NEW YORK – A time capsule under the General Lee statue in Richmond. It had already been recovered a few weeks ago by the workers in charge of removing the equestrian monument of the man who led the Southern army during the American Civil War, that is, the one born in defense of the pro-slavery states. 6 and a half meters high, it was the main monument of Arthur Ashe Boulevard, at the intersection with Monument Avenue: the crossroads of the small town of Virginia which until recently housed six statues of slave leaders. But by now they have all been removed by decision of the municipal administration: after the protests triggered by the death of the African American George Floyd who concentrated on that historic place.
It was known that something was hidden under the monument: documented for some time. A box had been hidden in what was previously a tobacco field perhaps by anti-slavers as early as three years before the construction of the monument erected in 1890. That is, around the time the segregation laws known as Jim Crow were introduced, the ones that institutionalized discrimination against blacks despite the abolition of slavery. At the time the idea of ”time capsules”, where leaving messages to posterity to better understand the culture of an era was very widespread.
The equestrian bronze had already been removed in September, but its pedestal remained standing until a week ago. Only last Friday the marno pillar was also eliminated. And the mysterious “capsule” came out, but it was not opened immediately, for fear of ruining its contents.
The wait has given rise to various assumptions. The belief of many was that a rare photo of the president who abolished slavery, Abraham Lincoln, would be found in the box. Together with documents of the time on the Confederation or its opponents. But even hours before the box was opened yesterday – live, streaming on the municipality’s website – experts began to doubt that this was the same time capsule that has been rumored for over a century. “It’s not that,” said Dale Brumfield, a local historian, warning that the dimensions were not those reported on the documents. And also the material, in lead instead of copper.
Well, inside the box that was finally opened, mainly books and bizarre ones were found: a Nautical Almanac of 1875. A copy of the novel The Huguenot Lovers: A Tale of the Old Dominion published in 1889. And a brown text without a label, too wet to be analyzed. In one envelope, also soaked, there was a photograph of a building in the Broad Street club. And a brochure with an aqueduct project.
There is already a first interpretation: “It is a self-glorification” ventures the historian Brumfield. The fact is that the novel bears the signature of a certain Collinson Pierrepont Edwards Burgwyn. That is the engineer from Richmond who designed the rotunda on which the statue of Lee has long stood. And also the aqueduct and the building of which memory is preserved.
Mystery fascinates historians. First of all, because the “real” time capsule is evidently still hidden in the area. And then because, even if we do not throw light on the politics of the time, we still came across an extremely rare find. The message of a man who comes from afar.
.