By Miles Layton

EDENTON — Here’s the latest on Confederate Memorial – when’s the monument going to be re-erected in Edenton, what’s the status of the court cases and a few remarks from folks who spoke at the Chowan County Commission meeting in November.  

Though Monday, Dec. 1, was a sunny day, there’s no movement at Veterans Park where the monument is to be placed but that may change. Erected in 1909, the monument dedicated to 47 souls from Chowan County who lost their lives during the Civil War was taken down Labor Day weekend and remains in storage. Click here for state law regarding placement of the statue.

County Manager Kevin Howard said there will be a meeting between himself and Town Manager Corey Gooden this week to discuss plans to re-erect the monument — so stay tuned. Remember, the Town of Edenton is responsible for rebuilding the monument — paying for that too.

Also remember, re-erecting the monument is still in the design and plan phase — see our story here.

Next, the appeal(s) are still pending in the court system – those are cases involving the future of statues in Edenton, Columbia, and Greenville.  If you’ve followed this issue, you know some folks are not happy with these monuments, so they’ve filed lawsuits that are still percolating up through the court system. See our story — click here.

Monday, Florian Deltzen of Columbia gave a speech about monuments and history at the at the Chowan County Commission meeting. A little bit about Deltgen — he is a retired professor of anthropology from Cologne, Germany, and a small business owner who lives in Columbia across the Sound. See the link — Deltgen spoke to the commission in March about these same matters.

Deltgen delivered an impassioned defense of Confederate memorials, urging local leaders to view the issue through a global and historical lens.

Deltgen began by outlining what he called “two conflicting world views” at the center of the decades-long dispute. “Some want to tear down the Confederate soldiers’ memorials because they perceive them as a glorification of slavery. Others want to keep them in place because they see them as monuments that honor their fallen ancestors,” he said. “This brief essay tries to assess how these two conflicting world views hold up in comparison.”

To make his case, Deltgen pivoted to examples from world history. He noted that brutal regimes and violent leaders—responsible for death tolls far exceeding those of the American Civil War—continue to be commemorated globally without widespread demands for removal.

“Mao Zedong’s regime killed about 17 million people and enslaved 20 million. Today, approximately 3,000 Mao Zedong memorials exist worldwide,” he said.

He went on to cite the Mongol Empire, Lenin, and Stalin as further examples of violent leaders whose memorials persist. “The Mongols under Genghis Khan killed approximately 40 million people, had enslaved approximately 5.8 million. Today, there are many Genghis Khan memorials in Mongolia. One is almost in every provincial capital and there is one even in London’s Hyde Park,” Deltgen told commissioners.

“Lenin’s regime killed approximately 10 to 12 million people and enslaved hundreds of thousands. Today, there are an estimated 10,000 to 12,000 Lenin memorials worldwide,” he continued. “Stalin’s regime killed approximately 20 million people and enslaved 32 million more. Today, there are approximately 140 Stalin memorials worldwide, some even in the USA.”

Deltgen contrasted international attitudes toward controversial history with debates in the United States, pointing to Europe as an example of reconciliation rather than erasure.

“The Germans attacked France three times in recent history. In these three wars, the Germans killed approximately 2.2 million French soldiers and civilians,” he said. “Roughly one million German soldiers are, today, buried in France in seven cemeteries. The French maintain these cemeteries. There has never been a public voice in France demanding that these cemeteries should be closed because they are perceived as glorifying military aggression or Nazi totalitarianism.”

He added that “Napoleon’s wars killed about six million Europeans,” yet “today, there is a Napoleon statue in almost every French town,” and European tourists continue to travel “to Napoleon’s tomb in the Dome des Invalides in Paris every year,” where “the bridges across the River Seine are still named after Napoleon’s victories. Nobody in Europe has yet complained about that.”

Deltgen further argued that societies maintain memorials not to celebrate atrocities but to acknowledge history. “The following 11 Nazi concentration camps still exist in Europe as memorials of racism and brutal genocide,” he said, listing Auschwitz, Dachau, Buchenwald, and others. “These places do not glorify the Holocaust. They remind people of the dark sides of human nature.”

He framed his broader point succinctly: “In short, there are many memorials worldwide for people and for actions that are arguably as bad as, or far worse, than the enslavement of Black people from Africa in America.”

Turning to the American Civil War, Deltgen argued that its causes were complex and not driven solely by slavery. He cited Abraham Lincoln directly: “Slavery has not… Was not the sole main cause of the Civil War, at least not for the Union,” he said. Quoting Lincoln’s 1862 letter, he added, “‘My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and it is not either to save or destroy slavery.’”

Deltgen also emphasized that slavery has existed in many cultures worldwide. “For millennia, slavery has been a worldwide phenomenon, and Black people were not always the slaves, but often the slave owners and the slave traders,” he said, pointing to Africa’s “kingdoms of Songhai and Mali.” He added that “Mansa Musa, the Mali ruler of Timbuktu had over 20,000 personal slaves in his entourage during his hajj to Mecca, many of them Europeans who had been caught by Muslim pirates in the Mediterranean.”

He also noted that “Islamic slave traders controlled the trans-Sahara slave trade for over 800 years prior to 1492,” and that “West African chiefs conducted most of the slave raids and sold their own countrymen into European and Arabic slave traders.”

Ultimately, Deltgen urged that communities judge fallen soldiers by the universal human tradition of honoring the dead. “People have always fought, killed, and died for what they believed in or valued most. The victors and the historians, judging by their own values, often disagree. Values change,” he said.

“Today, most people and nations appear to accept the moral principle that we should honor the dead regardless of how they lived, what they believed in, and what they fought for or died for,” he continued. “I plead that we should also apply this principle to the fallen Confederate soldiers, most of whom fought for Southern independence, not for the preservation of slavery. They made the ultimate sacrifice for what they believed in, and we should honor their sacrifice, even if we do not share their values.”

“It’s not a political issue, in my view,” Deltgen concluded. “It’s simply a matter of human decency. Let me close with a African Swahili saying, ‘Hakuna ila mambo mazuri kuhusu wafu.’ It means, ‘Nothing but good things about the dead.’ I rest my case.”

Three months after the Town of Edenton removed the Confederate monument from South Broad Street, residents are still urging county commissioners to reconsider where — or whether — the statue should return to public display.

During the Nov. 17 Chowan County Board of Commissioners meeting, a few residents used the public comment period to present sharply differing visions for the monument, which was taken down on Aug. 30 and placed in storage while a landscape contractor evaluates a proposed relocation site behind the courthouse on Court Street.

Ron Toppin asked commissioners to ensure the monument remains on county property. Toppin said his family is “steeped in Civil War history” that he continues to honor, and urged officials to relocate the structure to the grounds of the former Chowan County Hospital off Virginia Road. The space, he said, would offer a respectful setting while preserving its public accessibility.

He gave a copy of his speech to the commission, which is shown in these photos.  

Wayne Caskey also opposed placing the monument at the Court Street site — but for different reasons. Caskey argued that state law requires any relocated monument to be placed “on a site of equal prominence,” a standard he said the Veterans’ Park area on Court Street cannot meet. He also warned that the soil conditions at the proposed location are inadequate to support the weight of the granite base and bronze statue. Instead, Caskey recommended two alternatives: a site off N.C. Highway 32 North near Evans Funeral Home, or the Virginia Road property previously suggested by Toppin. Both locations, he said, offer higher visibility and more stable ground.

Deborah Miller said she opposes returning the monument to the 1767 Courthouse site, where it stood for more than a century until its removal this summer. She also objected to positioning it in a way that would allow it to “tower over” the nearby Chowan Veterans’ Park, arguing that such placement would conflict with the purpose and tone of the park. Miller is a plaintiff in the lawsuit seeking the removal of the Confederate Memorial, so I suspect she will not be happy no matter where the monument is placed.

Harriett DeHart offered one of the strongest arguments in favor of restoring the monument to public display. She drew a comparison to the Dachau concentration camp memorial in Germany, contending that removing historical monuments diminishes the public’s responsibility to confront difficult chapters of the past. Racism, she said, exists “in the heart, not in granite,” and should be addressed through education rather than removal.

“While I can understand the debate about the Confederate monument being re-erected, I feel it is necessary to put the statue back up,” she said. “I recounted the time Mark (husband) and I were in Munich and visited Dachau.  During the tour we saw the video of Gen. Eisenhower requesting that every citizen of Munich visit the camp and see the horrors that the Nazis had perpetrated on the prisoners. Eisenhower said it is necessary that people see it because in the future, there will be those who deny that the Holocaust happened.  These concentration camps are reminders to us to never do this again.  

That statue cannot create racism or foster it.  It is only stone, and no one prays to that statue. Racism starts in the heart, and that is where we combat it.” 

In other news, during my travels across Northeastern NC and Virginia, I’ve seen several Confederate Memorials standing in front of their county courthouses.  

With all the litigation, bad feelings and public divide that Edenton and Chowan County have experienced, have other places moved their monuments in recent years, too? I find that not to be the case.  

Gates County – that Confederate Memorial, too, is still by the courthouse, though it has something I wish we had done in Edenton. Beside the memorial is an engraved granite marker that says:

The Civil War was a major event in US history that cost the lives of thousands of citizens and left the landscape in ruins. Despite losing the war, there was a movement in the South during the era of Jim Crow to memorialize and honor veterans who sacrificed their lives for the right to secede from the Union while defending the institution of slavery. 

The honors given to these in the past do not represent our values today. Citizens of Gates County value unity, racial equality, inclusion and acceptance. We are a community who respect and love each other in spite of our cultural, religious and political differences. Being an example of a good citizen and neighbor, we look to serve as positive role models for the next generation of young people. 

Removing the Confederate monument will not end racism. Let it serve as a reminder for who we are and who we are not. Hatred has no place in Gates County. 

In the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., “Darkness cannot drive out darkness. Only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate. Only love can do that.”

If memory serves me correct, I think Perquimans County has interpretive markers to Civil War history recognizing both Confederate and Union troops.

Next to the Confederate memorial in front of the county courthouse is a marker that says, “Perquimans County is home to one of the few monument in the nation honoring those African American who fought for the Union in the Civil War of 1861-65. The monument, located at the corner of Hyde Park and King Street, was erected in 1913 to honor those local troops who fought for the cause of their freedom.”

Currituck County has an interesting story to tell — the Confederate monument is an big sphere, yes, a giant granite ball. According to the NC Civil War Trail marker next to the sphere, the original design featured a Confederate soldier atop an obelisk, similar to many such monuments that adorn courthouse greens across the South. According to docsouth.unc.edu — In 1912, Confederate veterans and Captain J. B. Lee proceeded with the installation of the granite base. However the fundraising stalled the construction. In November 1922, Joseph Palmer Knapp, a wealthy New York publisher and philanthropist, offered to improve and beautify the court house grounds and complete the Confederate monument. To underwrite the monument though, he demanded creative control and rejected the original plan of a tall shaft with a soldier statue. According to local Currituck lore he refused “to pay for a damn Rebel soldier.” An editorial published in The Elizabeth City Independent around that time suggested that the offer of a Northerner and northern money to complete the monument was a disgrace to local patriotism and Confederate heritage. Knapp owned an estate on Mackay Island, just to the north of Currituck Island where he pursued his passion for conservation and fowl hunting. His philanthropy included donation of money toward the island’s schools and he was among those credited with founding the conservation organization that became Duck’s Unlimited.

That’s interesting — not only a story about a Northerner wanting to offer help to build a monument to memorialize the Currituck’s Civil War dead, but the Duck’s Unlimited’s genesis.

Tyrrell County — there is an inscription on a panel is stamped “In Appreciation of Our Faithful Slaves.” What that means depends on where you stand on the issue — some folks find it offensive while others contend that it gives credit to the slaves. I heard a story that slaves’ quick thinking saved the county’s courthouse’s records from destruction during a Civil War.

Windsor – that Confederate memorial is still by the courthouse. 

Interestingly enough, while I was traveling through Amelia County, Va, I came across that county’s courthouse – Confederate memorial is there too – note the tiny Confederate flag at the base of the monument. Photo may require a trigger warning for some folks.