Oakwood Cemetery in Raleigh

Recently after a meeting in Raleigh I had the chance to visit the Oakwood Cemetery there, which has been on my agenda for a long time.  It was dedicated in 1869 and, thus, isn't properly within my frame for scholarly study (given that my scholarly interests stop at the beginning of the war and pick up again in the early 20th century).  I'm usually more interested in pre-Civil War cemeteries, like the Old Raleigh Cemetery.  But I'd heard a lot about it and wanted to check it out.

It was even better than I'd imagined it would be -- in part because it's a lovely setting, but even more because there are so many people I study who are buried there.  My first stop just happened to be a section where Charles Manly, Jr. -- son of the man I study sometimes -- and Senator George Badger are both buried.  At first I thought that was the section of the cemetery were the UNC graduation speakers were buried -- but as I was wandering around I was drawn to a very unusual monument -- one with a bust of a decedent.  (See picture at the upper right.)  And you know what?  It was B.F. Moore!  I'm interested in him for all sorts of reasons -- he argued several hundred cases in the North Carolina Supreme Court, including one on behalf of a slave, Will, accused of killing his overseer.  And B.F. Moore gave a graduation speech at UNC.  Maybe if I get some time this summer I'll get around to the article on Moore that absolutely needs to be written, about how his Whig political philosophy -- which focused on the subordination of individuals to the rule of law -- led to his advocacy on behalf of slaves.  He's ripe for historical recovery, especially now that we're all interested in professional responsibility again.

Right near Moore is the grave of William H. Battle, a member of the North Carolina Supreme during the Confederacy whom I studied a long, long time ago.  (You can see the Moore monument behind and just to the left of Battle's monument.)  Dig the scales of justice on Battle's monument.  And close followers of legal education might recall that Battle also taught at the University of North Carolina's law school for a while before the Civil War.  Back in those days, law school was two years long and they read such books as Greenleaf's Evidence, Adams' Doctrines of Equity, Stephen on Pleading, Chitty's Pleadings, Fearne on Remainders, Cruise's Digest of Real Property, and Selwyn's Nisi Prius, and of course Blackstone's Commentaries.  Pretty scary stuff if you ask me -- a feeling I had when I saw an examination from the pre-Civil War UVA law school a while back.  All of which reminds me that I need to post a picture of the UNC"s first law building, out on Franklin Street.

But the high point -- and there were a ton of high points in my visit -- was the monument to Chief Justice Pearson, another North Carolina jurist I wrote about a long time ago.  Remember how I write about judicial decisions as monuments?  Well, get this -- one inscription on Pearson's monument reads "His epitaph is written by his own hand in the North Carolina Reports."  I love this -- more evidence of how people at the time understand opinions to be monuments.

There was also a monument to a student who died at UNC in 1852 and had a monument placed by the Dialectic Society.

In short, I'm going to be headed back there again for some really serious study when I have some more time.  I'm astonished at how many important pre-War politicians and lawyers are all there in one place -- further testimony, I suppose, to the importance of the constellation of ideas about Whig politics and cemeteries.

Comments

[Eric Fink]

If you come to Greensboro, I'll take you on a tour of Green Hill cemetery. It's of even later vintage than Oakwood (dedicated in the 1890s). But it is quite lovely and contains some notable grave monuments.

[Alfred Brophy]

Good--let's do this soon, Eric.