kissinger argued for meeting the developing countries in the middle, for creating new initiatives to provide an economic support, food aid to developing countries. that surprised me because it wasn't an element of kissinger's career for which he was well-known in the existing scholarship. host: daniel sargent is an associate professor at uc berkeley here in sacramento at the organization of american historians. thank you for your time. daniel: thank you. >> this weekend, american

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>> we designed a town plan and sold off the lot. that's how we built our first treasury. served as capital from 1819 1826. as the county seat, it continued to grow. a county had the highest capital of wealth in the united states. we had many fine churches and businesses. these were the wealthiest of the wealthy. the town and that period was a 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. it was a ghost town here in 1818. he made that 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 are gone, but all -- all of the 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 into -- standing columns, chimneys, bits and pieces -- rows 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 courthouse to selma. when that happened, it was white flight. many residents took their houses and reassembled them there. you can see a lot of cahawba in selma. what was left there was abandoned buildings. the newly emancipated slaves moved into cahawba and created a free man's village. in selma, they called it a mecca. speeches 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.

if you visit cahawba, the place to stop by is a priority. this is a program that saves wild places for alabama. i want people to 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.

as we are leaving the old cahawba prairie, we are heading to the site of old cahawba. when it was still a thriving -- what did it look like? ms. derry: there was a wealthy planter. outside of the outskirts of town was a major plantation. you see 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.

>> when 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. what you had a railroad line, 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. a governor chose this location 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. this 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 selma, two generals who were fighting in selma, general wilson and general ford, actually met in this town and ate dinner and smoked cigars. when the house burnt in 1920, it 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. it 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 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. it continued after the state government left. it collapsed in 1836.

>> do we know what caused it to collapse? ms. derry: it is interesting you asked that. it was the first brick made, soft break. we are finding a lot of good brick in the excavation. the 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

the first minister here preached to enslaved people in cahawba. he had a separate church built for them. when the civil war ended, when white people abandoned this town, the church was left. the ame or african methodist 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 did three things. they had their own church. they started their own schools. they registered to vote. the way they voted, they were all republicans. that was the party of lincoln. african-americans voted as republican. they would hold political rallies in the courthouse. in selma, they called this place

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 controlled burn 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. that school has functioned until the brown v. board of education. dallas county closed the school and 80 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. will visit the prime well. 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. one of our new yorkers bought it 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 first geothermal cooling and 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

of >> that's when the cotton boom happened here in alabama. the town of

>> our city tour staff traveled to selma, alabama.

more about selma on our tour at c-span.org/city tour. you're watching american history tv. all weekend every weekend on c-span 3. up next, founder and managing to warr of the witness foundation tom beatty talk about combat veteran interviews in their vietnam war collection. which are airing here on american history tv. he discusses the foundation's origin.and this is about ten minutes. >> tom beaty was the witness to war foundation. about to air interviews that you conducted with those on the front line combat. did this project come about? history buff.ig i didn't grow up in the military -- i loved hearing the stories of soldiers in