The Washington M. Smith monument in Old Live Oak Cemetery has tarnished, but the legacy of the former president of the Bank of Selma lives on. Some of his business and personal correspondence is available for researchers in the Special Collections Library at Duke University. His papers give valuable insight on law, agriculture and economic conditions in Alabama after 1840. Also included is information about the establishment of public schools in Alabama and social life and customs in Selma.
Smith is renowned for saving his bank's gold during the Battle of Selma. Prior to the arrival of Union troops here in April 1865, he sawed a hole in a column of his antebellum home and deposited the assets inside. Check out "Saving the Gold."
5 comments:
Very interesting bit of historical trivia.
I wonder if the bank's dealings or non-dealings with blacks and slaveholders is archived among his papers?
Hi Jacob. I don't know, but former slave Benjamin Sterling Turner became a Selma businessman and Alabama's first black congressman. His monument is also in Old Live Oak.
I would imagine there could be info about dealing with Reconstruction-era regulatons and possibly a few "scalawags!"
As always, thanks for visiting!
Hi Rambling...thanks for the info...you might be interested in the book, "Slavery by Another Name." I can't remember the name of the author off-hand (I could look it up but I'm too lazy)...it is very interesting...
Very neat memorial. I like the sepia tone on it.
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