reasons, because it has purchasing power in the united states and because it's based in a country where the laws and legal system are trusted, and there's a transparency so that, for instance, some people have suggested that the chinese currency will be the new reserve currency. ..

in the 1990s. dodd-frank doesn't touch it. is a series of regulations that try to restrict banks and try to stop what just happened in the mortgage crisis from happening again. that's dodd-frank. >> very insightful. a couple of related questions, two-part question. first, in the 32 years following the passing of the act in 1913 we have two world wars. we have the great depression, social security in 1935. it's sort of a what if question, like how do you think american history would have changed if we didn't have the federal reserve in that period? related question is, given the lessons of the 32 years across

the globe, public policy, what happened across the globe, how do you think the act might have been amended or changed if the sort of craters have been able to foresee all these changes? >> i can't look at 100 you what would've happened without it, but one fought in the act i think was they were so concerned with not offending people who didn't want a central bank, and also wanting to achieve warburg's purpose which was to come this one reservoir. they struck at halfway by having specs run the country, the federal bank of san francisco, atlanta, so one, and having a board in washington. but they were vague about where the power would reside in the system. when the act was passed and became law, immediately there was a struggle between three

parties. the individual federal reserve banks led by the strongest one which is the one in new york, the board in washington, and the treasury secretary who, for the first couple decades, had an automatic seat on the federal reserve board. it was quite unclear as we went into the depression who really was responsible for policy. some people felt that after all the federal reserve bank, the banks with the banks around the country and the board in washington was just supervisory. others thought the board should be the engine of decision-making, and effective agency, and others about the treasury. and if you read the notes from that period, easy some of the bank presidents were lowering rates, some were not there in particular atlanta was very dovish. the atlantic district did much better than the rest of the country for significant amount of time during the depression but there was no one person such as ben bernanke in 2008 who said

we have a real problem, someone's got to the acting in a concerted way and that someone is going to be me. overtime the public have going on as late as, during wars the fed tends to be, a handmade and other government. recover want cheap financing and the fed goes along with it. this happened after world war i into about 1951, the rates were still very low, 2%, and it became clear that the fed thought it was time to let rates go up. harry truman was just aghast. he didn't understand or accept for a moment the idea of the fed being -- w when he couldn't get his way in private he announced publicly that the fed had agreed to keep rates at 2%, which they have not done. he fired one of the board

members, appointed someone else from the treasury who he thought would be his pigeon on the federal reserve board. at that point the fed insisted, they wouldn't back down. from then on it's been a more independent agency and powers more based in washington. i was so one of the of the recent crisis that the federal reserve has worked much more close with the treasury. bernanke and down yelling, they meet often with the treasury secretary with the president. they are coordinating federal reserve policy with the government, which may be appropriate for a crisis. but i think the least until now, to avoid janet yellen is going to have to tell jack lew, the secretary treasury that she is running the fed even as he runs the treasury, or the fed independence will be compromised. thank you.

>> do you believe that the extended period without, historic period of zero interest rates is leading to asset inflation instead of conventional inflation? and if so, could that have negative repercussions speak with if it is it will have negative repercussions. it's just hard to tell. it's hard even to tell how distorted they are because there's a lot of capital out there. so if you said let's have rates at a more natural level, what would that be? i doubt i would be up to 6%. there's a lot of capital and you are not a lot of people who want to go out and build and borrow and invest where they are not in a very swift economy. it's possible but it's hard to know these things. there or not to me any obvious bubbles as with the real estate crisis.

not that i said that was obvious then that these things are easier to see in retrospect. there's some speculation in silicon valley but not likely in 1999 -- like we had in 1999. probably some inflation. >> i would to anyone else who hasn't asked a question. i will take one more from this gentleman and happy to sign books. >> i just want to follow-up on something you said earlier. i thought you said since the abolition of the gold standard that the dollar has not lost any of its buying power? >> i said it has lost its power overseas in world markets. obviously, there was a terrible inflation in the 1970s. the rate of inflation but generally has not been severe. it's lost about 2% a year except for that period, and it's true, you can look at these figures like a dollar in the 1920s is

only with 14 cents today. that's real significant if you around the 1920s and you're still around today. but life doesn't work that way. what happens is, a 2% rate is barely noticeable. in some ways it's even hopeful. one reason we have unemployment is because, for cultural reasons it's hard to cut people's wages. companies would rather cut 10% of the workforce and give every worker at 10% cut. it's just very hard to tell someone, but if there's also been inflation and they're sort of a silent way of cutting wages by just giving them a raise. there's although that inflation is probably healthy, but i didn't say that there has been no inflation. [inaudible] >> it certainly does. so thank you all very much for coming out tonight. [applause]

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>> welcome to hartford, connecticut, on booktv. founded in 1637, this capital city of about 125,000 is located in the central part of the state and is well-known for its insurance industry ties. with help of our comcast cable partners, over the next 90 minutes we were there from local authors on a variety of topics, including a look at new england's role in the atlantic slave trade as documented to the logbooks of connecticut connecticut slave ships voyaging to africa and back as early as 1757. >> these logbooks are immensely significant, not only because of

the story that contained but because other period in which they occur. in the middle of the 18th century the international slave trade was at its very height. more people were being taken from africa, stolen and kidnapped, and sold into slavery then taken to the caribbean abroad to the american colonies. more people were being taken at that period than any other period during the long arc of the international slave trade which lasted for 400 years. >> later we'll explore the story of the hutchins center family come a famous group from the 1840s whose songs promote a social causes such as abolition in workers rights. but first we visit the home of harriet beecher stowe to learn about the author of uncle tom's cabin, how she spent her final 23 years and help her work is interpreted today. >> here we are in 19th century author harriet beecher stowe's home in hartford, connecticut,

on fourth street and hartford, connecticut. we invite you to visit and we are standing today in stowe front parlor, a more formal space. when you visit, you sit down in this parlor and share conversation about issues and experience. stowe was born harriet beecher in 1811 in litchfield, connecticut, and western connecticut avenue in her life she lived in boston, cincinnati, brunswick, maine, for a couple of years, andover mass. come and vent she and her husband retired to be near her two sisters here in hartford, connecticut. in hartford, connecticut, houses. first in the middle of the civil war, she built her dream house, her glamorous mansion. and they built the house and moved in in 1863 and lived there for about eight years and then discovered over those years that it was too expensive to maintain. so the downsized into this more

modest but still spacious hartford home wild and out the rest of their lives. so stowe moved into this house in hartford in 1873, and the house had been built on. >> and lived in for a couple of years so she didn't especially build a. she moved into it as she had with most of those she lived in her life. she moved in with her husband taliban whom she married in 1836, and he was about 10 years older and he was a professor and retired. she moved in with her oldest children, twin girls, adult daughter and they were in their 30s. stowe was in her 60s and her husband help and was in his 70s. she was still writing. she was world famous. she had reached that pinnacle of fame in her 40s and now she's in her 60s and she still writing to support the family.

associates -- she did some books in the south and many, many articles and opinion pages. pieces. her house as a domestic environment. one other thing she wrote about is how to manage your household, and she thought and wrote a lot about how women should, she helped advance the idea, managing your house to think about the kind of domestic environment you build me a better town and make a better america. this house reflects the. it's not just one design but it certainly reflects the aesthetic movement of the 19th century as it's called. but it's also a host of reflects that these people have that long lives indeed family connections. so it's familial, it's friendly, it's comfortable, it's used. we work hard as a museum not to

be too tidy so there might be, at the writers table some crumpled papers on the front things like that. we want to evoke a home that is lived in. it's not pristine. it's a home that was lived in. sitting down with harriet beecher stowe i think from her writings and other people's reports, i think she was a quiet person. i think she was an introvert. so there's a lot going on in her head. people said things like you would think she was paying attention to the conversation but then she would start to fully participate. what had happened was she had been thinking about characters or stores that were going to come out later in her books. socially helping in her head for 20 or 30 years before they came out in her writing. talking with her might have been an interesting experience because she was thinking about two things at once, the conversation and her characters and what she was going to be writing.

another way people describe her as she was in a particularly attractive person until she became animated and the conversation and then there was a light about her and charisma and personality that you didn't see when she wasn't animated. you can see that in the photographs and in the physical evidence we have like sculptures in cameos and things that portray her. she might not have met the beauty standards of the day. few of us do, after all, but that her character and personality brought that to the floor and made a great company. and, of course, harriet beecher stowe was really smart and articulate, and she was taught at her father's dining table to make the case for argument. harriet beecher stowe's palm is a classic victorian style with two pars and under investors and

kitchen which, of course, would not have been public space, and bedrooms upstairs. when you visit you see those bases. and in the parlors ucd environment as much as it was when stowe litter, as we can tell from our research and from the few photographs we have. we are lucky enough to have a lot of positions that stowe owned, at that were owned by her extended family. we asked people to journey through the house with us. we talk about the past as well as the present. trying to explain stowe's long life and her impact. and when you reach the front parlor you sit down in chairs in the front parlor with the other people on the tour and have a conversation about artifacts on this table that represent the issues of the 19th century, pass the articles read and discuss them. when you go onto the second floor one of them and you go

into his stowe's bedroom which is of course rebecca but it's also one of the places she wrote. so it is set up with writing space and evidence of what it took of the struggle she had to write her books, particularly "uncle tom's cabin" exodus chisel bit of a glimpse into some of the experiences that you can have. >> we are in her front parlor right in which a lot of which would've been the face of this house. so in harriet was formally receiving guess she was quickly ushered them into this room and begin talking to them about a whole host of issues your passion about. to have a photograph of harriet beecher stowe said in her front parlor where we are. so she's sitting right about where i'm standing now and you could really get a feel for what the room looked like at the time. also get a feel for what harriet looked like. so what we're going to try to do is talk about some of the documents that she may have been seeing in the 1850s when she's coming up with ideas for "uncle tom's cabin."

in a lot of ways these documents represent the debates that people have the over slavery at the time. on this table we have some historic documents we have reproduced for our visitors to we really want to give our visitors a feel for the debates over slavery that were occurring during her time. so, for example, we have some reward posters for fugitive slaves than they been found in the north at the time. we have songs written by abolitionists that would've been sung at different meetings of abolitionists. then we get a teaching tools for abolitionists children. so there's, for example, kind of give you a feel for the alphabet but also gives you a poll attached to each one of the talk about some negative aspect of slavery. so these sort of things were very instant of teaching tools at that time. even more than that we have photos that would've been circulated in northern newspapers to try to gain

support for abolitionism. so, for example, this is a photo here of emancipated slaves that would've been found in northern newspapers quite a bit after the fugitive slave laws passed. so this would've been more of a private family space where she would've spent time with her husband and her twin daughters. they may be reading to each other. they may be writing letters. they may be playing the piano, but it was more of a relaxation space than a public formal entertaining space. so when visitors come into this room we don't allow them to touch anything or sit on any of the chairs. although we have reproduced a secular letter again which but sometimes will pass run and show to visitors. so now that we've seen her back bar we were going to be more private space, harriet's bedroom. here we are in harriet's bedroom. we have a lot of items in this room that give you a feel for what her writing process was like and what the aftermath of the publication of "uncle tom's

cabin" look like far as well. in terms of her writing process you can see that as i mentioned harriet didn't have a dedicated writing space in this house. we know that she would've been writing quite a bit in this room, her bedroom, and she would not always be the neatest way to win is going on. we have had some papers literature to give you a feel for what the room would look like as harriet is writing. so over on this bad we have an enlarged reproduction of a newspaper called "the national era." so of "uncle tom's cabin" came out it didn't come out in book form for quite a bit. every wednesday and new chapter of "uncle tom's cabin" would come out and people would gather in each other's parlors and hear it being read aloud. so over here we have a portrait of harriet's husband, calvin.

it was an incredible force in her life throughout her writing process. he was willing to do many things i would not have been considered unusual for me to do at the time. for example, he would take care of the kids in the house so the harriet would have enough time to read her books. this would've been considered very unusual for the time but it's just one of the many ways that harriet chose right with calvin. these are collection of works that harriet wrote while she's living in the south and we like to show our visitors some of the works besides "uncle tom's cabin" that harriet beecher stowe is known for. we are really trying to let our visitors know that harriet has made a lasting impact and that we really want to make sure her story is not forgotten. >> well, stowe died in 1896, she was 85. she died in the south as a husband had before. when she died this parlor we are standing in, the front parlor, her coffin was laid out here and this is where the wake was.

the "new york times" wrote this and she was so famous that many came to visit to get the respect. she was buried next to one of her children, welcome to a virtual the predeceased account after husband in andover, massachusetts, where they had been living with her son, henry, died at 19. so they bought a family plot. so you can visit the graves in andover, massachusetts, near where calvin worked out the seminary. her legacy today both reflects her writing in the 19 century and impacts been with "uncle tom's cabin" and the many of the books that she wrote, and the stance she took as a woman. but remember in the 19 century women couldn't vote, and that they had limited role whatever they are class or race, they were restricted.

she took the most advantages that she could of the opportunities she had as a woman in the 19 century. she made her name. she made her point and she argued for the addition leveraged that to make things happen. in the 21st century all of that is important because much of the writing whether it's about domestic life or about slavery itself, it's the framework for today. the past informs the present. he we are today in the 21st century still struggling deeply in the headlines and in our homes and in our friendships and in our workplaces with the many things that stowe was right about that they were struggling with been. and when you come to visit harriet beecher stowe's house you have an experience unlike many other historic house museums. >> during booktv's recent visit to hartford, connecticut, we spoke with the executive director of the mark twain house

and museum about his life during his time in hartford. >> when mark twain move to hartford, connecticut, it was a very wealthy down. it was supposedly at that time the richest city in the nation per capita. our points legacy today attracts people from everywhere. take you to come inside this house as a time travel back to a different time. samuel clemens, we know today as mark twain, samuel clemens was a boy born in florida missouri grew up in hannibal, missouri, along the banks of the mississippi river back in the 1830s, '40s, '50s. when his dad died he was only 12 and sam had to be apprenticed as the pipes and i don't think that begins love of their budget influenced a lot of things late in his life. mark twain begin looking into hartford as a place to settle with his young wife and their

new family. of course, his publisher was you with american publishing and he camcame to the sake of the above with a really and just was tickled to death. wrote letters back his own family, mother and brother that this place is beautiful. he bought the land. should did have a major inheritance should use to build the house and decorated. so they built it in state in a. when he moved in 1874 the carpenters were not quite done. the plumbers were not quite done but they were done in the family could come in and take resident. so they were made on the second floor but they continue to work on the home. they traveled to europe frequently, make purchases. they sent purchases very these impact upon to furnish it and get up to speed. i'm excited to welcome you into the master bedroom. this is their bedroom. is amazing bad is hand carved of black walnut. it was made in italy to the

family paid $200 when it purchased it and which was a lot of money in those days. it's got lots of unique features. specifically the headboard which, of course, if you noticed sam clemens and his wife slept facing the headboard. they wrote is spectacular you want to wake up looking at a rather than the pills against the. probably the best beach, the one i like the most is that the little cherub on each quarter are removable. and three daughters were allowed to come in and remove these wonderful little cherub's. i've got to wear my white gloves. they do left -- they do left-right off. they were allowed to play with them. just enjoyed having these little angels. but at the end of the day sam clemens insisted they be put right back on top of the bed. could play with them all day but he wanted them back on a bedtime. when he went to bed he said he

felt that would be the closest he would ever to be surrounded by angels. also very interestingly we have of course gaslighting in this house, moderate at the time. he did read in bed. he wrote in debt and, of course, he spoke in bed. he used an extension cord from the gas line so it would be right here by his bed when he worked in the event all right. a lot of people worry when they say did he smoke in bed? yes, he did. likely at the fabulous low-density gas and he wasn't endangering the family. wasn't going to cause an explosion of any kind. in the master bedroom with sam clemens mother, and the art of photographs of his father. his dad died in 1847 and photography was not affordable for families like that at that time. but, of course, on the wall we of the four children. the baby on the lower right

corner did not live in hartford hospital we do have his photograph. he died at 19 months of diphtheria or the other three daughters are you on the wall. so it's fun to imagine his family home with little girls running and playing and calling for stories and all the things that they did. growing up to become young ladies in his home. the girls had a lot of adventures into some. the family of course dined in this beautiful dining room and would come into the library after dinner, a very special spot. for instance, the paintings across the top on the walls and the knickknacks on the mantle, they would ask for a store in the rule was he had to begin with the cat painted on the very intricate to start there and have certain rules. from there he had to continue across the mantle and incorporate each and every nick knack and he could not go out of order and he could not repeated

so. then he would have to end with the painting on the right and that would satisfy the girls. the stories the house, the girls would recount as an adult women that that was one of their favorite things. they could come in this room and have this wonderful story time with her father. the conservatory, all of it of the jungle. is about the girls called, the daughters called it the jungle. sam clemens would get down on all fours. the butler would also depend on all fours and the girls would jump on the backs and go hunting for tigers in the jungle and have big adventures. this was a favorite spot for the family. but it was a busy place. very famous guests we come to visit. they had fancy dinners in the evening. if they didn't, the family of course of the around the table where sam clemens was know to get up between courses and pace and almost try out his material. he was a lecturer. he was often on the road lecturing.

so you tell the stories again and again. the girls said they would stick and some nice and sit on the steps in the hallway and they could tell from where he was in the story what course was being served. this is just some of the a few of the family. we are on the third floor of mark twain's beautiful mansion. this is the billiard room and this is a great room. we like to call out the original mankato. of course, we have the beautiful billiard table. this is a great room because his friends would come here. they could play into the evening, into the late hours. of course, sam clemens was a big fan of cats and kittens. before you could buy pocket billiard you would have to go and check all the pockets and make sure there were no furry critters sleeping in the. this was another fun space because george griffin, the author, would of course, after some time to time to announce the gas. they guess would bring their calling cards and say we take one look at the calling card and

you might say send them on a. are we my to i would write down. but he may see something different, and that was when he didn't want to see the person. he wouldn't lie but he would go over to the little porch on the side, opened the door and stepped out onto the porch and told george, tell them i just stepped out. and that became known as the stepping out porch. this room is where he did his writings. he would of course work summers in palmyra and right manuscript but he would come back and save your. we love to welcome visitors in the house period. so my favorite essays, visit their favorite room. i think it's because of the writing that happened here. we have his writings -- his writing desk in the corner. he had to face the wall, pay attention to his work and not be distracted. so we sat in the corner did was right. most of his books are written by the family lived in this house. so when we come into this space

and you can imagine them after having his cigars, maybe shooting again with his friends or with george griffin, a butler who was also a close friend. we imagine him in the corner hiding at manuscript and think of the books that were written while the family with you. he wrote the ventures of tom sawyer. he wrote connecticut yankee in king arthur's court. life on the mississippi. of course, adventures of huckleberry finn. this is sort of sacred ground for a lot of people. this is where he would put the finishing touches on and wrap it up and get ready for the publisher. they traveled from this house frequently liability but they would ultimately leave in 1891. what that means is they lived here for 17 years. they continue to own the home for quite some time but the economy was starting to go south. sam had poured a lot of money into one particular investment,

a page composited that took a toll on the family's finances. in the panic of 1893 of course you put everybody against the wall. not dissimilar from what we experienced in 2008. but in 1895 they set out on around the world lecture tour. by now the girls were young adults. while susie and jean meantime stayed with her aunt susan, they would come to hartford from time to time and beat announced that they were not really living in the house at that point. so this lecture tour of the year. finally, win ended a still from south africa to include thinking they would rest quarters there. he would be reunited and decide where to go from there. at the point they did send word to the girls, and over, we are off the road finally. we can be reunited. but he received a cable back and

said cindy was the. they did expect a quick recovery but they didn't think it would be too quick. sam clemens, meantime, waiting for a cable gram, the cable gram did come. it was while his wife is half across the atlantic ocean, and it described susie as being peacefully release. so susie clemens tied into some at the age of 24 from spinal meningitis. it was a very sad occasion as you can imagine. the family had a hard time recovering from the. they did recover from the financial struggles but at what price? said to be away from those two daughters for an entire year and then to lose susie took quite a toll on the. after suzy's death i think the family always aspired to come back and live in hartford but they were so crushed and devastated by this, mark twain wrote the climate becomes is never the one we have prepared ourselves for. and he began referring not to the city of hartford any longer but to the city of heartbreak. was a.

they could do longer live here. they wanted to but they just couldn't bring themselves to set foot, to come back. when people come here to hear the story, a rising star in our literary world and i think people leave your understanding he was just like the rest of us. he was just a guy wanting to raise his family, give them the best he could while making a difference in the world. he knew his writings, widely read and, of course, the more famous he became and the more he commented on problems around the world, the more his opinion was sought. it is still valid. when we hear tragedies in the world today, we can pull up a mark twain, not just a quote, not just some throwaway quip, the entire passages he wrote. so i want people knowing that he's no more from you to them tn they might think.

>> you are watching booktv on c-span2. this week and we are in hartford, connecticut, with help of our local cable partner comcast. next we visit the amistad center and speak with the curator about slavery and african-american history. >> we are in the amistad center for our culture. that is located in the museum of arts in hartford, connecticut. the amistad center is in partnership with the wadsworth museum. it's a collection of art, artifacts and historical documents that explain and narrate the african-american experience and the experience of black people pretty much throughout parts of the world.

we have a specialty in 19 century civil war related material, but our collections cover the span of african-american history and culture from the 18th century to the present. the exhibition will be touring today explores the experience of slave hurting public intellectuals from the 19th century and the world that they created their slave narratives and activism, the other riders an artist, public intellectuals, black public intellectuals were able to expand about into the civil rights movement. people like frederick douglass who began writing before the was a black reading public, but to tell an important story who made it possible for folks like dr. martin luther king, w.e.b. dubois, booker t. washington, langston hughes, and others to

write on into the 20th century as public intellectuals and activists. so the exhibition begins with this intro wall and this quote by the unitarian minister, that i consider unitarian minister and abolitionist theodore parker is with significant i think for visitors to take with them as they begin this journey. it reads so we have one series of literary productions that could be written by none but americans. and only here. i mean, the lives of fugitive slaves. all the original romance of americans facing them. not in the white man's knowledge will. we begin with a quote because it really does set the stage for the kind of revolutionary work that is being done by these slave narrative is, public intellectuals were working at a time when most black slaves

could read these books in their imagine there's an audience can imagine these tools will allow them to bring freedom to others. this first case we begin the exhibition with some of the most important slave narrate in public intellectuals of the 19 century. because since our founding collector, was so committed to frederick douglass, we have a lot of frederick douglass images in this collection. one of the things we've always imagined to be true at frederick douglass took a lot of pictures, maybe more than anybody else in america at the time, has now been proven to a great new book has come out called picturing frederick douglass, i believe coming in at the office proved that he was the most photographed american of the 19th century. they have collected an incredible range of images of douglass, 150 or so that he took as he traveled the country working to gain freedom, sort of documenting and creating an

image of what free blacks should look like. so the first two pieces of frederick douglass is pieces from frederick douglass' narrative theories really. douglas was significant because he was probably the most famous of the slave narrating black public intellectual of the 19th century, escaping from slavery in maryland in the mid-1800s, 1840 or so and then getting himself to new bedford and then connecting with the liberator and abolitionist activist and encouraged his own persona as a public speaker and official subject taking so. no, working with john brown, writing books, publishing newspapers. assuming a voice for african-americans. next to him is a narrative of william brown. brown escaped from st. louis and

gets himself to ohio not long after frederick douglass escaped in the mid-1800s, and meets douglass probably in the mid-1840s. and as douglass' book comes after brown realizes he could write a narrative and that he can be on the lecture circuit, does just that. publishes his book in 1847 and immediately or fairly immediately heads to england where he stayed for quite a while. he performs skits and sketches from american history, with his own particular take on american history. he lectures on slavery and his own life and makes a good living performing as a figure known as william brown. also in this case, 12 years of slaves narrative of solomon northup who has become a far more popular read and well-known figure. and again many of these figures

wrote these books and went on to comment lives once they were published. writing a book as a slave narrating, former enslaved african-american gave you a space for other artists, writers and actors to emerge. so in this case remov we move te sheet music from the collection. simpson actually trained as a classical singer and was committed to collecting sheet music from american popular culture. he left us with sort of a great cache of music from a fairly local composer who was born in middletown, connecticut, not far from hartford. it also born into and abolitionist family. so a number of these songs that he created around the time of the civil war are abolitionist's

songs and abolitionist standards. this piece by paul lawrence dunbar is part of a series that dunbar sort of imminent 19 come early 20th century black poet did as a collaboration with a camera club at hampton university. members of the camera club photograph their neighbors and paired those images with poems by dunbar. a series of books are probably some of the best selling books that dunbar produced. they also point to the tension between the evolving image of free blacks and the new free black nation within america. and the sort of older images and how to negotiate that. that was an issue that dunbar do with in his poetry as well. a lot of the poetry is dialect portrait which is attempting to

bring along cultural idioms and ideas that he inherited from his parents and grandparents and some others have been enslaved and makes the new and interesting for an audience that was living beyond. this case brings us into the early 20th century and the period of the union. these first books by booker t. washington, the author former enslaved offer, education activist launches this part of the conversation. booker t. washington to the meat believe in the significance and importance of free blacks staying where they were, committing to owning the land, cultivating the land answer building small independent communities in the south amid in the north but certainly in the south. between these copies of the

crisis, we have survey graphic survey graphic is an important magazine at the time as well. agenda to issue a survey graphic launched a number of notable artists we now think of as important to the harlem renaissance. this issue of "survey graphic" refers back to that earlier issue named for the new negro, color, the unfinished business of democracy. it's a follow-up to the work that had been done in the 1920s. in this case we have a number of pieces by civil rights leaders who are also musicians. notable here would be james johnson. he is literally the renaissance man of the harlem renaissance. lawyer, high school principal, diplomat, songwriter and

performer. and then ultimately as a field secretary, one of the first field secretary for the naacp. he helped to build chapters for the innovation around the country. bringing all the skills around to bear in that role as field secretary. many folks know him as the author of a national negro and some, lift every voice and sing. sheet music at the time was significant. it wasn't entrée into popular culture, the same way that we exchange mixed tapes for downloads to your popular music. people in the early 20th century bought sheet music. many folks could play and so it was a way of bringing the family together and sort of enjoying a musical saw. the children were a significant audience for books as the early

20th century moves along. folks like doctor devoids and other activists who are knowing for the -- in d.c. and other black capitals it was important for activists of their to think about the next generation. this piece, this series, the first book of which has the first book of negroes, the first book of africa, the first book of jazz emerges right at the point in his life when he is calling black activists to d.c. to defend themselves against the charge of communism. he was called to washington to face the house un-american activities committee and to talk of whether he's a communist. he goes to the hearing. he does his best not to incriminate anyone else for himself, and when they see the galleys for the first book, which is the first book of

negroes which is about a family cook on a very patriotic trip around america, the committee decides to anyone who's writing his book couldn't be a communist. he gets out by the skin of his teeth, to produce this, the first book of jazz which really is an incredible piece. it points us to the moment in which jazz and jazz history is being canonized for a younger audience. and it also is one of the early hearings of his dealings with illustrations. they are incredible and in some ways a signature of the period, and begin to see roberts images and images like this in esquire and g2 and in all kinds of men's magazines and adds at a graphic so proliferate throughout the culture in the late '50s and '60s. black metropolis is in some ways the exclamation point on the

black literary renaissance no space in the southside of chicago. this book helps to introduce the context to what a lot of important black writers based on the southside were writing. it is a companion piece to me at the books in this case. margaret walker's jubilee, willard motley's knock on any door, a number of books by richard wright, native son notably and the star of thomas and the challenges he faces on the southside of chicago. one outlier in this case is and petrie, the author of the street who grows up here in connecticut and enhanced in york where she writes her book that this sort of parallels the story of thomas about a woman named lucy who was living in harlem with your son and trying as hard as she can to

keep them from the ills of the street, and everything she overcomes in that struggle, ultimately whether she will defeat or fail is the world that ann petry draws industry that is probably as timeless as any of the books in this exhibition. this case takes us from mid century south side chicago back to the northeast in new york really and the civil rights moment. in the center we have this quartet of books by two authors who are seen as the voice of the civil rights era, james baldwin with the fire next time, and dr. martin luther king with why we can't wait. we hope that visitors when touring the expedition and once they finish will have a better sense of the ways in which writers and musicians help to

build a freedom culture, a culture that helped to push along the freedom struggle and doubt intricately linked leaders he and the word in publishing and being an author was to being an activist. so in the 19th century and into the present. >> during booktv's recent visit to hartford, connecticut, we spoke with mark twain house and museum curator traci brendel about the museums collection is -- collections of letters from mark twain to his daughter's. >> we are here in a research library at the mark twain house and museum, on the third floor of our museum center. this is a place where we have books that mark twain wrote, it's about him, his contemporaries and about his life during the times have you lived here in hartford. we have a lot of researchers who

come in. we have students. we have twain scholars, different academics who come in and use our library and our resources. our collection boasts 16,000 items, so that includes paper documents, books, 3-d objects, some of which we see on the table. what i'm going to show today are pieces that we appalled from our collections that are specific to the clemens family. they were owned by the clemens family, owned by the daughters of mark twain and we're going to be organizing an exhibit that will open march 24, 2016 called in their father's image. what that really means is by focusing on the daughters and their lives in the house, we get a different view of mark twain rather than the humorist that he was known as the missouri boy, known for this department. he was poppe did in the want of

want to look at the date is some of the books that was owned by the clemens family pictures different stories attached within. we also have some of the baby items from the children as well as different items belonging to the daughters. mark twain's oldest daughter susie started writing a biography of her father when she was 13, because she wanted to show people who he was when he was at home. as i said he was not as this humorist. he was a famous for being famous and she wanted people to know about what he was really like. i thought we would start off with the new testament, the bible. this was where it all began with the clemens family. this was mark twain and his wife. this was their bible, and the

date february 2, 1870 come is a day they were married. and to us this is an item that represents the beginning of their family, the beginning of mark twain finally find a woman that he wanted to marry, settle down with and raise a family. we have a fairly large collection of some of these christening silver baby items of the girls come of the family. this you can actually maybe see. this was from the firstborn, the firstborn son of them. and 420 past way when he was 19 months old of diphtheria -- and, unfortunately, he passed way when he was 19 months old of diphtheria. we have a polite with her birth date inscribed. we also have this cup of claris.

these were given to all of the children from the grandmother. they are tiffany and company. so the silver gifts for the birth of the baby's coming symbolizes the joy of the birth. it's also wishing them a long happy, healthy life. and the christening silver, it's also all of it of a symbol of wealth. again come as i said the length and were very wealthy and are able to give these gifts to the children. while sousa's biography about her father was never published during her lifetime or his lifetime, it has since been published. is available to read and i have a copy here of poppe,

photography of mark twain. here we see a picture of susy and her father mark twain putting on a little plate together the they are both dressed up. he is a loving, just a loving, wonderful, kind hearted father that she looks up to, that she a doors, that she only wants the best of. so she's writing about him in ways that at the time really know what else is because they don't know him as a family man, as the father. she's writing about him in his private life. the next thing we have is a letter from mark twain to his daughter susy. so what he says in his letter here, my dear daughter, her grandmother fairbanks who was a family friend jewish mother in the ingrate love to yourself and

your brother. we are enjoying our stay here. part of our enjoyment is to ride the train all night long and never listen to see if you of the sniffles or if the grand duke has wakened. as yet both of you prosper just as well all night long as if you had your father and mother's usual anxious supervision. so this was a letter written to susy by her father when she was just a tiny baby. and i think it shows the love he had for his daughters come how much of a father he really is. he was thinking of her and i think it's something that parents still do today, whether it's sending a text or an e-mail writing expressly to their own children even though they can't reject it but it's very similar to what we still do today. i have another letter, and this

was written by libby but for susy to her grandmother. so susy told libby what she wanted to say, and libby wrote it down for her. my dear grandmama, i'm having a difficult time playing and throwing stones and the water. when mom was at church. became a big boat along the i did not into his music on it and so i went and asked rose if it was music on it. she said yes. i heard music summer and i did know where it was. once while we were at interlink and we're off on a boat. and clara, mom and i to see the falls, the most wonderful falls in switzerland and on the back of the letter we can see where susy was practicing her capital letters. susy as a child was actually more outspoken as a very tiny child.

she was a little bit of a handful, but as she grew up she became more reserved. she was always trying to do the right thing, being more of the proper girl and shatter younger sister who was more boisterous and independent. we have a few photographs. they have their own costumes. ..

as we said before should great musical talent. she went and studied at berlin and vienna, studied singing. she came back to the u.s. and she performed concerts, and here we've got a program for one of her first concerts in the united states. this was at unity hall here in hartford on february 4, 1901. also have this advertisement here. it's a wonderful image of her. she's in her late '20s.

and this is a program for joan of arc. this was an adaptation of mark twain's john of arc that clara start in as joan. and she traveled the country performing his play. this is from 1926. so this is after her father passed away. she was continuing his legacy and clara as the only daughter to survive to adulthood, she really became "th the guardian,e protector of her father's legacy. ..

they describe him as a steamboat pilot with his quick wit and slow job. he writes the word no because towards the end of his life didn't have to much anymore. and he's described as having piercing blue-green eyes and she circled blue because she knew her father's eye color and it was blue, not blue-green. the tools i have over here belong to in comments. the youngest daughter and she was a hobby. she was diagnosed with epilepsy when she was 15 years old and

batman she actually actually had a lot of restrictions in life. she didn't go out to spend as much. she wasn't allowed to have romantic relationships because they might trigger seizures. so she had a very bland diet. for a while she was sent to several different sanitariums. they went to europe and traveled all around us trying to seek a cure for her. but she wasn't -- can be quite as independently clear was stabbing her music and honing her craft. jean actually found an escape and wood carving and at first her father wasn't too keen on it, but he came around when he realized it was a little bit like therapy for her because she could do something. because of her epilepsy and restrictions placed on her, she

never felt she had to place their purpose in this health care have more of a purpose with her carving. as i said, claire was the only one who lived the longest life of the two girls. jean actually died of complications of her epilepsy when she was 29 years old should love to take that in the morning and christmas eve, you know nine, she had finished with wrapping up all of the guests and decorating the house and she went to bed, woke up in the morning and went to take her back then she was found in her bathtub. she had died from what we believe to be a heart attack brought on by her seizure and it was of course heartbreaking. he had lost his oldest son, oldest daughter and his wife had passed away years before.

some might argue he passed away from a broken heart but he did die from what he called a cigar. he did smoke cigars so the items we've been looking at today reflect mark twain's family, the dodgers he raised in his day became over the years, what happened to them. but we also see who mark twain was to them, the private mark twain popped up. this also shows how having a famous father effect that their lives.

>> i wrote this book against new england and america as a whole under estimates the size and importance of human enslavement during the early period of this country. the story of slave shift in connecticut had never been and i thought i would be given access to them in time to study and exploit them because there was a purpose in it. that purpose was for me to tell their story to does then the reporter and a special assignment to work on a book and how big and important and profitable they had been fears said it discovered these lawbooks, additional and extraordinary piece of the story because i didn't know at any time there had been directly

involved with the slave trade. connecticut was very involved in the caribbean which was also a slave days. but to discourage you for was so important and newspapers backing out 100%, once we understood the story being told, the newspaper determined i should go to sierra leone and retrace the voyage that i've been retrace in 1957. these lawbooks are mentally significant not only because of the story contained but because of the period in which they occurred. in the middle of the 18th century, the international slave trade but that is buried height. more people were taken from africa, stolen and kidnapped and sold into slavery and brought to the american: he may be taken up by than any other.

during the long arc of the international slave trade which lasted for 400 years. in these lawbooks we have this extraordinary opportunity to see day by day how life was lived aboard new england slave ships, two of which were from connecticut. i came to the realization the lawbooks were not being chained as i had earlier thought that the son of an air connecticut farmer but by the son of an aristocrat from london. it was fun probably is the voyage. he was only 18 at the time of the voyages. his father owned two of the ships. he was on this voyage and their father represent keeps track of what was going on aboard the ship. one of the many groups is only 80 pages encompasses three

glitches over a year and a half and in that year and a half everything happens. you can almost a deadly starting to grow up in the course of all the things that would fault him. he lived in london as a young man, in charge of things for his father. he's never been to africa. and they sooner get africa and a man tries to escape. the slave ships were freaked because it was the worst work. he begins negotiating for the purchase of human being once he's in africa, he leaves the ship design, goes to another ship in the caribbean water on their their way to the caribbean, this terrible epidemic breaks out. 12 people died in 18 days. 10 of those people are children

day by day. he managed to get back to london in a few years later at the numbers they've showed that goes back to africa and are captured by the french and take away their vessels and at that point some trade assisting them in. but then again do not come out unscathed by the nasa car returned to the commander man named william taylor. all of this has people and apologists holographically conveyed in the course of dvd pages, but if the huge amount of experience that is covered in this. i would rack across from them library and spend all day studying the lawbooks in

researching the back stories from her research in the slave new orleans, what was going on, what were the other factors involved ,-com,-com ma how common was this? my newspaper determined i should go to this castle where it had treated. it was very interesting to visit and to spend hours and days fair. we did not stay overnight first of all because the island is abandoned. it's just the ruins of the castle at one time a caretaker who lived there that he and his wife lived in, but there's no water rna support facilities of any kind. assist the slave fortress in the local people who live on neighboring islands believe the island is haunted and they won't stay there overnight and we would notice at the end of the

day because we hired local people not only to help us in the day today, but clear the island -- clear the room and print the growth adjusting goals through an every year. it has to be cut back. what i notice, what i felt myself when i was first on other things is very hard to talk their and feel a path and suffering that weighs so heavily you feel like you can't talk. i remember when we were standing on our first visit was ending and the enclosure where men are held for sale, women and children were hauled off to the side and a separate area, but men were held in one area. i remember all the ground was

very broken now and you can see the sky, that the world -- the fortress still surround you and you can be for men with guns would've been posted. i remember joe apollo leaned towards me and he said no questions from the reporter? and then he said i understand. he said no one peeks here. one of the first things that i learned about the lawbooks of the thing that surprised me if they are easy to read. it was and it does color although selig was not standardized. that didn't come for another 30 years. spelling was not standardized and although i believe him to have been an educated man, he felt very fanatically. so i had to learn to sound out the words the way he would've sounded them out and that would help me find the modern-day spell in some locations.

he would record the weather for an end. small wind and weather. day by day every two hours throughout the day he is reporting what is going on with weather,, how fast they are going, how far this. this is part of the role itself. it is to keep track and keep record of the voyage. part of the rule was that there'd be a wreck. in case of a lost it later arose from the voyage. and the person, the commander who could say we were at this latitude. here is what the weather was. this is the weather without

telephones, there was no way for deadly to record what is going on except with this book. when the metal voyage leaves the sierra leone, this was in may of 1757. we have now in held 169 plays on board, but within just a few days, he says one man plays not very well and another is not very well. and as he turned pages, you begin to see more and more people come in children among them and then they began to die. one day he says 24 hours guide to small boy slaves. these slaves were probably younger than 12 and they like the others died in the epidemic unfolding were dying of the

disease they called the bloody flux, but which we call today i'm a big dysentery. in the third voyage that is documented in these books, dudley is in an area west africa that today we would call gone not. here is near a place which was a saving warehouse and fortress also essentially great britain's home office for slave trading west africa. this was in the summer of 1758, a time when great britain and the english colonies were exchanging harassments with the french. this was during the seven years war and death and his commander thinks that they see a shift in the distant but then they discover it is a warship outfitted by a group of men in

france called the calcium florentine. accounting florentine overtakes them. and in a few days previous had overtaken to other ship. the men aboard the same florentine take the cargo which at that point included human being with many london ship and from the king of prussia which was from rhode island and eventually were allowed -- a commander from rhode island just wanted were freed to their cargo because it was not enter into them and it was returned to them and they were allowed to return to new england. one of the things -- one of the extraordinary things is that this capture and there is a subsequent battle became extremely well known because joseph wants his family was one

of the premier families in rhode island. this man was captured and came back to new england. he never became the governor of rhode island. he was a very famous and well-known trader and there was newspaper stories during that period and it was still part of it. a sea vessel in which according to one account the calcium florentine sunk and object and things with fleur-de-lis on them began to go on the coast of west africa. he bought a thing like it was not just a proven at derby. it was food and horses in the flag and livestock down to support sugar monoculture of the caribbean. but the local men were also involved in what we might think

is the heart of the slave trade. they lived in africa. there were men, women and children can bring them back to the colonies into the caribbean and some of them were dying along the way. that became the hardest story in the document led me to the heart of the story. i think if new englanders talk about their history, by the way, their greatest achievements unaccomplished and then indeed they accomplish great things and they were brave. rather than saying but, i want to say and with all of their accomplishments they were in one way or another profiting from stolen labor, from the labor and suffering of people who never did harm and needs to be acknowledged. this is not the sad chapter in new england history.

it's all about new england. >> so here we are in a chariot teachers go center archive, either archive storage area is home to the archival and books collection, photographs and pamphlet, any sort of work of art on paper as well, including broadside posters of the 19th century. our collections focusing on harriet beecher stowe commended beecher family and active reform work in the 19th century. you will find collections around anti-slavery and abolition in new england as well as women's

history as it relates to the suffrage movement. they begin: teamwork by harriet beecher stowe and her family as early as our founder in the 1930s here she founded her organization and we've been collecting ever since. the archives vault was built in 1972 house the really rare document, paper-based collection. today one of the things that focus on harriet beecher stowe and how she came to write "uncle tom's cabin," the most famous antislavery novel which galvanized the antislavery movement towards abolition in the 1850s. these today really are the platform for which we are able to tell the story. without the collection in the building that she lived in, we

can tell her story as we know it, but these very tangible reference to the past. these are papers and documents she touched. these are books that people all over the country and beyond red, waiting for the next installment and coffee in addition to come out so they could give it as a gift. these objects really speak to the power of harriet beecher stowe and hearst dorrit tom stanton had on american and international society. the first thing we'll talk about is what's called the beecher family's or killer letter, a rather large letter. there is a series and the amazing thing about them as it was started by one person in the family who folded it up and mailed it to the next sibling of the family who added their portion of the story where they

are views and pass it onto the next and the next and the next and the the next mmx mmx or not on to the next and the next and the next and i think i've added onto it became very much felt document to the point where they are cramming in last-minute notes. so the beecher family really was an amazing group of reformers. or a beecher stowe's father dr. lyman beecher was the foremost calvinist minister in new england when she was a child. so he raised sally levin of his children to be forced as a society had to do good, had to make positive change and could appropriate sphere of course applied to the 19 entry that meant the girls had to find other thoughts about farm to speak. harriet beecher's goes way was publishing stories in the early 1830s in a series of letters at this point she was writing short.

she was the mother of children at this point and she was struggling to make ends meet. her husband was a professor, which wasn't a career that paid well. she had to take care of the children. the best thing to do is write the letter and that's what she did. she decided to write a short story of foreign elements, meaning four chapters for a newspaper called the national era. so she begins to write, but she quickly realizes that it's going to be a much longer tori. so she needs to provide substantive documentation even though the novel to be stated in reality.

she writes a formerly of people like frederick douglass and materialization of the national era was a letter here city july 9, 1851 where she's tasty may perhaps have noticed in your editorial reading other ) furnishing for the era titled "uncle tom's cabin." she goes on to ask for information for true life stories about what it is like to be enslaved and be in a system as he is one who has that experience. another person who so is there truly fixed. and took from the carrot arab uncle tom was just my head spin. just i had been, photographed here was an enslaved person in maryland who found his way to escape through canada to ontario and formed what it called on

settlement in his honor and hence hidden really speaks to of course as they all do struggle to make a decision to change the license to get through to freedom. so harriet beecher stowe's story was published in the national era and it took over almost quite a year to really publish the whole story, much longer than she did. she missed two deadlines, too weekly deadlines. the story of subscribers to the news paper were up in arms because they really wanted to get the next installment. it was so popular by march of 1852, three months before the end, they decided to contract with a publisher, they both publisher to publish it as a book.

has finally published as a two-volume book and march 20th 1852, very simple clothbound examples published by john p. jewett out of boston. he also, the publisher created a short version for children called pictures and stories of "uncle tom's cabin." or it quickly the popularity of those book takes off and merchandise here. first simple thing like children's books and then there's international editions. very quickly, french and german come out first and then onto other countries that still publish worldwide today in over 70 languages the mass commercialization moved us into outside their for the home.

now the stories in the carrot there is because of copyright no longer under the jurisdiction. "uncle tom's cabin" is one of the many pieces of merchandise produced outside of control of harriet teachers though. this is a british print and it's very cheaply made because it was quickly produced for the mass market and the only example does it exist in a nursery outside of australia. that speaks to the international power the story had the worldwide success of the book that people wanted to have an emotional piece, a connection to the story in her own home, teaching their children to nursery, including the death of uncle tom.

so what does that tell you about society at the time? abolitionists such as william blake garrison did not of course not notice uncle tom's cabin. his anti-abolitionist newspaper published a story in january 1853 called "uncle tom's cabin" mania in which it does and i'm paraphrasing such a minute love of this book and folks have really attach themselves to the characters as they had and is taking away from the power to and abolition. folks are getting lost in the human connections they are making with these characters in the drama as it's written. "uncle tom's cabin" was so