On Monday, workers excavating the pedestal of a Confederate commander statue uncovered a copper box thought to have been buried 130 years ago, the second apparent time capsule of the site.
‘They found it! This is likely the time capsule everyone was looking for’, tweeted Virginia Governor Ralph Northam along with the pictures of the copper box.
They found it! This is likely the time capsule everyone was looking for. Conservators studying it—stay tuned for next steps! (Won’t be opened today) pic.twitter.com/3lWrsPGZd2
— Governor Ralph Northam (@VAGovernor73) December 27, 2021
A time capsule placed under the base of the statue of General Robert E. Lee, who commanded the Army of Northern Virginia during the Civil War, contains antiques including buttons and bullets, Confederate currency, maps, a rare photograph of murdered president Abraham Lincoln in his casket, and other objects, according to an 1887 newspaper report.
Conservators opened a shoebox-sized container found in the statue’s base last week, but it was definitely not the time capsule stated in the 1887 newspaper article. Lee’s statue at Richmond, Virginia, which served as the South’s capital during the deadly 1861-1865 struggle, was desecrated in September, one of a series of pro-slavery Confederate monuments desecrated in recent months.
Three water-logged books, a photograph in a damp fabric envelope, and a penny were recovered in the first box. The artefacts looked to be souvenirs left behind by some of the workmen who raised the monument for posterity.
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The time capsule found on Monday is almost double the size of the last one. The governor, Ralph Northam, said it will be studied by conservators and it would not be opened on Monday.
Following the death of George Floyd, a Black man who was slain by a white police officer in Minnesota, Lee’s statue in Richmond became the centre of racial justice protests last year. During the Civil War, the Confederate South seceded from the United States and battled to keep slavery alive, which had been abolished in the rest of the country.
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