>> welcome to dover, delaware. on to dover, delaware. on behalf of comcast corporation, for the next hour we will host the book fair at the capital of delaware. .. political thought of john dickinson as it was rooted in quicker constitutions of 30. it came out of my interest in early american political theory

and religion. i started out studying quakers and quakerism in the colonial period and when i got to the revolution his name kept coming up. when i try to research and i couldn't find anything about him, or very little, and what was there was very conflicted and nobody seemed to be able to understand his actions. very few people have heard of him today. that's in stark contrast to his reputation during his lifetime. in the years immediately leading up to the revolution, his name was better known than washington or franklin. john dickinson wrote many of america's first state papers, and many of the highest level documents, policy documents, constitution, legislation. but he also wrote many more things for ordinary american people. and spoke to them in a way that very few other leaders did.

these include newspaper articles, homes and america's first patriotic songs. dickinson first entered the national political scene and he was phenomenal leader of the stamp act congress and wrote the stamp act to resolve the declaration. then he became famous when he wrote a letter in 1760. these letters make him america's first popular idol. he was known around the colony and around the atlantic world. the french love you. the british consider him a spokesman. he was the leader up until about 1775 when the tone of the revolution change. dickinson advocated peaceful resistance. in fact, he was the very first american to advocate a national program of civil disobedience. so breaking unjust laws

peacefully and protesting those laws to get change. so we advocated the stamp act and he was repealed that all because of his actions and advocated the same peaceful resistance to the townsend act. he believed that the best measures were constitutional, were peaceful, and that no persons or property should be damaged or destroyed. when the tone others is changed in 1775, his moderate stance fell out of favor. his popularity waned. but even though he became less popular, he was no less respected. and so just less than a month before the declaration of independence was issued, he was on the committee to write a america's first constitution, the articles of confederation, and this as a remarkable document he wrote -- the version he wrote was quite different in 1781.

his 1776 version had several notable characteristics. one is that it establish a strong central government or the new states. and it also had a religious liberty clause, and this clause was remarkable because it was the first clause of the first running in an anglo-american constitution included gender, so dickinson provided for the religious liberty of women. dickinson's quaker background played a significant role in all of his writings and all of his actions. dickinson was not a quaker but he was raised among quakers. he lived with quakers. is hold them you found was quaker. very strong quaker women informed his political three. and so when he advocated civil disobedience, he was advocating a quaker form of resistance. when he wrote the articles of confederation and included women, that was a very quick

only thing to do because quakers at the time were the only religious groups who are allowed their women to speak publicly and to preach. quaker women traveled around the country and even the world reaching. and so dickinson wrote this liberty clause come and he started out by saying no person shall be elected in his or their practice of religion. but then he crossed out and wrote his or her. to signify that women should be able to practice their religion freely in quaker terms meant that women should be able to speak publicly. and women were not considered have a public voice at this time. so dickinson was very much sort of an early sentiment. and wrote this one which a constitution you can of course it wasn't adopted. none of the provisions of this articles of confederation were adopted on july 1 there was a vote on the declaration.

and dickinson was the first one to speak and he gave an eloquent speech, reiterating all these concerns had about declaring independence. this was a very reasonable argument. he recognized that we didn't have a government. we didn't have the constitution. we didn't have a strong army. we had no foreign support. we've now common currency. we were in a very weak position. there was practical reason why thought independence was a bad idea. america was very safe under the protection of the british constitution and he wanted to retain that. but there were also philosophical questions, and he believes that as the quakers did that the constitution was sacred. that didn't mean untouchable. it did mean unchangeable, but it meant that you should try to preserve the laws that are good and out of there and to protect

you. britain had a very long history of protecting rights. his career was quite a lustrous after they serve again in the can't know congress in 79, and then in 1781 he was elected president of delaware. and deserved for you and then was elected president of pennsylvania and help those two posts for a time simultaneously. he was the president of the convention that met to consider a mini the articles of confederation. and it was his letter that went to congress that recommended a constitutionaconstitutional conn 1787 and he played a very significant role in that body. he provided the foundation for most important compromise on representation. he suggested that one branch, one branch of the government of the legislature represents people any other branch represents the state. that was the groundwork for what later was called the connecticut

compromise. he sacrificed his own reputation for the good of the country. a refrain he made throughout his life was that he would rather offend his countrymen by speaking the truth and see them injured by not choosing the right path. >> also from dover, we sit down with richard carter, chairman of the heritage commission in delaware to learn about the organization and what it does. >> the delaware heritage commission, which arose out of the old american revolution bicentennial commission of the 1970s. and they kept it going because they thought there was a lot of other historical commemorations that might need to be attended to. so the heritage commission came in to be. we've been publishing delaware books since about 1990, or 1991. we now have i think 26 or 27 books in print of which our newest one just came out in mid-april.

it's called delaware's destiny determined by louis. it's the story of the great lawsuit between william penn and lord baltimore and the english court which resulted in delaware being a separate state rather than being part of maryland. some of our other books, we do a combination of new books on delaware history such as the one by doctor bradley skelcher about african-american education in delaware. and we do reprints of classic. this is one of my favorites. it is called delaware, a guide to the first state. and the original edition of this was published in 1938 as part of the old depression era, progress, federal writers project. and it's a guide to the state as it was at that time that it comes complete with a map with

1938 roads and all that. this is a reprint of another classic, colonial delaware by dr. roe. when i was attending the university of delaware back in the dark ages, everybody had to take a delaware history class and doctor monroe was a professor of that course. he walked in to the lecture hall and those like you turn on this spigot and all the stuff came pouring out of him. and then it turned off at the end of an hour. but this is one of his many books on delaware history. this is one of five governors books were done. i'm the author this just by accident but we also have a process of trying to do oral history interviews with former delaware governor's. and i'm presently working with a woman who was a former delaware secretary of state did interviews with a governor, who

was her only female governor to date. she served from 2000-2008. and we will do about i hope maybe eight or 10 taped interviews with her. and then those will be placed in the dover archives for the use of future biographers. another interesting book we did in recent times was man in nature in delaware by dr. william williams. it's an environmental history of the first state, which has changed substantially since the dutch landed at lewis and 1531. one of my favorite parts of the book is there's a couple of maps that show what is not delaware as it was 9000 years ago and 15,000 years ago when the ocean coast extend out about another 30 or 40 miles out into the ocean. so you can see the beach erosion has been fairly steady over the

last few thousand years. this is another one of our reprints. this is a book about delaware, delaware's role in world war ii. practically everybody who served in that war in any capacity is in here someplace. these are just a cross-section of some of the books of delaware heritage crap has done over the years. we have relatively limited funding, and we do a lot of this ourselves. i'm the person who lays out the designs of the books and then we have them printed as cheap as possible and we try to sell them as cheaply as possible. these books are important because they represent as complete a cross-section as we're able to do a delaware's long history and heritage. we try to touch on as many of our communities as possible. we have a pamphlet about the

italian american history of delaware. we have books about the black heritage. we have a book about delaware's unusual boundaries called east of the mason-dixon line. we have all sorts of other books that touch on various aspects of our history and culture. hiwe try to make these available to citizens of the state as cheaply as possible. in fact, we give books away in some instances. we are now getting into doing e-books. we are converting several of our older publications into e-books which are available or will be available free of charge on the delaware heritage commission website. we are trying to find as many ways as possible to reach out to people and present our history to them.

it's a non-paying job. we have 70 members of the commission or don't debate anything, and i think we all do it kind of our out of our love for the state of the web. >> booktv's local cable partner in dover, delaware, we bring you a few interviews throughout this weekend from a recent visit. next, we talked to stephen marz, archives director of the state of delaware's dover public archives. we take a look at some of the rare books contained in the archives and walk the steps the publication goes through as it is archived. >> welcome to the delaware public archives. we're one of the oldest public archives in the nation. we have been in existence since 1905 and we're the repository for delaware's history. and particularly its public history. if you were either born, if you went to school, if you married, if you own the property and if you get the last chapter in the

book, that you might pass in delaware, we have records of you in this particular facility. but also we have a big repository of materials here, historic related materials. with over 10.4 million documents, over 800,000 photographs, and over 6600 volumes that deal specifically with the economics, the political, the social history of delaware. i want to go and take a little bit look back into our fault. as part of our rare collection, a book of poems by john laughlin. he was a delaware author. it's a beautiful selection of over 200 poems. we are also very pleased to note that within this particular book we actually have a cbc of the author himself in one particular

unit like that. our next about here is a book that's written in 1755, and it relates to the establishment of the swedes coming to delaware. they were one of the colonial peoples that actually came here to settle along with the dutch in that particular part. what's interesting to note here, you'll see a special type of binder or cover that we use. this is acid free paper and their specially made to precisely fit the book. you want the book to be able to fit into such a cover like that so it's not lose and you start messing with the bindings. that could happen at that time, or loosen materials there. one of the more significant that i feel is a book in relationship to the underground railroad, and it's written by william self.

what makes this book so unique of its of the history and a story about the underground railroad. and it's written by an african-american. so we have that book year. wonderful condition, and it's used very much by researchers as they relate and look at stories as relates to the underground railroad. next book is the delaware seen by jack lewis. and you'll find in your some beautiful illustrations of his particular prints and paintings that he had for delaware. he was a famous delaware portrait artist and artists in general for delaware. and his works are are displayed around the state-building and private owned in delaware. and this was a very limited edition of the materials that he was going to be, that he painted.

this document and book has a combination, it's a beautiful surveyor's guide as it relates to one of our cities and delaware, and it was in relationship. they were measuring robert aligns for the train service year. but what you will notice here is the beautiful coloring that they have here, and how this particular book was a foldout of the map at the time. so this is used a lot by individuals that are researching property, or homes that someone had in that particular area. so this is one of the gems of our collection. and of particular interest is the state bible. we may be the only state -- i can't say that for certainty --

that has a state bible. this vital was printed -- this bible was printed back in the 1850s in france and it was a gift to delaware back in the early 1700s. and it's been used to continuously since about 1847 where governors would take the oath of office. and it was last used in january of this year when governor jack mccallum became governor and swore his allegiance to the state. and it's brought into the ceremony with a pomp and circumstance because of its historical significance. and as i said, all governors since about 1847 have taken their oaths of office, except one governor in 1901, he was a quaker and he only confirm the oath. he would not swear on the bible. so those are some of our books that we have here that are in

our rare book collection. again, these are nonsecular and books for the super reason because of wear and tear on them could damage them. but they are available for individuals to look at by appointment. the care of these books and notebooks come in is a beginning an ongoing process. when we get a donation, let's say of a significant book of this nature, it goes through very subprocesses that will make sure it's clean. we'll do certain types of materials, get out dust fragments and strain any pages that might be folded, take out any materials. sometimes people choose to leave bookmarks or paper clips or something to we will remove all those things, and will dust the jackets off and the covers off and we will make primary types of acid-free boxes to put those in. we've talked about what we said

in her fault very. we've also mentioned a little bit about documents that we conserve and preserve in the delaware public archives. but there's a means to the. there's a certain tools that are specific to the archival profession that our cheerleaders and our processing archivists use in their daily tasks as they relate to conservation and preservation of these mentors. i would like to introduce you to one of our processing archivists who will describe some of the tools that we use. >> who we are in the processing area. this is where we work with the documents that either new to the institution or things that we've had for a while but haven't been formally process, organize, made acceptable to the people who commit to did research. so this area is used to triaged come to clean, to organize these documents and photographs and other things that we get here at the archive. often, we work with cotton gloves. that's to protect the documents and photographs that we touched.

also for processing, we use tools like this batchelder it helps us work with small folds and creases and other little things that we need to fix before they are formally housed in acid-free materials. things can get a little dirty back here, as you might imagine, years and years of dust and mold and any other creepy crawley things that come in that living people's basements. so large brushes like this was some fine soft bristles are great for cleaning big documents or even just clean up the table once we're done. we do make custom enclosure at the archive. that means boxes that fit special sites i am sometimes they can be oversized, undersized. you can't buy boxes that come in those dimensions we do make things in house, kind of them we use like this folded in the

creases in corrugated board, cardboard. sponges are away that we manually clean documents and other items but it creates a safe amount of friction that we can take dirt and other materials off of paper and other delicate items spent our philosophy here is how to does make our material accessible to individual basin with her learning requirements our and their needs are. >> author john alstadt is next booktv. author of "with love to yourself and baby" spoke with us. his book reports on the first murder case to involve a crime committed in two different states. >> since the first murder by mail and united states, there was no case law whatsoever about sending a box of candy and pushing somebody because you

have to be a fugitive from the other state in order for them, the of the state, to extradite you to their jurisdiction. now the case becomes even more involved because now you have case law, and this case actually does make case law in the united states. it's now common knowledge that you cannot murder by mail and the united states but in 1898 you actually could. "with love to yourself and baby" comes from the notes and that was in the box of poison chocolates that was received by mary elizabeth dunning. she was very happy. she knew somebody named mrs. c. in san francisco because she had lived there from i believe it was 1990, or 1895 until 1896.

she had married a fellow by the name of john dunning, and he was with "the associated press" and it moved to california so he could take a new job as the managing director of the associate press office out there. the case really was rather convoluted. also easy at the same time. the chocolates were sent from sever cisco. there was a postmark on the box august 4, 1898. it arrived at the dover post office on august 9, 1898, and was picked up by the grandson. and brodom. that was one of his duties was to pick up the mail every night. he brought it to his house. the family was sitting on the porch and he gave a package to his aunt and said and mary, here's a package for you.

so she opened it up and that's when she saw the note with love to yourself and baby. from that point after the death on the 11th and 12th of august, because mary elizabeth and either henry both did pass away from what turned out to be arsenic poisoning, mr. duncan became very suspicious. and jordan for his daughter's death hit as where the boxes. and she told him that she had put it i believe it above a bureau in the dining room. and he went in he retrieved the and you look at it and he thought to himself, there's something familiar about this. as i found out during the research, certain points in the time that she was estranged on john dunning in california, she had received letters. the first one should opened up and it was, it was rather, something that upset or.

it told her our husband was having an affair with this unknown woman in california. so in the next couple of letters came she didn't open those letters, but she left him and her father took them into his safekeeping and put them in his office. so when he's looking at the box, he goes across as often our trees pillars and looks at them. they all have the same handwriting on them, or what he thinks is the same handwriting. as the case moves forward in august, she's going to be arrested for the crimes, or the crime. she was only try for one murder and that was mary elizabeth dunning. she's taken into custody in stockton, california, brought back to san francisco. she gets a legal team and they fight extradition back to delaware. it goes all the way to the

california supreme court and the california supreme court rules in favor of the prosecution. that, in fact, she can be prosecuted. she can't be taken back to delaware. however, she can be prosecuted in california, which is why the case that happened in delaware was prosecuted in san francisco, california. it would have happened, another interesting aspect of the case, because she goes to trial for the murder of mary elizabeth dunning in 1898. she's found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment. there's a problem, however, because apparently when the defense appealed the case the supreme court overturns the ruling because of the way the judge instructed the jury.

so they had to retry the case, and they retry did in 1904. and in 1904, she again was found guilty of murder in the first degree. she was sentenced much to the disdain of the prosecution who wanted her home. she was sentenced to life imprisonment. in march 7, 1910, the poor lady dies of melancholy. in the story. >> next from dover, we toured local independent bookstore acorn books. marie shane talks is about being the only bookstore within 40 miles of dover and the challenges they face with chain stores and e-books. >> today we're at acorn books in dover, delaware, and we are one of the only full-service retail bookstores in this county. acorn books ago been open for about 10 months. we opened september of 2012.

we opened the bookstore in dover because most of the other employees and myself worked together at atlantic books in dover for quite a number of years. and that owner retired, and when that happened we realize that that was the last general bookstore in the county and there was nothing left. we figured why not? so we just didn't even stop. atlantic books close and we started planning acorn books in a couple months later here it is. anybody who comes into acorn books we hope that they see a little bit of everything that they like. that's easier said than done though. in the beginning we went off of customer requested it would've been easy to just spend, spend, spend and fill the store full of books bestow have anything our customers want a. so when it came to stalking we waited until we got feedback from the customers in there to

see what they wanted to see. and right now it seems like fiction and fantasy are really the top drivers in those areas. so that so try and focus on. we try to keep up with the nonfiction as well. it's interesting with the youth books that get right and by the customers and we started a lot of old books that first we thought were a little outside of our expertise that we have tried learning how to handle those things, books the people i think of this vintage. we really try and to our research and make sure we understand what we have so we can give the books from our point, the price it needs to have but also the care that it needs to have. so we can start passing those types of treasures onto your customers. the economics in the time period that we opened at acorn books did make it a little bit

difficult we didn't want to ignore the fact that we also didn't want the facts to deter us from doing something that we felt dover really, really needed. the customer in dover and even outside of the dover area really said that this had asked that the bookstore. and the customer base is going to be a strong and that outspoken and that supportive we didn't want to put too much about in them, you know, over just some economic numbers. when it comes to marketing, getting the word out about acorn books was harder than we anticipated. we joked around when we're in the beginning stages of acorn books, ma yeah, if we build it they would come. we felt grassroots and word of mouth would be enough. as hell. the people of dover are wonderful and so supportive and i heard about this bookstore, you have to go here. so the word of mouth is getting

there, but marketing is definitely an art that i didn't know that much about. and word of mouth is not enough in the beginning, and there's an art to marketing and not trying to sound pushy t to the customer budget to let anybody know that we are hearing and we will try to get them whatever they need, especially the bigger organizations, school features and libraries, letting them know that we're here to support them as well. it is all bit of advice i think i'll try to give you some if they said they want to open a bookstore. don't be hindered by all the talk of e-books and the raiders and computerized this. they do have a place. we are totally not against them at all. a joke tha the cabotage around s books being scared of an

e-reader is scarce being scared of an escalator. just because new technology comes out doesn't mean that the old technology is going to go away. there still people that love the idea of holding a book or being able to highlight a book and make notes in a book. just go with what your '20s as they want. your customers say they want. because if they're not happy, nobody's happy. you need customers to buy books we need to have what they want, not necessarily what you want. as acorn books gets established in the community, we would rely to see in the future that it's a gathering place so to speak for people who want to share their ideas and talk with people and hang out. and i love the idea that i have this place that no matter what somebody wants to learn or find out, that i can be that platform for them to find it out. it doesn't matter if it's a

biography on tina turner or politics or what's going on in baseball right now. the history of world war ii and anything that somebody once to know i can get them. and i really hope that the community just learns that we are here and falls in love with the idea that we are open books because they want to find out they can find it out here. >> local author vincent depaul gisriel is next on booktv. he sat down with us during our recent visit to dover, delaware. his book "hearts away, bombs away" details the career of his father, a world war ii bombardier and the love story between his parents throughout the war. >> i was starting to review and finalize my father's military background.

he liked a lot of world war ii veterans went overseas, serve, came home and never talk much about the war. so i knew very little about his accomplishments or his crew's accomplishments until after he passed away in 2003, at which time some of the early original crew members begin to share with me some of the excitements that occurred in the skies over germany and occupied europe. so i began to research by definitions and their missions. i was very interested in finding out more about it. and i remember as a youngster, my parents saved all their correspondence from the war years. and is tucked away in my sister's attic comes i retrieve them and read everything one of them thinking it would add to my story. but what i discovered was you couldn't write about missions. that would've been a security breach but he wrote about life in general and melted. for example, i could track where he trained and how long he trained, and then my mom would

write about events back on during the war. but the most compelling thing in the letters i felt something i wasn't even looking for at the outset. this beautiful love story. here i set out to write a war story by this love story grabbing in such a way i couldn't ignore. gee, i miss you, and. please try to come home soon, won't you? if i don't see very since i do know what i'm going to do. there are a lot of times when i think i will go crazy, but then i get you letters out, start to read them all over again. the story of my parents and how they met and fell in love the center for employment at the old chesapeake and potomac telephone company in baltimore. she was an operator during the war and he was a friend hopped right out of high school. legend has it they met in an elevator and always say the rest is history. they had their first date in march of 1942. he proposed by april of 90

fortitude and would've been married that summer, but an aunt who raised hi them would not gia 19 year-old permission to marry. at that time you apparently need written permission. so at that time it was either in list or be drafted so he enlisted in the army air corps. in june of 42 but wasn't called to duty until november of 42. so they were engaged at the time and he went off to basic training in nashville as a young cadet and they were still engaged. some seven months later, approximately, he has gone on to santa ana california. my mom called him to texas where there married a week later. they said their goodbyes in nebraska. he was shipped overseas after station in new england. ultimately, he and his crew went to ireland to deliver the new aircraft and then on to england.

my dad was right a letter from abroad and my mom would send one to england but sometimes it would take five weeks to write. for example, when i was born in may of 44 just a few months after he departed, or was deployed, he did know i was born for like roughly 12, 14 days. and then he did know the details of the birth for almost another three weeks following my birth. that's different from today where your e-mails and cell phones and international calling which is so easy, skype where servicemen deployed can keep connected to the family. this was a different time. another illustration is his first thanksgiving away he was out in california i believe, and my dad spent five hours in line waiting to call home on a payphone. can you imagine waiting five hours for your turn?

and then you call home, there's a tension mission. those no guarantee your fiancé at the time will be home. so the five hours you've invested calling home might have been for naught if nobody answered the phone. how much different is that a day when you simply dial a cell phone and leave a voice message, or your text a message? it was a very different time. and i've talked to so many people that go around book tour who have the letters from their husband or the blueprints of the wife and girlfriend, but they don't have the return from the girlfriend or wife or the spouse, et cetera. and keep in mind that if a guy is running around europe, foxhole a fox hole, he doesn't have the wherewithal to carry a statue of letters. my dad being in the air corps had a different situation. he stayed in the quonset hut for the most part overseas, and barracks here, and he saved the

lives to enter the credit, he said everyone that brought them all back. so i have this complete story of the letters from my mom to him and his responses to her, and vice versa. she walked guard duty with my dad once. he was on the inside of fans and she was on the outside of the fence. but these are the little snippets that appear in the letters, and i can tell you having read 1100, it took me six months, every night was a new surprise and a new twist. we were just given a talk by captain who had just come back from active service, and he has seen plenty. i want to pass on some of things he told us. to in my outlook on this war has really changed. after listening to him, we are far from winning this war. i hate to say that. but facts are facts. the american people don't realize what our soldiers are up against and what our boys are going through. they enjoyed assuring with one another the movies of the days

and which ones they enjoyed like bing crosby, going my way. my mom would say make sure you see the, vince. and he would write back, oh, it was great. and then he would recommend some killer. he also met some interesting people along the way. when i was out in santa ana, he met mickey many. stood and talked to him at a bar for 15 minutes until his wife came over and pulled him away from the bar. that is, mickey rooney. so that was an interesting time for my day. he heard the and her sisters sing life. he heard glenn miller play at a uso function at the states in august of 44, the very weak that glenn miller was promoted to captain to major. but tragically four months later glenn miller's plane went missing recently over the english channel, never to be found. he also got to see joe dimaggio who is head of recreation and training at one of the bases my dad was sent.

so his letters are filled with little snippets of life back in the '40s. my mom would write about a washout in the backyard and how we would bring. they didn't have a dry. the wash would stay out on the line because it was going to get wet anyway so it would have to drive all over again. again, these are kind of interesting things. it takes the reader back to a different era in our nation's history. also how much they were deeply in love and how much they wanted a family. my mom predicted they would have five children, and sure enough, they had five children. she wrote on one letter, for example, it's in the book, her prediction, three boys into girls. she had the total ride but she had them in reverse order. they went on to have two boys and three girls. they were very prayerful your they made two promises in

nebraska when he first went in. to write often and to pray often. they certainly wrote often because that's evident by the volume of letters. and when you read their letters cover to cover, which i had the opportunity to do, you see how much faith they have in the good lord praying to him that my dad would make vaccine for the and with so much tragedy occurring over the skies in germany and europe, when that campaign, it's evident that the prayers brought him back sensitive because while there were some injuries along the way, everyone of those original crewmembers made it back to the states. went after having read the letters, i think that became more humble and certainly more appreciative of the sacrifices that that generation maven world war ii. and the sacrifices are made every day. because when a young man or woman in uniform is deployed, they don't have a say as to where they kill.

they don't necessary know the political agenda while they're there but they go to defend their country. they all day in honor and serve with great distinction. keep in mind, i was born may 26, 44. this was all my six month birthday come and my dad writes, my dearest little giz, happy birthday, some. sorry i can't be there in person. there's -- your tool to understand what they tell me there's a war on and i have to be here and you there. it won't be long though, you, mom and i will be together again. mommy tells me our growing into a big boy and can do just about everything but walk and talk. it won't be long before you'll be doing both of them. i hope you wait until i'm around before you did either. but things like that can't wait. they just have a. take real good care of mommy for me and tell her i love her.

again, happy birthday. i love you dearly. your devoted daddy. i don't know if i saw that letter when i see young star or toddler or heard about already even as a young boy. but to find that some 60 plus years later, open up and see how devoted your dad was to you, and wanting to be there, it was really quite an emotional thing for me. >> on booktv's recent book to dover, we spoke with bradley skelcher this book "african american education in delaware: a pictorial history" tells the history of african-american struggle during the post-civil war era through the great depression. >> i wrote this book because there really wasn't any other history, a book written on african-american education in the state of delaware. i started the work when i received a grant through the

delaware state historic preservation office to write a fully developed historic concept for african-american education statewide from 1770-1940. there was an overall -- when it came to educating african-americans. not just in delaware but throughout the country. they still pursued education but they still struggled, and with very limited resources, managed to create an outstanding educational system for african-american children in delaware. the challenges to african-american education in delaware have been since the very beginning. many sought educating african-americans as a threat to the societal orders, order at the time where white men were at

the top of the power structure of the country. and if greg aided to african-americans and african-americans of slave. and delaware was a slave state, even though over the years there were strong abolitionist movements to abolish slavery in the state. by the time of the american civil war, only 3% of the african-american population was in slate. still, and there was a struggle within the state where the to educate african-americans in particular, freedmen, between many other religious organizations, for example, the quakers, from almost the beginning provided some sort of educational opportunity or african-americans. and the others, especially some of the agribusiness groups in

the state, farmers, who relied upon african-americans as farm workers saw no need to provide an education for african-americans. they essentially strong back and a weak mind was how they viewed educating african-americans. they wanted them in the fields. following the american civil war in 1866 there was, however, a growing movement to establish an educational system for african-americans in the state. and i believe much of that accrue from the freedmen's bureau and during the civil war, the experiment in south carolina on the sea islands were abolitionists from new york and

delaware, went to south carolina, and they experimented with redistribution of abandoned plantations and educating the freedmen. and from that group what became known as the freedmen's bureau. and the freedmen's bureau paid particular interest in providing educational opportunities to the newly freed african-american. delaware saw this as, as something that they wanted to follow, especially the religious leaders of the state wanted to provide educational opportunities for african-americans in the state. and in 1866 a group of religious leaders invited a group from baltimore to come over and

explain how they were establishing educational opportunities for african-americans of baltimore. they met in wilmington, and from that meeting grew the delaware association for the moral improvement and education of the colored people. this was modeled after the baltimore association for the moral improvement and education of colored people. delaware shortened, removed the moral improvement, seeing the obvious problems with that comment and shortened it to the delaware association for the education of colored people. and that even became shortened to the delaware association. from this organization grew a movement to establish educational opportunities for

african-americans throughout the state. they secured support from a variety of organizations and private interest businesses from the delaware railroad that provided transportation of surplus hospitals that were provided by the freedmen's bureau. and so the delaware railroad transported those materials to various locations throughout the state where local volunteers would pick up materials and deliver them to sites, and typically the sites were next to churches, black churches in the state. whether they were african methodist episcopal churches aren't methodist episcopal churches. typically those lands that the school houses were built upon was provided by the churches are

and so throughout the state you could go to the local african-american church and next door was the schoolhouse. so they were closer related. in looking at the deed and so forth, i quite often found that the church trustee were often the school trustees. and typically the church would sell the school the land for 1 dollar, or just simply donate that land to the school. the delaware association school. and when the schools first opened, typically the minister of the church would also be a schoolteacher. and this was a long, long tradition within the state, even before the civil war. quite often the church provided

the education for the children in the form of sunday school. as a matter fact, quite often the first public school systems or movements were called sunday school movement. and almost from the very beginning in the late 19th century, delaware solve the need for a professional teacher, school teacher trained at what were called normal schools, teacher preparation schools. then eventually the states so the need to prepare and train delawareans to teach in the schools. and when delaware state college, what was called state college for college students for the state of delaware was established in 1891, one of the first programs are that what now is called delaware state university, and it was a normal

school to prepare teachers who would go out into the local schools to teach. and so initially these were some of the challenges, and one very important challenge to the african-american team unity in delaware was providing the funds to support the schools. keeping in mind that the delaware association was a private organization that relied upon contributions to support the school. and quickly the african-american team unity saw that -- community saw that they could support those goals if they could direct their property taxes to supporting the african-american schools rather than their property taxes supporting the white schools.

and essentially the public school system in delaware much like its supported today was supported through real estate tax. and african-americans pay real estate taxes but those taxes went to support the white school rather than african-american schools which was supported by private charitable organizations. and in 1874, a group of african-americans met here in dover at the white coats methodist episcopal church on slaughter street, which is now a baptist church, and held a convention. and that convention came out with some demands. one demand was for delaware to support the pending civil rights bill in congress, which later became the 1875 civil rights

act. and also demanded that the legislature pass a law that would allow african-americans to keep their taxes to support their schools. and eventually the state of delaware did pass legislation in the 1880s that provided public support for the african-american schools. now, with that said, the next challenge was get the tax collector to actually collect the taxes. for a variety of reasons, many of the county tax collector's would not collect taxes on african-american property. one reason why they didn't collect taxes and then eventually inform the property

owner, you may lose your property at a sheriff's auction was to keep them from voting. poll taxes. if you didn't own property you are required to pay a poll tax, and if he owned property that meant that you are a property owner and could vote, but if you were not paying your taxes you couldn't vote. so this is a way to disenfranchise african-american voters in the state. the other was, the taxes of course support the local education system. and with opposition to educating african-americans anyway, not collecting the taxes would mean that they would possibly not be able to conduct schools in the local area. one incident occurred in the 1880s in odessa, which is not

far from dover, it's a little community north of dover. a group of african-american men came together, because they were having a difficult time finding the new castle county tax collector to pay their taxes for their property. and then you if they didn't pay the taxes what that would mean. they could lose the right to vote. they could lose their property, and above all else, they couldn't support their schools for their children. so the group got together and they track down where the tax collector was but he had actually the state and gone to philadelphia for business. so they found out where he was staying. they travel to philadelphia to his hotel.

they knocked the door down, and entered the door, and by gunpoint forced the tax collector to collect their taxes. that's how important education was to african-americans in the late 19th century and continues to be so. .. presentation. copies of his books are are on sale at politics and prose tends and if you have questions after he is finished please use the microphone. john turner