Monday, December 2, 1:30pm – 3:30pm, via Zoom
Hayley Kintz
When Forster Sondley was eight years old, his Shetland pony died. To be more clear, when Sondley was eight years old, Union soldiers stormed his grandfather’s plantation house of Montrealla, which he was living in at the time, and rounded up all of their horses. Sadly, Sondley’s pony was too slow so – just up the road, the soldiers shot the pony. Heartbroken over the death of his beloved companion he took one of the horseshoes from the dead body. This horseshoe would end up being the first item of many in Sondley’s collection. This horseshoe would end up changing how we present and how we talk about the history of Asheville forever. Sondley would end up writing one of the most well-known histories of the region and left behind an incredibly large collection that has been used to tell the story of our region for decades. However, there has been little research into Sondley himself and how his personal beliefs in White Supremacy and the Lost Cause were created and intertwined in every aspect of his life. These beliefs when combined with the popularity of his writing have led to a narrative of singularity with Sondley as the writer and narrator of the history of the region for decades. In using Sondley’s collection and his writings we are able to put him into historical context and view him as himself and not as the infallible Historian of Buncombe County. We see how Sondley’s legacy of singularity has impacted the entire region’s history and dominant narrative, so why should we allow this legacy to continue without context?