Now, it's pretty much average here in the South for just about every town to have a Confederate memorial of some type. Most have a simple statue or an obelisk or at least a plaque honoring the Confederate soldiers and states. It's almost a given. So I wasn't surprised to see this park. What did surprise me was the nature of the memorials there.
I'll post details tomorrow, but there was the expected memorial to the Confederate soldiers, and one in honor of the very concept of the Confederacy (which was a little more unique than most that you see). However, the strangest thing were the memorials to the non-whites that are in the park. Yeah, that's right--Confederate memorials for non-white people.
One was to the local Catawba Indians. I'll post details of that one tomorrow. The one that surprised me the most, because in all of my travels I have never encountered one, is the Confederate Memorial for African slaves.
In total, this particular Confederate park has icons set up for soldiers, for women, for slaves, and for Catawba Indians. This is a first. And keep in mind that I live here in the South and have seen a buttload of Confederate Memorials. This one was out of the ordinary, for sure.
This is the memorial obelisk dedicated to the slaves.
And the artist devoted relief sculptures to the slaves. One for male slaves (this one) and one for female slaves. So even here the patrons were trying to be all-inclusive.
Carved in marble, the reason for this honor.
Weather seems to have eroded the faces of the woman and the child.
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