Editing Zebulon Vance (section)

==Early life==
[[File:Zebulon Baird Vance birthplace, Reems Creek, North Carolina.jpg|thumb|left|Vance Cabin, Reems Creek, North Carolina in the 19th century]]
[[File:Fireplace_inside_Zebulon_Baird_Vance_birthplace,_Reems_Creek,_North_Carolina.jpg|thumb|left|Fireplace inside [[Zebulon B. Vance Birthplace]] cabin in the 19th century]]
[[File:Zebulon Vance young.jpg|thumb|left|Vance, {{Circa|1845 to 1850}}]]
Vance was born in a [[Zebulon B. Vance Birthplace|log cabin]] in the settlement of Reems Creek in [[Buncombe County, North Carolina]] near present-day [[Weaverville, North Carolina|Weaverville]], and was baptized at the Presbyterian Church on Reems Creek.<ref>[http://www.ah.dcr.state.nc.us/sections/hs/vance/vance.htm Vance Birthplace, official website] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20031209033827/http://www.ah.dcr.state.nc.us/Sections/HS/vance/vance.htm|date=December 9, 2003}}. North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources. Retrieved on April 3, 2012.</ref><ref name=":6">{{Cite web |title=Vance, Zebulon Baird 1830–1894 |url=https://bioguide.congress.gov/search/bio/V000021 |access-date=April 9, 2022 |website=Biographical Directory of the United States Congress}}</ref><ref name=":30">{{Cite book |last=Dowd |first=Clement |url=https://archive.org/details/lifeofzebulonbvance00dowd/page/n11/mode/2up |title=Life of Zebulon B. Vance |publisher=Observer Printing and Publishing House |year=1897 |location=Charleston, South Carolina |language=en |access-date=April 10, 2022 |via=Hathi Trust}}</ref> He was the third of eight children of [[Mira Margaret Baird Vance|Mira Margaret Baird]] and David Vance Jr., a farmer and innkeeper.<ref name=":7">{{Cite web |last=Barrett |first=John G. |date=1996 |title=Vance, Zebulon Baird |url=https://www.ncpedia.org/biography/vance-zebulon-baird |access-date=April 9, 2022 |website=NCpedia}}</ref><ref name=":30" /><ref name=":36" /> His paternal grandfather, [[David Vance (soldier)|David Vance]], was a member of the [[North Carolina House of Commons]] and a colonel in the [[American Revolutionary War]], serving under [[George Washington]] at [[Valley Forge]].<ref name=":11">{{Cite web |title=Zebulon Baird Vance |url=http://statelibrary.dcr.state.nc.us/nc/bio/public/vance.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060705134106/http://statelibrary.dcr.state.nc.us/nc/bio/public/vance.htm |archive-date=July 5, 2006 |access-date=April 9, 2022 |website=eNCyclopedia |publisher=The State Library of North Carolina}}</ref> His maternal grandfather was [[Zebulon Baird]], a state senator from Buncombe County, North Carolina.<ref name=":30" /> His uncle was Congressman [[Robert Brank Vance]], namesake of his elder brother, Congressman [[Robert B. Vance]].<ref name=":6" /> He was reared by [[Venus Vance|Venus]], a house slave.<ref name=":9"/>

Around 1833, the Vance family moved to Lapland, now [[Marshall, North Carolina]].<ref name=":36">McKinney, Gordon B. "Zeb Vance and the Construction of the Western North Carolina Railroad." ''Appalachian Journal'' 29, no. 1/2 (2001): 58–67. {{JSTOR|40934142}}.</ref> There, David Vance operated a stand, providing drovers with provisions as they moved hogs and other animals along the [[Buncombe Turnpike]] to markets to the south and east.<ref name=":36" /> Although frequently short of cash, the family enslaved as many as eighteen people.<ref name=":11" /> Vance's family had an unusually large library for its era and location, left to them by an uncle.<ref name=":30" />

At the age of six, Vance attended schools operated by M. Woodson, Esq., first at [[Flat Creek, North Carolina|Flat Creek]] and, later, on the French Broad River.<ref name=":9" /><ref name=":19">Fowler, R. H. (1998). Mouth of the South. ''Civil War Times Illustrated'', ''37''(3), 46. via EBSCO. Accessed April 10, 2022.</ref> Both were far enough from home that he had to board with others.<ref name=":30" /> He also was a student at a school in Lapland run by Jane Hughey.<ref name=":30" />

While a youth, Vance broke his thigh when he fell from a tree.<ref name=":30" /> This was treated by confining Vance in a box, as was common medical care at the time.<ref name=":30" /> As a result of this injury, his right leg was shorter, requiring him to wear a taller heel on the right shoe.<ref name=":30" /> Even so, it was said that Vance had "a peculiar and slightly ambling gait".<ref name=":30" />

When he was thirteen years old in fall 1843, Vance went to the [[Washington College Academy|Washington College]] in [[Tennessee]].<ref name=":6" /><ref name=":39" /> In January 1844, his father died from a construction accident, forcing Vance to withdraw before the school year was over.<ref name=":9" /><ref name=":39" /> Mira Vance sold much of the family's property to pay her husband's many debts and to support her seven children.<ref name=":9" /> As one writer noted, the family was "embarrassed with debt".<ref name=":30" /> She moved her family to nearby [[Asheville, North Carolina|Asheville]], bringing along enslaved women and children as household workers.<ref name=":7" /><ref name=":9" /> However, the family still lacked the money to send Vance back to school in Tennessee.<ref name=":9" /> Instead, Vance and his brother Robert attended [[Newton Academy]] in Asheville.<ref name=":39" />

To help support his family, Vance worked for John H. Patton as a hotel clerk in Warm Springs, now [[Hot Springs, North Carolina]].<ref name=":30" /><ref name=":39" /> In Asheville, Vance studied law under attorney John W. Woodfin.<ref name=":39" /> When he was 21 years old, Vance wrote to a family friend, [[David Lowry Swain|David L. Swain]], asking for a loan to study law in college.<ref name=":9" /><ref name=":39" /> Swain was a former North Carolina governor and then president of the [[University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill]].<ref name=":9" /> Swain was also an elementary schoolmate of Vance's mother.<ref name=":30" /> Swain arranged for a $300 loan for Vance from the university.<ref name=":11" />

Vance attended [[University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill]] starting in July 1851 and had a "brilliant academic year".<ref name=":7" /> One of his classmates, Major James W. Wilson, recalled Vance's arrival in Chapel Hill with "homemade shoes and clothes, about three inches of between pants and shoes, showing his sturdy ankles...."<ref name=":30" /> Another classmate, [[Kemp P. Battle]], wrote Vance "had a brain large and active; a memory tenacious, a nature overflowing with joyous love of fun, and to a surprising degree accurate information of many subjects and many authors."<ref name=":30" /> While at the university, Vance was a member of the [[Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies|Dialectic Society]], which helped improve his oratory skills, as well as his ability to speak extemporarily.<ref name=":30" /> He also joined the [[Phi Gamma Delta]] fraternity.<ref name=":12">{{Cite web |date= |title=Catalogue of the Members of the Dialectic Society Instituted in the University of North Carolina June 3, 1795, Together with Historical Sketches (1890) |url=https://docsouth.unc.edu/true/dialectic/dialectic.html |access-date=April 10, 2022 |website=Documenting the American South}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Zebulon Baird Vance (UNC 1851) {{!}} Phi Gamma Delta Digital Repository |url=https://phigamarchives.org/islandora/object/phigam:3490 |access-date=April 10, 2022 |website=phigamarchives.org}}</ref> Vance received an LL.D in 1852 and repaid the loan from the university with interest.<ref name=":12" /><ref name=":30" />

Vance then went to [[Raleigh, North Carolina|Raleigh]], where he studied law with Judge [[William Horn Battle]] of the [[North Carolina Supreme Court]] and [[Samuel F. Phillips]], former [[Solicitor General of the United States]].<ref name=":42">{{Cite news |date=April 15, 1894 |title=Death of Senator Vance |page=5 |work=The New York Times |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1894/04/15/106903181.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0 |access-date=April 13, 2022}}</ref>