Zebulon Vance

Common card · No. 303775

Zebulon Baird Vance (May 13, 1830 – April 14, 1894) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 37th and 43rd governor of North Carolina, a U.S. senator from North Carolina, and a Confederate officer during the American Civil War. A prolific writer and noted public speaker, Vance became one of the most influential Southern leaders of the Civil War and Reconstruction Era periods. As a leader of the New South, Vance favored the rapid modernization of the Southern economy, railroad expansion, school construction, and reconciliation with the North. A Philosemite, he frequently spoke out against antisemitism. A progressive at his time, Vance was also a slave owner and is now regarded as a racist by some modern historians and biographers.

Read on Wikipedia · Image Mathew Benjamin Brady / Levin Corbin Handy, Public domain