Qualla: Vance Monument

Vance Monument: Introduction

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Scrapsintime, CC BY-SA 4.0. Zebulon Baird Vance was born in a log cabin in Buncombe County, twelve miles south of Asheville, in 1830. He went to Congress before the Civil War, served as North Carolina's governor during it, and ended up in the United States Senate after it. On the floor of the House in March 1860 he said this: "Plainly and unequivocally, common sense says keep the slave where he is now - in servitude." He was a slaveholder. He was also, by some accounts, a popular orator and a defender of Jewish North Carolinians against the antisemitism of his era. The granite obelisk that stood in downtown Asheville from 1898 to 2021 tried to honor all of that at once. Eventually the city decided it couldn't.

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Image: Scrapsintime | CC BY-SA 4.0

Vance Monument: Building an Obelisk for $3,326

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Sean Coon, CC BY-SA 2.0. The Vance Monument Association formed in the 1890s with a clear goal: a memorial in the form of a single granite shaft, fashioned after the Washington Monument, on the public square in downtown Asheville. They raised $3,326 - about $130,000 in today's dollars - mostly from George...

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Image: Sean Coon | CC BY-SA 2.0

Vance Monument: The Monument and the City's Black Past

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit AbeEzekowitz, CC BY-SA 3.0. The ground the obelisk stood on had another history, less visible but more painful. The land had once held the county jail. The square nearby had hosted slave auctions, where enslaved people were sold and their bills of sale recorded in the courthouse. No marker acknowledged any ...

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Image: AbeEzekowitz | CC BY-SA 3.0

Vance Monument: The Long Argument

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit chucka_nc, CC BY-SA 2.0. By the early 2000s the question of the monument's place was openly contested. The North Carolina General Assembly created an African American Heritage Commission in 2008. A coalition of Asheville activists - the Center for Diversity Education, Carolina Jews for Justice, the Inter...

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Image: chucka_nc | CC BY-SA 2.0

Vance Monument: After George Floyd

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Warren LeMay from Cincinnati, OH, United States, CC0. In June 2020, after George Floyd's killing in Minneapolis triggered nationwide demonstrations against police violence and Confederate iconography, Asheville and Buncombe County passed a joint resolution. The United Daughters of the Confederacy had 90 days to remove their plaques....

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Image: Warren LeMay from Cincinnati, OH, United States | CC0

Vance Monument: What Comes Down, What Stays

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Stilfehler, CC BY-SA 4.0. Demolition began May 17, 2021. The granite obelisk was completely removed by the next day. Work stopped for wind. By May 30, only the pedestal remained, with plans to remove it in stages. A second court order paused work briefly. The total cost was about $115,000 - roughly what r...

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Image: Stilfehler | CC BY-SA 4.0