ASHEBORO, N.C (WGHP) — People in Asheboro are holding a temporary memorial ahead of the city’s Juneteenth celebration.
The memorial is located in front of Randolph County’s old courthouse. It shows slave deeds in Randolph County.
“History is history and it comes with good the bad and the ugly,” said Jim Ulmer, of Randolph County.
1-month-old Jerey, child Eli, 10-year-old girl Edy, Caty and Viney, mother and daughter, those are just a few of the names of slaves listed in the memorial.
It was put together by the Asheboro and Randolph County branch of the NAACP.
“It’s very interesting to see that this was just a commodity. This is like today’s grain or oil,” said Clyde Foust, president of the Asheboro-Randolph County branch of the NAACP.
There’s a total of 1,205 slave deeds. It shows their names, their age, and how much they were sold at that time.
“It shows it. You’re not burying this history as if it never happened,” said Ulmer.
Ulmer heard about the memorial and decided to see it for himself.
“To honor these people…this is american history. The fact that they have all these names is amazing after all these years, but this is part of our history it shouldn’t be forgotten. Just to see these names there should be a permanent display here,” said Ulmer.
Will Mahan, of Randolph County, discovered these names while looking at the real estate transactions inside the Randolph County register of deeds in 2020.
The research isn’t done. He’s finding more names as it’s being uncovered.
“There is so much more of our county that we are silent about. We don’t want to be silent about the rest of our county anymore,” said Foust.
You can find the list of names here.
