it went off. mypeppered my jacket, ripped -- and cut a handle off of my shovel. a piece of shrapnel hit my leg. >> watch our five-part history with war veterans on c-span3. this weekend, "american history tv is featuring selma, alabama. s staff -- the city was founded in 1820 and given its name by alabama's only u.s. vice president. learn more about some of all weekend here on american history tv.

>> i want to welcome you to cahawba. to let our visitors know it is not just in books museums -- books or museums, but is embedded in landscape. other than mobile, this is a place in alabama for the river ports. this was special. it was created, carved out of the wilderness by our first governor to be our first day capital. the government gave us a square-mile of land to build our capital. that is how we built our first treasury.

capital, then to tuscaloosa, then to montgomery. as the county seat, he continued to grow -- the county can -- as the county seat, it continued to grow. highest capital of wealth in the united states. we had many fine churches and businesses. these were the wealthiest of the wealthy. period was athat 60% african-american. it was always a majority black town. we are in the center of cahawba. why we are in the center because the governor decided that way.

this way is the remnants of an old indian village. town here int 1818. there was a group of native americans who built a village here. the largest village during the alabama river drainage. they dug a deep moat and put a palisade around their village. there is a big semi circle with a mound in the middle. he made at the center of our first capital. it is very symbolic. the statehouse is on top. then, we went to the legislature after raising this money, they would only give him $10,000. he put the statehouse on the side. he made this the capital, thinking he would built his

grand town. they moved it to tuscaloosa. these became all of the cotton warehouses. if you come here, the warehouses -- all of theall warehouses are gone, all of the buildings are downtown. you can trace one of the walls of the cotton warehouses. you can follow the wall of this cotton warehouse that was turned columns,tanding chimneys, bits and pieces -- rose of what it used to be. this is history in its natural state. if you come here, you explore and find what is left behind. you are experiencing what was left. right after the civil war, they moved the white house to selma. when that happened -- the

courthouse to selma. when that happened, it was white flight. housessidents took their and reassembled them there. in can see a lot of cahawba selma. what was left there was abandoned buildings. the newly emancipated slaves moved into cahawba and created a free man's village. in some a, they called it a -- in selma, they called it a mecca. were given to these people who gain the right to vote. they created their own churches, schools, and registered to vote here at cahawba. it lasted through reconstruction. when the government pulled out, it became a ghost town. theou visit cahawba,

place to stop by is a priority. that savesrogram wild places for alabama. i want people to stop your because -- stop here because this is one of the remnants of the old black belt prairie. this is called the black belt. it used to be black belt prairie. it turned into the cotton belt. it is how we have so much wealth here. it is why we had so much slavery also. this would be turned into cotton. if you visit cahawba for alabama's bicentennial, you can drive by and see what our first governor saw when he came to cahawba for the first time. the olde leaving cahawba prairie, we are heading to the site of old cahawba.

still a-- when it was thriving -- x when it was a thriving comedic, what did it look like? derry: there was a wealthy planter. outside of the outskirts of town was a major plantation. the 1850 railroad. it was important. it brought cotton from the plantation into town to the cotton warehouses. the river was deep enough for the steamboats to make it up this far. they would hold onto the cotton until they could ship it. -- whend the railroads were the railroads got into town? ms. derry: about 1858.

that is why cahawba boomed so much in the late 1850's. because we're in the black belt prairie, it gets wet and sticky. your wagons would get stuck in it. line,ou had a railroad you had a steady way to get the cotton in. directly behind the are the cahawba and alabama rivers. this is the last free-flowing river in the state. locationr chose this because it brought cotton from a much broader back land.

we are standing front of columns . this is what is left of the mansion. a later generation came and built this mansion. was built to entice a bride down from philadelphia. it was a mighty nice mansion. he was a confluence of the cahawba and alabama rivers. a lot of people stay here to make their fortune. they started as merchants. when they got enough money, they became planners. that is why they were here. this bunch went back to new york. they are prominent in york. they still are today.

during the civil war, a man left here. after the battle of sam -- of selma, two generals who were fighting in selma, general wilson and general ford , actually met in this ate dinner and smoked cigars. 1920, ithouse burnt in was used as a getaway for a banker in selma. once the big house was burned, they built the cabin. they called it buena vista. this cabin behind me does not belong. blocks -- the idea you have a view from the mansion to the rivers. the first society who want to save cahawba at a meeting in

there. we will swing by a site based have alabama's statehouse. we covered our archaeology go dig we are doing -- our archaeological dig. the amazing of cahawba is the footprints. only certain people write history, but everybody makes garbage. garbage is very democratic. >> when was the capital building here? it was built in 1819. after the state government left. it collapsed in 1836. >> doing a what caused it to collapse? ms. derry: it is interesting you asked that. brick made,irst soft break.

we are finding a lot of good brick in the excavation. the brick and border are falling apart. -- the remote tar -- brick and mortar are falling apart. >> where are we now? ms. derry: capital street. we will turn onto oak street. this is a decision-making process. if you go that way, the graveyard. this way, selma. you either drive your course you left and went to selma. once you make this turn, we see a small, one rotor schoolhouse. behind it, -- small, one road schoolhouse. behind it, the ruins of a methodist church. preached minister here to enslaved people in cahawba. he had a separate church built for them.

ended, whenil war white people abandoned this town, the church was left. methodist african episcopal church moved in and use this. former slaves that were shipped as methodists became ame methodists. after the civil war, this was a town of emancipated slaves. it was 90% african-american. they do three things. they had their own church. they started their own schools. they registered to vote. the way they voted, they were all republicans. .hat was the party of lincoln african-americans voted as republican. they would hold political rallies in the courthouse. placema, they called this the mecca of the radical republican party.

this church continued as an ame church until 1954 when the church caught on fire and burned. depending on who you talk to, if you talk to local african american people, they say it was a church burning. if you talk to the white people around here, they say it was a and timber got away and caught it on fire accidentally. i do not know what the true story is, but you have both versions. this is a school. for the farmers here, they could have a public school. they had to build the school in the county with provide them with -- that is what they did. they had a school in the church. the kids were marking up the back of the pews. they salvaged wood from an old building and used it to build a one room schoolhouse.

untilchool has functioned the brown v. board of education. the county close the school and 80 other schools through -- dallas county closed the school and in the other schools. that is what happened. -- where are we headed to next? ms. derry: we will go to the far southern part of town, which is where all the wealthy will people live. prime well.he it is one of the most visited sites. we have pictures going back in decades as far as 1870. people come and that is where they get their picture taken. [birds chirping] we are looking at the well. it was done in about 1851. it was the largest well.

it was very deep. the water is causally 74 degrees. it was dug for a building that stood in front of me. it was started as a cotton factory, never finished. bought it new yorkers and built into the largest mansion in the state at the time. they piped water from this well into the wall. they left it there because the constant temperature was the cooling andrmal heating. they were doing in the 1850's. the well is significant to this region. we cannot have con plantations until we had the wells. in the natural prairie, there are very few natural springs. when you drill below and get to the water, when you hit it, it would hit it and it would, p are

not natural springs. they have some technology involved. there was no water. thatthey had these wells, is when the cotton boom happened. , during its boom years, there were 28, maybe more, wells. when i can year, i found that it running. -- i found 28 running. 1828 was when he became a ghost town. -- was when it became a ghost town. today, there are a few structures up. and aruins and remnants lot of archaeology. when visitors come here, they do a number of things. our main purpose is for people to appreciate his or is not just

in a textbook or museum or historic homes. it is out in the landscape. our remnants of southern history in the landscape. the message left behind by the long dead residents of cahawba. i had to do is slow down and open your eyes and look for them. they are all around you. they can be in a plan that does not belong that someone planted still growing. it can be in at that -- be an tombstone.a >> our cities tour staff recently traveled to summa, alabama, to learn about its rich history. -- to selma, alabama to learn about its rich history. you are watching "american

history tv." >> next, a panel of historians 1968 andk 50 years to how philadelphia and its citizens were impacted by the vietnam war. discussionrd of a hosted by the lepage center for history in the public interest at villanova university. >> we are continuing our conversation, shifting to the discussion of war. i want to introduce our speakers. and leave things off plenty of time for conversation, so we have an hour and a quarter to