Confederate Monuments and Memorials in the Piedmont Region 1868-1914

Christopher Laws will be discussing the pre-war views that North Carolinians (especially in the Piedmont) held about secession and the Confederacy in early 1861; the rhetoric that was used in the monument dedication ceremonies; who gave the speeches and why that is important; and (time permitting) a brief glimpse into Non-Confederate Civil War commemoration and why it is also problematic.

Christopher Laws wrote his Master’s thesis dissertation on “The Rich Man’s Memory that the Poor Man Buys: Analysis of Confederate Monuments and Memorials in the Piedmont Region of North Carolina, 1868-1914.”  Mr. Laws is now working on his PhD in Public History at North Carolina State University.

The following is the abstract from  his thesis:

“The purpose of this study is to determine the themes presented in the dedication ceremonies of Confederate monuments in the Piedmont region of North Carolina, between 1868 and 1914. Analysis of the inscriptions on the monuments, the speeches that the main orators gave, and musical selections of the ceremonies were considered when determining the themes presented.

“Additionally, the political climate of the Piedmont region in 1860 and 1861 was examined to determine the level of Unionism that existed in the region before North Carolina’s secession from the Union in May 1861. A quantitative analysis was then done to determine the wealth of the men in the North Carolina General Assembly in 1860, along with the wealth of the orator’s families in 1860. A comparison was then done to show the disparity of wealth between those two groups and the average county wealth of the Piedmont counties in 1860.”