Qualla: George Davis Monument https://qualla.com/george-davis-monument en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:07 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/d/q/0/d/george-davis-monument-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: George Davis Monument https://qualla.com/george-davis-monument George Davis Monument: Introduction https://qualla.com/george-davis-monument/ Photo credit Nancy Beach. I took this photo., Public domain. The statue stood on a grassy island in the middle of Market Street, hand on a lectern as though caught mid-speech, one block from the river. For most of its 109 years no one in passing traffic stopped to read the inscription. It honored George Davis, Confederate senator and the Confederacy's last attorney general, and it had been deliberately oriented to face west - down Market Street toward the foot of the old slave market on the Cape Fear River wharf, where enslaved men, women, and children had been bought and sold for more than a century before the city fell to Union troops in 1865. The placement was not accidental. In June 2020, in the early morning hours, a city crane lifted the bronze figure off its pedestal and trucked it away.

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Image: Nancy Beach. I took this photo. | Public domain

]]> Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/q/0/d/george-davis-monument-wp/dq0d-george-davis-monument-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full George Davis Monument: A Whig Who Changed His Mind https://qualla.com/george-davis-monument/ Photo credit Kellystudent (talk), CC BY-SA 3.0. George Davis was not, by the standards of secessionist North Carolina, an obvious choice for a monument. He had been a Whig, a member of a party hostile to the Democrats who dominated the antebellum South. As late as the 1860 election he supported a pro-Union third-party candidat...

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Image: Kellystudent (talk) | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/q/0/d/george-davis-monument-wp/dq0d-george-davis-monument-a-whig-who-changed-his-mind.mp3 0:06 2 full George Davis Monument: A Statue Funded by Old Money https://qualla.com/george-davis-monument/ Photo credit Kellystudent (talk), CC BY-SA 3.0. The United Daughters of the Confederacy's Cape Fear Chapter 3 began raising money for the monument in 1904. Five years of fundraising produced only about nine hundred dollars. The shortfall was made up by James Sprunt, heir to a cotton fortune. As a young man Sprunt had worked ab...

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Image: Kellystudent (talk) | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/q/0/d/george-davis-monument-wp/dq0d-george-davis-monument-a-statue-funded-by-old-money.mp3 0:06 3 full George Davis Monument: Patriotism and Moderation https://qualla.com/george-davis-monument/ Photo credit Kellystudent (talk), CC BY-SA 3.0. The dedication on April 20, 1911, drew four of Davis's grandsons and a Masonic ceremony. Judge Henry G. Connor, a sitting federal judge, gave the keynote. His words are worth quoting because they describe so precisely the Lost Cause version of history that the monument was built ...

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Image: Kellystudent (talk) | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/q/0/d/george-davis-monument-wp/dq0d-george-davis-monument-patriotism-and-moderation.mp3 0:06 4 full George Davis Monument: Knocked Down, Put Back Up https://qualla.com/george-davis-monument/ Photo credit Kellystudent (talk), CC BY-SA 3.0. In October 2000 a truck belonging to Hanover Iron Works backed into the statue and knocked it from its base. The bronze head was dented; the neck and right shoulder cracked. Repairs took more than a year and cost twenty-five thousand dollars. The statue went back up in February 2...

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Image: Kellystudent (talk) | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/q/0/d/george-davis-monument-wp/dq0d-george-davis-monument-knocked-down-put-back-up.mp3 0:06 5 full George Davis Monument: Down, Then Gone https://qualla.com/george-davis-monument/ Photo credit Kellystudent (talk), CC BY-SA 3.0. On June 25, 2020, three Wilmington police officers were fired after a body camera caught them making what the chief called brutally racist remarks - among other things, joking about the coming need to kill Black citizens. The next morning, before dawn, the city quietly removed th...

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Image: Kellystudent (talk) | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/q/0/d/george-davis-monument-wp/dq0d-george-davis-monument-down-then-gone.mp3 0:06 6 full