A skilled orator, he gave a notable public speech in March 1861 in which he argued that North Carolina should secede from the United States of America to protect the private economic interest in chattel slavery.

George Davis was born on his father's slave operated plantation at Porters Neck, near Wilmington, North Carolina.

In 1848, he became general counsel of the Wilmington and Weldon Railroad, a highly remunerative position that he held until the end of his life.

Following the election of Abraham Lincoln, Davis served as a delegate from North Carolina to the Washington Peace Conference of February 4–27, 1861.

On March 2, 1861 — just days after returning to Wilmington from the peace conference — Davis made a public speech in which he spoke of North Carolina's requirement to secede.

Later that autumn, the North Carolina General Assembly passed over Davis for reelection, selecting William Alexander Graham to the Senate seat.

The private convention, ultimately unsuccessful, was an attempt to build a new political party to support President Andrew Johnson in staunch opposition of the United States Congress's Reconstruction program as he viewed as favoring northern industrial elites.

To justify the dismantling, the city government cited the public safety exception within the state law intended to frustrate the removal of confederate monuments in North Carolina.

[5] On August 2, 2021, the City Council approved an agreement with Cape Fear 3, United Daughters of the Confederacy to permanently remove the monument from public land.

After his death in 1896, his remains were buried in Wilmington's Oakdale Cemetery under a flat stone marker that bears a Celtic Cross.

The marker includes the following inscription — Statesman, yet friend to truth of soul sincere In action faithful and in honor, dear— and an edited quotation of Psalm 15.

His birthplace was three miles east.In World War II, the United States liberty ship SS George Davis was named in his honor.