vote, no other Southern states considered the question until 1861; when they did, none had a unanimous vote. All had residents who cast significant numbers of Unionist votes. Voting to remain in the Union did not necessarily mean individuals were sympathizers with the North. Once fighting began, many who voted to remain in
5978-485: The Confederates "suffered a severe loss of confidence in themselves" and withdrew into an interior defensive position. By December 1864, Davis considered sacrificing slavery in order to enlist recognition and aid from Paris and London; he secretly sent Duncan F. Kenner to Europe with a message that the war was fought solely for "the vindication of our rights to self-government and independence" and that "no sacrifice
6100-679: The Constitution, which protected slavery, to be honored, and the Union, which was a fellowship with slaveholders, to be preserved. Thus they were committed to values that could not logically be reconciled." The first secession state conventions from the Deep South sent representatives to the Montgomery Convention in Alabama on February 4, 1861. A provisional government was established, and a representative Congress met for
6222-494: The English language "Duty is the sublimest word in the English language" is a quote from a letter attributed to Confederate commander Robert E. Lee , but revealed in 1914 to have been a forgery. Ours is the task to build a State worthy of all patriotism and heroic deeds, a State that demands justice for herself and all her people, a State sounding with the music of victorious industry, a State whose awakened conscience shall lead
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#17327797484646344-675: The Indian Territory supported the Confederacy. On July 12, 1861, the Confederate government signed a treaty with both the Choctaw and Chickasaw Indian nations. After several battles, Union armies took control of the territory. The Indian Territory never formally joined the Confederacy, but did receive representation in the Congress. Many Indians from the Territory were integrated into regular Confederate Army units. After 1863,
6466-562: The North Carolina chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) decided that its next major goal was to be "the erection, on the campus at the State University, of a monument to the students and faculty, who went out from its walls in 1861 to fight and die for the South." University President Francis Preston Venable spoke to the 1909 UDC Convention, approving of the plan for a monument, and saying that record of
6588-476: The North, often mass-produced, depicting soldiers without ammunition or with their guns at parade rest. As with the other statues, the memorial was positioned to face north, towards the Union. A bronze plaque in bas-relief on the front of the memorial's base depicts a woman, representing the state of North Carolina, convincing a young student to fight for the Southern cause as he drops his books, representing students leaving their studies. A smaller bronze plaque on
6710-436: The South's slavery-based economy. The convergence of race and slavery, politics, and economics raised South-related policy questions to the status of moral questions over, way of life, merging love of things Southern and hatred of things Northern. As the war approached, political parties split, and national churches and interstate families divided along sectional lines. According to historian John M. Coski: The statesmen who led
6832-459: The State to evolve from the forces of progress a new social order, with finer development for all conditions and classes of our people. -from the dedication speech of Governor Locke Craig, June 2, 1913". The program for the unveiling of the monument started at 3:30 pm, on June 2, 1913. Attendance was reported to be 1,000. Speeches were given by, among others, Mrs. Marshall Williams, president of
6954-531: The Union accepted the majority decision, and supported the Confederacy. Many writers have evaluated the War as an American tragedy—a "Brothers' War", pitting "brother against brother, father against son, kin against kin of every degree". Initially, some secessionists hoped for a peaceful departure. Moderates in the Confederate Constitutional Convention included a provision against importation of slaves from Africa to appeal to
7076-584: The Union and Confederate sides as belligerents . In 1863, the Confederacy expelled European diplomatic missions for advising their resident subjects to refuse to serve in the Confederate army. Both Confederate and Union agents were allowed to work openly in British territories. The Confederacy appointed Ambrose Dudley Mann as special agent to the Holy See in September 1863, but the Holy See never released
7198-591: The Union victory at the Battle of Antietam , Lincoln's preliminary Emancipation Proclamation and abolitionist opposition in Britain put an end to these possibilities. The cost to Britain of a war with the U.S. would have been high: the immediate loss of American grain-shipments, the end of British exports to the U.S., and seizure of billions of pounds invested in American securities. War would have meant higher taxes in Britain, another invasion of Canada, and attacks on
7320-582: The Union. The federal government in Washington D.C. and states under its control were known as the Union . The Civil War began on April 12, 1861, when South Carolina's militia attacked Fort Sumter . Four slave states of the Upper South — Virginia , Arkansas , Tennessee , and North Carolina —then seceded and joined the Confederacy. On February 22, 1862, Confederate States Army leaders installed
7442-402: The United States . The Confederacy was formed on February 8, 1861, by South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas. They adopted a new constitution establishing a confederation government of "sovereign and independent states". Some Northerners reacted by saying "Let the Confederacy go in peace!", while some Southerners wanted to maintain their loyalty to
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#17327797484647564-525: The Upper South. Non-slave states might join, but the radicals secured a two-thirds requirement in both houses of Congress to accept them. Seven states declared their secession from the United States before Lincoln took office on March 4, 1861. After the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter April 12, 1861, and Lincoln's subsequent call for troops, four more states declared their secession. Kentucky declared neutrality, but after Confederate troops moved in,
7686-639: The approach of Federal armies in mid-1862, the government's archives were readied for removal. As the Wilderness Campaign progressed, Congress authorized Davis to remove the executive department and call Congress to session elsewhere in 1864 and again in 1865. Shortly before the end of the war, the Confederate government evacuated Richmond, planning to relocate further south. Little came of these plans before Lee's surrender. Davis and most of his cabinet fled to Danville, Virginia , which served as their headquarters for eight days. During its four years,
7808-476: The boundaries of the jurisdiction from which it was relocated." Approval of the North Carolina Historical Commission is required. On the night of August 17–18, 2015, the statue, along with the Chapel Hill Post Office, were defaced with the words "Who is Sandra Bland ?" On September 9, 2015, the monument was blindfolded with "a Confederate bandanna". Seeing how the monument was being defaced,
7930-413: The construction of blockade runners in Britain; they were owned and operated by British financiers and shipowners; a few were owned and operated by the Confederacy. The British investors' goal was to acquire highly profitable cotton. Several European nations maintained diplomats in place who had been appointed to the U.S., but no country appointed any diplomat to the Confederacy. Those nations recognized
8052-404: The cost of the statue, though their success at fundraising led the university to ask for them to cover $ 2,500 by 1911. Most of the rest of the cost was covered by alumni donations. UNC eventually had to give $ 500 to reach the contracted total of $ 7,500. The statue was planned to be in place by 1911 for the 50th anniversary of the beginning of the Civil War. Raising funds to pay for the statue delayed
8174-575: The courage, energy, and patriotism of the whole population, and the skill of its leaders, in this struggle against great odds. And I am also of opinion that many will agree with me in thinking that a people in which all ranks and both sexes display a unanimity and a heroism which can never have been surpassed in the history of the world, is destined, sooner or later, to become a great and independent nation. French Emperor Napoleon III assured Confederate diplomat John Slidell that he would make "direct proposition" to Britain for joint recognition. The Emperor made
8296-454: The current plaque with one that tells what they call "the true history of the confederate soldier." North Carolina NAACP President Reverend William Barber II spoke at a program held on the monument's centenary in 2013. In July 2015, the statue was vandalized with the words " Black Lives Matter ", KKK , and "murderer", during a wave of vandalism targeting Confederate monuments. A UNC history professor, Dr. Harry Watson, said that he believed
8418-679: The end of transatlantic enslavement of Africans; by 1833 , the Royal Navy patrolled middle passage waters to prevent additional slave ships from reaching the Western Hemisphere. It was in London that the first World Anti-Slavery Convention had been held in 1840. Black abolitionist speakers toured England, Scotland, and Ireland, exposing the reality of America's chattel slavery and rebutting the Confederate position that blacks were "unintellectual, timid, and dependent", and "not equal to
8540-513: The formation of the Confederacy was the development of white Southern nationalism in the preceding decades. The primary reason for the North to reject secession was to preserve the Union, a cause based on American nationalism . Abraham Lincoln won the 1860 presidential election . His victory triggered declarations of secession by seven slave states of the Deep South , all of whose riverfront or coastal economies were based on cotton that
8662-458: The glorious cause of southern independence. They demanded that their own states join the cause. Scores of demonstrations took place from April 12 to 14, before Lincoln issued his call for troops. Many conditional unionists were swept along by this powerful tide of southern nationalism; others were cowed into silence. Historian Daniel W. Crofts disagrees with McPherson: The bombardment of Fort Sumter, by itself, did not destroy Unionist majorities in
8784-536: The governor's advice, the university did not think it could say it was a "risk to public safety" in the sense intended by the 2015 law, which refers to "a building inspector or similar official" making that determination, "where the statue itself poses a physical hazard." As put on a separate occasion, "UNC...doesn't agree that it's received the green light by anyone with authority to relocate the statue." Removal will require legislative action. Folt received considerable criticism from UNC-CH students and faculty for not taking
8906-721: The hundreds of thousands. Secessionists argued that the United States Constitution was a contract among sovereign states that could be abandoned without consultation and each state had a right to secede. After intense debates and statewide votes, seven Deep South cotton states passed secession ordinances by February 1861, while secession efforts failed in the other eight slave states. The Confederacy expanded in May–July 1861 (with Virginia , Arkansas , Tennessee , North Carolina ), and disintegrated in April–May 1865. It
9028-478: The left side of the base says: Erected under the auspices of the North Carolina division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy aided by the alumni of the university Another bronze plaque on the right reads: To the sons of the university who entered the War of 1861–65 in answer to the call of their country and whose lives taught the lesson of their great commander that duty is the sublimest word in
9150-642: The letter to Cooper. ... "The letter exuded a weakness and hand wringing that does not accurately reflect the Board's opinion about how the potential of campus unrest should be treated", said the letter, which was dated August 22. According to UNC-CH officials, "any petition to the North Carolina Historical Commission requesting the removal of the statue would have to come from the UNC System Board of Governors. That body has shown no public interest in doing so at this point." UNC's board of trustees then released
9272-476: The local division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy; and Francis Preston Venable , the university's president. The University Band played Dixie while "students formally accepted the monument", and the program concluded with a rendition by a quartet of " Tenting on the Old Camp Ground ". The Governor of North Carolina , Locke Craig , also spoke; regarding the service of students who died in
9394-551: The maintenance of white supremacy with the same vigor that their Confederate ancestors had defended slavery." In it, Carr emphatically praised the student-soldiers and soldiers of the Confederate Army for their wartime valor and patriotism, adding that the present generation ... scarcely takes note of what the Confederate soldier meant to the welfare of the Anglo Saxon race during the four years immediately succeeding
9516-503: The monument represented an important part of history but that its glorification promoted a false conception of the Civil War. A second protest was held on October 12, University Day, on the steps of Wilson Library. Officials said that "a protective layer would be placed on the monument to ease cleaning efforts for future situations". In late July 2015, the North Carolina General Assembly passed SL 2015–170,
9638-470: The monument without additional legal clarity, and we would expect no less from our chancellor." On August 22, 2017, at the beginning of the school year, a "Rally for Removal of Silent Sam", announced on a poster describing the day as "the first day of Silent Sam's last semester", attracted about 800 people. Thousands signed a change.org petition to remove it. Chanting "Hey, hey. Ho, ho. This racist statue has got to go" and "Tear it down", protestors marched to
9760-414: The number of years between the foundation of the university and its admitting black students. On October 12, 2015, University Day, a group of about two dozen students, calling itself The Real Silent Sam Coalition, interrupted a speech by Chancellor Folt, shouting "Tear it down, tear it down, or we'll shout you down". They received applause from some faculty present. On January 12, 2016, UNC police arrested
9882-539: The official residence of University President Margaret Spellings, briefly blocking traffic on Franklin Street , Chapel Hill's main street, which adjoins the oldest part of the campus, where Silent Sam was located. The statue was surrounded by police in riot gear. Former UNC-CH Chancellor James Moeser , interviewed at the rally, said: "I used to be of the mind that we should contextualize history...but Charlottesville changed my mind." "Once statues like this become weaponized by
10004-428: The ordinance of secession. In the 1860 election "Constitutional Democrat" Breckenridge had outpolled "Constitutional Unionist" Bell in the 50 counties by 1,900 votes, 44% to 42%. The counties simultaneously supplied over 20,000 soldiers to each side of the conflict. Representatives for most counties were seated in both state legislatures at Wheeling and at Richmond for the duration of the war. Attempts to secede from
10126-540: The origins of the American Civil War agree that the preservation of the institution of slavery was the principal aim of the eleven Southern states (seven states before the onset of the war and four states after the onset) that declared their secession from the United States (the Union ) and united to form the Confederate States of America (known as the "Confederacy"). However, while historians in
10248-530: The other three candidates (Abraham Lincoln, Stephen A. Douglas and John Bell ). Support for these three collectively, ranged from significant to outright majority, running from 25% in Texas to 81% in Missouri. There were minority views everywhere, especially in the upland and plateau areas of the South, particularly concentrated in western Virginia and eastern Tennessee. The first six signatory states establishing
10370-625: The populous counties along the Ohio and Pennsylvania borders rejected the Confederacy. Unionists held a Convention in Wheeling in June 1861, establishing a "restored government" with a rump legislature , but sentiment in the region remained deeply divided. In the 50 counties that would make up the state of West Virginia , voters from 24 counties had voted for disunion in Virginia's May 23 referendum on
10492-461: The pro-Confederate claimants in Kentucky (December 10, 1861) and Missouri (November 28, 1861) and laid claim to those states, granting them Congressional representation and adding two stars to the Confederate flag. Voting for the representatives was mostly done by Confederate soldiers from Kentucky and Missouri. Some southern unionists blamed Lincoln's call for troops as the precipitating event for
10614-444: The project by two years. Unlike his earlier Daniel A. Bean sculpture (an unarmed 15-year-old Union enlistee), John A. Wilson depicted the infantryman armed with a rifle, but with no cartridge box on his belt. This has been explained as a choice to make the soldier "silent" by not providing ammunition to fire his gun. However, historian Adam H. Domby suggests that the lack of a cartridge box stemmed from Wilson's lack of knowledge about
10736-463: The requirements of mid-19th century weaponry, saying "In fact, he was never meant to be silent, and those who organized, funded, and dedicated the monument would be horrified at the thought that future generations would see Sam as a pacifist." As with the Bean sculpture, Wilson used a northerner, Harold Langlois of Boston , as his model. That was part of a tradition of "Silent Sentinels," statues created in
10858-405: The same assurance to British Members of Parliament John A. Roebuck and John A. Lindsay. Roebuck in turn publicly prepared a bill to submit to Parliament supporting joint Anglo-French recognition of the Confederacy. "Southerners had a right to be optimistic, or at least hopeful, that their revolution would prevail, or at least endure." Following the disasters at Vicksburg and Gettysburg in July 1863,
10980-449: The secession movement were unashamed to explicitly cite the defense of slavery as their prime motive ... Acknowledging the centrality of slavery to the Confederacy is essential for understanding the Confederate. Southern Democrats had chosen John Breckinridge as their candidate during the 1860 presidential election, but in no Southern state was support for him unanimous, as they recorded at least some popular vote for at least one of
11102-481: The second wave of secessions. Historian James McPherson argues such claims have "a self-serving quality" and regards them as misleading: As the telegraph chattered reports of the attack on Sumter April 12 and its surrender next day, huge crowds poured into the streets of Richmond, Raleigh, Nashville, and other upper South cities to celebrate this victory over the Yankees. These crowds waved Confederate flags and cheered
11224-588: The state legislature asked for Union troops to drive them out. Delegates from 68 Kentucky counties were sent to the Russellville Convention that signed an Ordinance of Secession. Kentucky was admitted into the Confederacy on December 10, 1861, with Bowling Green as its first capital. Early in the war, the Confederacy controlled more than half of Kentucky but largely lost control in 1862. The splinter Confederate government of Kentucky relocated to accompany western Confederate armies and never controlled
11346-499: The state population after 1862. By the end of the war, 90,000 Kentuckians had fought for the Union, compared to 35,000 for the Confederacy. In Missouri , a constitutional convention was approved and delegates elected. The convention rejected secession 89–1 on March 19, 1861. The governor maneuvered to take control of the St. Louis Arsenal and restrict Federal movements. This led to a confrontation, and in June federal forces drove him and
11468-501: The states' militia to muster under his command. The stated purpose was to re-occupy U.S. properties throughout the South, as the U.S. Congress had not authorized their abandonment. The resistance at Fort Sumter signaled his change of policy from that of the Buchanan Administration. Lincoln's response ignited a firestorm of emotion. The people of both North and South demanded war, with soldiers rushing to their colors in
11590-474: The statue a protective wax coating. The refreshed statue was put back in place six months later. The cost was $ 8,600. The monument has been a subject of controversy and a site of protest since the 1960s. In 1965, a discussion about the monument's meaning and history occurred in the letters to the editor of the UNC student newspaper, The Daily Tar Heel . In 1967, poet John Beecher "debated" Silent Sam , reading to
11712-581: The statue from his book of poetry To Live and Die in Dixie . Following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968, the monument was vandalized with orange, green, red, and yellow iridescent paint, including a hammer and sickle . In the early 1970s, the monument was the site of several demonstrations by the Black Student Movement . Students gathered by the statue to speak out after Los Angeles police officers were found not guilty in
11834-480: The statue was made before the lawsuit was filed, and the lawsuit itself was overturned by the judge who originally approved it, who ruled that the SCV lacked standing to bring the lawsuit. During the American Civil War , over 1,000 students and employees of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) enlisted, of whom 287 are known to have lost their lives. University president David Lowry Swain had petitioned
11956-462: The statue's original location was "a cause for division and a threat to public safety," and that she was seeking input on a plan for a "safe, legal and alternative" new location. UNC-Chapel Hill's board of trustees made a recommendation in December 2018 that the statue be installed in a new "University History and Education Center" to be built on campus, at an estimated cost of $ 5.3 million, but this
12078-533: The students who enlisted "should ever be before the eyes of the present-day students". The request for a monument was presented to, and approved by, the UNC board of trustees on June 1, 1908. The monument was funded by the university, alumni, and the UDC. UNC and the UDC spent until 1913 fundraising the $ 7,500 that Canadian sculptor John Wilson charged for the statue, which he discounted from his asking price of $ 10,000. The Daughters originally were slated to give $ 1,500 of
12200-686: The tribal governments sent representatives to the Confederate Congress : Elias Cornelius Boudinot representing the Cherokee and Samuel Benton Callahan representing the Seminole and Creek . The Cherokee Nation aligned with the Confederacy. They practiced and supported slavery, opposed abolition, and feared their lands would be seized by the Union. After the war, the Indian territory was disestablished, their black slaves were freed, and
12322-530: The tribes lost some of their lands. Montgomery, Alabama , served as capital of the Confederate States from February 4 until May 29, 1861, in the Alabama State Capitol . Six states created the Confederacy there on February 8, 1861. The Texas delegation was seated at the time, so it is counted in the "original seven" states of the Confederacy; it had no roll call vote until after its referendum made secession "operative". The Permanent Constitution
12444-468: The university and "a position of honor". Establishing a Confederate monument at a Southern university became a goal of the North Carolina chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) in 1907. UNC approved the group's request in 1908 and, with funding from UNC alumni, the UDC and the university, Wilson designed the statue, using a young Boston man as his model. At the unveiling on June 2, 1913, local industrialist and UNC trustee Julian Carr gave
12566-453: The university, and said that she would have the statue removed if not prohibited by state law . Increased protests and vandalism resulted in the university spending $ 390,000 on security and cleaning for the statue in the 2017–18 academic year. On the day before fall classes started in August 2018, the statue was toppled by protesters, and later that night removed to a secure location by university authorities. A statement from Chancellor Folt said
12688-554: The upper South. Because only three days elapsed before Lincoln issued the proclamation, the two events viewed retrospectively, appear almost simultaneous. Nevertheless, close examination of contemporary evidence ... shows that the proclamation had a far more decisive impact. ...Many concluded ... that Lincoln had deliberately chosen "to drive off all the Slave states, in order to make war on them and annihilate slavery". The order of secession resolutions and dates are: In Virginia,
12810-658: The war ... Their courage and steadfastness saved the very life of the Anglo Saxon race in the South. According to Brundage, Carr's phrase "the four years immediately succeeding the war" is a clear reference to the Reconstruction era , when the Ku Klux Klan , working to restore the dominance of traditional white hierarchy in the South, terrorized blacks and white Republicans. Later in the speech; Carr stated: One hundred yards from where we stand, less than ninety days perhaps after my return from Appomattox, I horse-whipped
12932-424: The war: In 1861 these students went to war. The boys who would have come here but for the war, left their homes to join the armies of Virginia and Tennessee...Nearly all the boys who left this institution to follow the flag of the Confederacy were killed or wounded in battle...The University laid upon the altar of Dixie the fairest and bravest of the world. This statue is a monument to their chivalry and devotion. It
13054-517: The white man...the superior race." Frederick Douglass , Henry Highland Garnet , Sarah Parker Remond , her brother Charles Lenox Remond , James W. C. Pennington , Martin Delany , Samuel Ringgold Ward , and William G. Allen all spent years in Britain, where fugitive slaves were safe and, as Allen said, there was an "absence of prejudice against color. Here the colored man feels himself among friends, and not among enemies". Most British public opinion
13176-637: The white supremacist[s] and the Nazis, keeping it up is untenable, I think it has to go. And I think it will go." Confederate States of America The Confederate States of America ( CSA ), commonly referred to as the Confederate States ( C.S. ), the Confederacy , or the South , was an unrecognized breakaway republic in the Southern United States that existed from February 8, 1861, to May 5, 1865. The Confederacy
13298-458: Was "a mere inferential recognition, unconnected with political action or the regular establishment of diplomatic relations" and thus did not assign it the weight of formal recognition. Nevertheless, the Confederacy was seen internationally as a serious attempt at nationhood, and European governments sent military observers to assess whether there had been a de facto establishment of independence. These observers included Arthur Lyon Fremantle of
13420-415: Was "being organized by groups not associated with the university... If we had the ability to immediately move the statue we would." The same day, UNC chancellor Carol Folt , UNC president Margaret Spellings , UNC board-of-governors chairman Lou Bissette, and UNC trustee chairman Haywood Cochrane wrote to Governor Roy Cooper , warning of "significant safety and security threats" concerning Silent Sam : "it
13542-485: Was Confederate general Robert E. Lee 's surrender on April 9, after which any doubt about the war's outcome or the Confederacy's survival was extinguished. Confederate President Davis's administration declared the Confederacy dissolved on May 5. After the war, during the Reconstruction era , the Confederate states were readmitted to the Congress after each ratified the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution outlawing slavery. Lost Cause mythology , an idealized view of
13664-561: Was adopted there on March 12, 1861. The permanent capital provided for in the Confederate Constitution called for a state cession of a 100 square mile district to the central government. Atlanta, which had not yet supplanted Milledgeville , Georgia, as its state capital, put in a bid noting its central location and rail connections, as did Opelika, Alabama , noting its strategically interior situation, rail connections and deposits of coal and iron. Richmond, Virginia ,
13786-572: Was against the practice, with Liverpool seen as the primary base of Southern support. Throughout the early years of the war, British foreign secretary Lord John Russell , Emperor Napoleon III of France, and, to a lesser extent, British Prime Minister Lord Palmerston , showed interest in recognition of the Confederacy or at least mediation of the war. Chancellor of the Exchequer William Gladstone attempted unsuccessfully to convince Palmerston to intervene. By September 1862
13908-557: Was chosen for the interim capital at the Virginia State Capitol . The move was used by Vice President Stephens and others to encourage other border states to follow Virginia into the Confederacy. In the political moment it was a show of "defiance and strength". The war for Southern independence was surely to be fought in Virginia, but it also had the largest Southern military-aged white population, with infrastructure, resources, and supplies. The Davis Administration's policy
14030-509: Was composed of eleven U.S. states that declared secession ; South Carolina , Mississippi , Florida , Alabama , Georgia , Louisiana , Texas , Virginia , Arkansas , Tennessee , and North Carolina ; they warred against the United States during the American Civil War . With Abraham Lincoln 's election as President of the United States in 1860, a portion of the southern states were convinced that their slavery-dependent plantation economies were threatened, and began to secede from
14152-550: Was cultivated by slave labor. They formed the Confederate States of America after Lincoln was elected in November 1860 but before he took office in March 1861. Nationalists in the North and "Unionists" in the South refused to accept the declarations of secession. No foreign government ever recognized the Confederacy. The U.S. government, under President James Buchanan , refused to relinquish its forts that were in territory claimed by
14274-771: Was formed by delegations from seven slave states of the Lower South that had proclaimed their secession. After the fighting began in April, four additional slave states seceded and were admitted. Later, two slave states ( Missouri and Kentucky ) and two territories were given seats in the Confederate Congress. Its establishment flowed from and deepened Southern nationalism, which prepared men to fight for "The Southern Cause". This "Cause" included support for states' rights , tariff policy , and internal improvements, but above all, cultural and financial dependence on
14396-439: Was inaugurated as president with a term of six years. The Confederate administration pursued a policy of national territorial integrity, continuing earlier state efforts in 1860–1861 to remove U.S. government presence. This included taking possession of U.S. courts, custom houses, post offices, and most notably, arsenals and forts. After the Confederate attack and capture of Fort Sumter in April 1861, Lincoln called up 75,000 of
14518-509: Was rejected by the university system's board of governors. The pedestal base and inscription plaques were removed in January 2019, with a statement from Chancellor Folt citing public safety. In November 2019 UNC donated the statue to the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) with a $ 2.5 million trust for its "care and preservation", on the condition that the statue would not be displayed in the same county as any UNC school. The agreement to donate
14640-500: Was that "It must be held at all hazards." The naming of Richmond as the new capital took place on May 30, 1861, and the last two sessions of the Provisional Congress were held there. As war dragged on, Richmond became crowded with training and transfers, logistics and hospitals. Prices rose dramatically despite government efforts at price regulation. A movement in Congress argued for moving the capital from Richmond. At
14762-505: Was unable to control substantial parts of Missouri territory, effectively only controlling southern Missouri early in the war. It had its capital at Neosho, then Cassville , before being driven out of the state. For the remainder of the war, it operated as a government in exile at Marshall, Texas . Not having seceded, neither Kentucky nor Missouri was declared in rebellion in Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation . The Confederacy recognized
14884-426: Was unsuccessful; historians judge their diplomacy as poor. Neither secured diplomatic recognition for the Confederacy, much less military assistance. The Confederates who had believed that " cotton is king ", that is, that Britain had to support the Confederacy to obtain cotton, proved mistaken. The British had stocks to last over a year and been developing alternative sources. The United Kingdom took pride leading
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