On the one level is about the under grand railroad can be argued that its in the Civil Rights Movement in the history of the United States that predates the 1940s. One of the major things we argue is the underground railroad is a movement that brings different ethnic backgrounds together to fight for freedom in a country that is it based on inequality. The book starts with the founding and we look at how slavery developed. Whats between the between the constitution and the declaration of independence and it brings us to the development of ohio. We tell stories of individuals, multiple stores throughout the book connecting it to the larger story. There theres a story in 1831 where he escaped from slavery in kentucky and ended up in ohio. His owner said, so that phrase become synonymous with the building of the railroad in the United States at the same time. What you have is this merger of that story and other stories linking how the railroad is built because they have people calling themselves conductors, part of this underground railroad. The words get mixed in together. That term with that davis stories one version of that term. As as a whole, you have local underground railroad networks but you also have pockets and other parts of the country that are more loosely tied. If there is a connection here that brings out the community, the city, the town, the state of how this underground railroads functions. Set the stage of the time. And cincinnatis role and how its an integral part of this book. We wanted to set the stage for cincinnatis origin how it is a gateway to the west. There certain products on the river and part of the steamship era where they move from up and down the river on the same ship. It is between freedom and slavery. That concepts sound pretty straight forward, freedom and enslavement but it is not that simple. There is some complexity. Ohio is a free state and there some other things going on in ohio. As you say there some other things going on. Ohio actually only passes by one vote not to be a slave state even though its part of the northwest territory. The state state still voted whether it be free or slave. It only passes by one vote. Most of the people moving here came from places like virginia and kentucky that were slave states. There were deeprooted pieces embedded in the state of ohio. Would you and you turn them away . There and the person that was making that decision to leave and the majority of cases you left on your own. As a slave on the next day where they going to go where you when you dont end up in the field the next day . They will go to your mother and father, your brothers and your sisters. There are multiple risks involved in escaping the underground railroad. The others stories of slaves going to freedom and risking their lives to come back and try to get others to go . Absolutely. There is a slave in african america in kentucky and he tried to escape several times. He does escape a few times. He has to escape alone so he decides, once he gets freedom he will go back to the state of kentucky he will free his wife and child. Every time he came back to kentucky he was caught and so he was re enslaved. After that occurred several times he had to just leave his family and start helping other folks. He had to make a decision on freeing himself first. Thats a hard decision because he had to leave his wife and child and slavery. So it is one of the stories were perseverance, contradiction embodies every decision he makes. This is a hard decision. You have to be good, you have to know sometimes how to read and write which is illegal on a state or local level. There is not a federal law that says you can keep them out but states are saying that. You have to figure out how to read and write. Like the story of Frederick Douglass he becomes free, he becomes an abolitionist. When he teaches himself how to read and write that is his freedom. Then he can start challenging what folks are telling him. Then he starts to be part of this underground railroad himself. He comes to cincinnati at least once. He talks about the story of the power of education. It is the power of understanding you can challenge authority by empowering yourself, you have to understand that contrary diction, struggle and perseverance as part of your life. Lewis was very much an interesting man he actually ends up in boston. When he and suppan boston hes helping people with the underground railroad. His home is still there today. One of the interesting things is slave catchers are coming to his home. He says okay come get me but look under my porch. It was full of dynamite. You come up on my property and we are all gone. There are some very interesting stories that came out like that. But there also some other stories like john p parker. Parker is a young man who is enslaved and is stole away from his mother when he was eight years old. The changes his life and he fights through the whole experience and begins to help other people like that. The story is interesting its called his Promised Land that talks about his escape. He is eventually able to buy his freedom and comes to cincinnati and becomes involved with this incident on tran underground railroad. He was one of the few people who went across the river and help people escape. There were rewards offered for him in the state of kentucky. You also had William Casey who would go across the river and bring people back. There are stories of people going into the south and getting people out and bringing them back to cincinnati. What would you like people to walkway reading your book to know. I use it in the context of multiracial, multiethnic movement to divine freedom for everybody. I think the most powerful kernel they should come away with, i talk about this all the time with my class, is that what you have going on here is ordinary people doing extraordinary things all the time because they choose to. Because they are just ordinary people they are not famous people, its not famous families, or upper class elite. This is ordinary people doing extraordinary things all the time. Because they believe in freedom and equality. That echoes for decades and centuries. You dont have to be a powerful big family to do extraordinary things. All you have to do is get engaged in this underground railroad or get engaged in a cause. I would agree with that. It is that ordinary person getting involved in the underground railroad. The book, with arcadia theres only so many words you can put with each picture. We knew that going in. We knew there was a lot of places that we talk about in the book but we didnt put addresses. The reason we didnt is because it is a privately owned home. This provides people a glimpse of what the underground railroad was like in cincinnati. There are so many intertwining stories in here like reverend john who was a former slave omar, has a dream to free people. He gets involved in the underground railroad and his church kicks him out of the church. He fights through his death to try to reclaim his name and his property. Unfortunately that doesnt happen. 150 years later, the story isnt later, the story is in of the book, the Church Actually accepted his whole family back into the church. It gives you a glimpse into the stories but we hope people will continue to dig into the stories of the underground railroad and find out there are so many little more stories that are out there. We hope this provides a start for them. You are watching book to be on cspan two. This weekend we are visiting Cincinnati Ohio to talk about local authors and toured the citys literary sites with the help of our cable partner, time warner cable. Next we hear from rabbi gary author of america jewish history about cincinnatis Jewish Community. But newest book i have published entitled American Jewish history, a primary Source Reader is actually a documentary history. By that i mean it is an attempt to review the entire flow of the American Jewish experience and tell that story through documents. Each document has some significance to help the reader understand the overall story of a given period or accurate saga in history. When one gives through they will see that many of the documents, probably the best majority come from this great collection here in cincinnati, the American Jewish archives. One would take note of the fact that cincinnati as a city, and a community, community, the Jewish Community in cincinnati seems perhaps to a novice to have a much greater role than one might expect as one goes through this story. Its in the 19th century, Cincinnati Ohio probably one of the most important jewish communities in the United States of america. It was the second largest after new york in terms of its sides. It was arguably one of the riches, if not not the richest jewish communities where jews had places of prominence and significance in every field of endeavor. Cincinnati is a city that time that is the fifth or sixth largest urban population in the United States. The city itself was important. That is why is why we always say it is really impossible to tell the story of the American Jewish experience without talking about cincinnati, ohio. It couldnt be done because so much of the involvement of the story of the jew in the United States touches upon things that happened in cincinnati. The very first to come over came in the 1800s most of these people were relatives of one another and many had settled in england prior to coming to america. What happens and helps to contribute to the explosion of cincinnati has to do with the german migration. You may know that, to this day, of all the ethnic groups, the whole rainbow of efficacy that has come to the United States of america, the Largest Single Group is the germans. That begins in 1820s but grows in the 1830s and 1840s. 1840s. It continues in the 20th century. It is the largest ethnic migration. There was a huge wave of germans who came here in the mid 19th century and these people came and helped settle cincinnati. I am talking about germans in general but with these germans there were german jews. They had lost hope that they could make a decent livelihood. They have suffered so many disabilities. It wasnt the same kind of bitter oppression we are talking about that sometimes we read about in eastern european, cruelty and terrible brutality. None of that, but there were economic disabilities. Young people were not able to anticipate providing for their families. This hopelessness joe them to drive the other migrants when they came to this country. They they came out to a place that was pioneering because there wasnt land available and opportunities. This was the story of the jewish peddler. You probably heard that you land in new york and you pick up a bag of who knows what, and you start going to the interior. You find yourself yourself a place where you have a monopoly. If you like it and you can make a decent living, you try to move from your bank to a push car. If you can move from a pushcart to a store then you have a store and you bring your relatives over, they live for free and they live upstairs. It was something they were allowed to do in europe. There are many many think they are forbidden to do. They succeeded in this. This help them spread all over. In cincinnati you can read documents here that talk to and explain they thought cincinnati looks like the old country. They felt at home here and it was beautiful. There were hills, the weather was reasonable and so they came here. The community grew from a handful of jews to the second largest Jewish Community by mid century. The man who is often credited by the first jew in cincinnati is a man by the name of joseph john us. He tells the story that a quicker woman traveled to see him. She had never set eyes on a jew. This is of course in 1820. There are very few jews. So she comes and sees him. When she sees him she says i would like you to turn around so i can inspect you from all sides. So he accommodates her request and then she says the famous line which becomes born in jewish history and america and certainly in certain it cincinnati. She says, thou art jew. But i see thou art and no different than any other man. That sort of becomes the emblem of jewish life here. In other words, we on we on the one hand want to preserve our heritage but on the other hand we want to be a part of the american experience. That quicker woman grass that, yes you are part of this ancient heritage but you are not different from anyone else here you are part of this community. That is a very affirming story. Cincinnati became a Major Economic center in the. We call the antebellum period or the years leading up to the time of the civil war. That happens for a variety of reasons. It was a great Transportation Center so you had the convergence of three rivers that could literally take products and bring products from everywhere in what was the United States at that time. The major source of transportation, the steamboat and cargo ships were converging on cincinnati. Think of it this way, when when Abraham Lincoln was born in 1809 cincinnati, ohio was at very best to little hamlet. When Abraham Lincoln was running for president , that was literally half a century later, cincinnati was the fourth largest city in the United States. It is something that experience a literal explosion and boom and population, and wealth, and business, and so it became a force with which to be reckoned in this country. Jews flooded into the country along with many other immigrants who moved here and built up the population. They succeeded in helping to grow this community. When Jewish Community begins to establish itself, it doesnt envision itself as a little tiny place with just a handful of jews and they just want to have a synagogue where they can pray. They begin to imagine themselves as a major spiritual center. The proof of this is in the erection of the beautiful plum street temple which still stands to this day. This is a temple that was built over the civil war and dedicated in 1866. It seats about 1200 people. The congregation when it was dedicated was only about 450 people. That tells you something about their vision of their future. They were building for tomorrow. That was the spirit of this community. It was here that so many first took place in the development of jewish life. The first Jewish Hospital hospital is established here in cincinnati. The first seminary, others had been established before, the Hebrew College but they did not succeed. The colleges today and continuous existence in the world. They established an array of institutions of very first Congregational Union bringing together congregations in common harmony for the purpose of establishing a seminarian for supporting jewish activities. It was a union called the union of hebrew congregation established in 1873 here in cincinnati. The first rabbinical city bringing together america rabbis into a common union in 1889. Big brothers and big sisters started here in cincinnati from the Jewish Community. The second oldest Jewish Federation in the United States, here in cincinnati. I could go on and on. This is this is a result of two things. One, this was a very dynamic, exciting, and big Important Community in the 19th century. And two, their vision of who they were. They did not see themselves as a backwater community or community that was a struggling. They exploded onto onto the american scene as a Jewish Community. They left a legacy that exist today. For the american jew who reads the, i want to have a a size that American Jewish history is not new york jewish history at large. Meaning, when you want to talk about jewish lives in this country you have to go beyond manhattan island. Thats what that documentary really strives to achieve. It doesnt just focus it gives proper credit to the great new york Jewish Community which has been so pivotal from the beginning. It also makes an effort to show the richness and diversity of jewish life, some of of the most Inspiring Stories which take place all over this country, cincinnati is one example. To the American People who read it, i feel that it is not what you are looking at and studied the american jew it is not a religious history. Meaning the study of a religion, you are actually studying the american experience. It is a window thathere is another way of looking at it, 60 years ago the story of the American People was told without ever mentioning much about the africanamerican. The only story you heard was about the slave. An effort has been made in the last 40 years to reading that story, 4050 years ago very few women would mention the context of retelling the story in the United States. These stories which are being reclaimed and have been reclaimed that there is more to do in that area, help us to understand our past. The story of the jew is exactly comparable to these other examples. When you see the role they have played, how they they built their lives, how they transform themselves, their desire to become america and built institution, their own religious institution but america institutions through enterprises of all different kinds, it is not a story of a segment of the people it is the story of our nation. During book tvs recent visit to Cincinnati Ohio, we spoke with civil rights Marion Spencer along with her biographer about her role in as a community leader. I know all of these places. I am old. I was thinking one of them here. I am Marion Alexander spencer. I was born in ohio, founded in 1790. My grandfather was a free slave and as a slave owners son he had been one of maybe 20 slaves on their property in virginia. He and his halfsisters both children of the owner, were taking into the big house and the owners house and talked to reunite which was illegal in those days. Because they were taught to reunite they had an invention over there other halfbrothers and the four halfbrothers that he had. The grandfather got up in the morning and it began with yet your education. Her grandfather came at the turn of the century. He fought to establish a black high school. There there is a black grade school that was wellestablished but there is galilee a county which was a White High School and grandfather petition to go to the White High School because there was no black high school. That was denied. They fought and fought and on the basis of Real Estate Property issue they said they would support a property tax if they would build a black high school which they did. The white school had music and Sports Program but the black school did not have. Once again, marions grandfather, parents, uncles, fought together and sued because the real estate levee said they would maintain the black highs school and they had not. Over several years in the 20s, they actually the actually one which is white marion went to an integrated high school in ohio. We were straight a students, my sister and i. In our high school and in a class of over 400 we graduated cold valedictorians in 1938. Then we came to this college. You never knew if you should stand up or sit down. It was always a always a question, what do they do here . They didnt have a lot of signs up. Although outside our town, we werent supposed to be in the town until after dark and we didnt have playmates down there. We knew there is a lot of prejudice. We knew that one half of the town blacks lived and the other half whites lived. We knew that we had a black grade school and at the high school we are mixed. We knew in the black school we have black teachers, one white teacher was a first grade teacher. She taught the first and second grades. All four of the children and our family were taught to read and write from her. We became excellent readers, we wanted to read all the books in the library. We also knew that black students would go to the White High School and that we would their find a lot of discrimination. We werent admitted to the a cappella choir, we werent admitted to other things that we knew were there for the white students that were not available to us. The same was true on campus. When we came here melon i took modern dance but we had a teacher who taught swimming and she also taught modern dancing. She would let us come in at the end of her regular classes we never learned how to swim. I i never learned until i was married at 29 years old. My husband taught me. There were many things that we are not comfortable attending. We were not welcomed, in fact when my husband came he said they wanted to come to the junior senior prom and they were not really welcomed. How did that make you feel . Uncomfortable. There were some black students on campus that were passing and you didnt recognize the because you didnt want to interfere with their lives. My friends and i were very proud of our black heritage and my grandfather said get your education and we were very happy that we were given the opportunity to come here as graduate students past high school level. Our parents had not had that advantage. Marion spencer is a civil rights icon as she has been part of legislation which has changed many things locallys, state wide, and, and nationally. She is best known for her desegregation of coney island. Circumstances there were that we had heard on the tv swim and dance on coney island. They were six and nine years old and they wanted to know should they go. I said i i dont know but i will find out. I must have known or at least heard that we were not welcome there. I got on the telephone, close the door to the kitchen so they would not hear the conversation. The young girl who answered when i asked what their policy was, i said was all children are welcome and she said oh yes. Well we are negroes and i want to be certain that they will be welcomed. She was very quiet and then she said, im sorry no they couldnt come. She quickly followed that up with but i dont make the rules. And and i said i know you dont honey but i will find out who does. I was on the board of the naacp at the time and brought it up immediately to the regular Board Meeting and told them we should bring something about opening coney island to black children. We should write the nation and see if they will send out a lawyer to talk with us. I got together with all black lawyers and citizens in cincinnati. They met in the basement of a hotel ballroom, a young man by the name of carter was the lawyer who is the Legal Counsel for the naacp at the time. He told us what we needed to do to bring a lawsuit against coney island. He said, you need to have white and black plaintiffs. They should all go up on a full week and during the week of the fourth of july and whites will be admitted and blacks will be ejected. That is what we did and that is what happened. We had our case, because we then later went before the judge and our case was heard. We were questioning why we are being rejected and whites only been admitted. While they made a decision that we could go, then of course those people who followed us had to follow up because the Swimming Pool was in another county. They told us that didnt mean the Swimming Pool. The few who were there could go but others could not. I would like them to know the extent to which marion has such an impact. I also hope they will learn the things that we have included about what cincinnati was like during world war ii. Cincinnati was a transfer point that if you are black, you had to get out of the white railroad car and moved to a black car if you went south of here. Things that i dont think are in our schoolbooks and i dont think my contemporaries or younger people today have any idea how expensive, and what the impact of segregation was. I hope it is just a small piece to open a few eyes. I like the title because i do feel that we must keep on fighting. We must not be satisfied with less than equal opportunities. We must make changes every time, in every way possible wherever we are, and whoever we are. Democracy has got to have equal opportunities for all. You are watching book tv on cspan2. This weekend we are in Cincinnati Ohio with the help of our local cable partner, time warner cable. Next sue and painter discusses the life of our ninth president , a native, a native ohio and, William Henry harrison. I wrote a little book about William Henry harrison who is one of my favorite historical, local characters. He was one of the most fascinating people in Greater Cincinnati history. I think it because he connects across time spans angiography, and so many different people. Harrison grew up in a political family. A family that he knew, his his father knew, and he knew as a child Thomas Jefferson and james madison, and all the people that the founders of the country. William Henry Harrison came to cincinnati as an infant. As the first infantry he was sent by president george washington, became commandant, commander of the fort and he was here in 1791. This is when cincinnati was mostly mud streets, a few log cabins on the riverfront. His time in cincinnati paralyze the rise the rise of cincinnati as a grand city. Which it did become. When he left in 1841 to be president , it wl said if they want this Claude Hopper farmer for president than i am available. He did seem a humble and he wasnt being aggressive and pursue. Many people and old friends came to his assistance. Harrisons opponent tried to characterize him as a feeble old man. For that reason if none other he felt obliged to campaign strenuously harrison was willing to, he enjoyed the rally and festivities. He invited some of his old friends, the the indians who had helped him with the british to come to the rallies and dance. Africanamericans were welcome, lots of women came. None of these people could vote my jew but they enjoy being part of it and wanted to show their support for harrison. It captured the imagination of the people. It became a spontaneous kind of thing, what it did was boost the turnout for the election. 1 million votes were cast. This was huge. It was almost 1 million more than had been cast in the 1936 election. It was the first president ial election where people really became involved. Harrison was elected in 1840 and and 1841 he took the steamer from the fort of cincinnati, he went to washington and was received by president van buren cordially. People greeted him and he went back to virginia to his childhood home where he still had a lot of his history books. He wrote a very long speech for his inaugural. His friend Daniel Webster edited and cut out many things but it was still too long to read. It was a cold and rainy day for the inaugural and harrison to the dissatisfaction of many of his supporters stood without a coat on the steps and lot read his long address. He got a cold then and went back but he seemed to have recovered. At least my reporters say he was well enough to go to the Farmers Market several weeks later. There, he was caught in a thunderstorm, he came home and got a bad cold which went into pneumonia. This is one month after his inaugural. From what i have been able to piece together, he might have made it, survived except doctors were called in and the treatment at the time consisted of things like bleeding, and other practices which even in 1840s the medical society said probably contributed to his death. So he died of pneumonia one month after taking office. One thing he was to pursue was to reform what had become a corrupt political system. Of rewarding jobs to people who had given to your campaign instead of the best people. He issued executive orders that they would not be allowed to participate in politics or contribute. He he did start reforms in that direction. I believe that cincinnati and americans have really not recognized the contribution that William Henry harrison made. What is different about harrison is what you usually find that period of history, a town person is interested in urban affairs and they do things there. Country people are, if they do things they are less likely to be noticed. Harrison had 1 foot in the city and the other in the country. He brought the two together. During book tvs recent visit to cincinnati, ohio we toured the home of Uncle Toms Cabin author. We are standing in the parlor of the Harriet Beecher stowe house in cincinnatis hills. This house was built in the home of harriets father and stepmother, he came here to cincinnati to be the president of a Theological Seminary that stood about a quarter of a mile from here. This was the home built for the president of the college. It was a very important place in cincinnati at the time and still is today. Cincinnati was considered the west. This was a boom town. It was the Fastest Growing city in the country at the time. The population doubled doubled every ten years between 181850 and there is a huge amount of money being made here. The downtown area, few miles from here was a flat plane but lifted up above the river, perfect for farming and trade. A great place to build a city. Farmers from all around ohio and indiana would bring their grains and pigs here to cincinnati to turn them into finished products to be set by riverboat to the Mississippi River and throughout new orleans into the east coast. There is a huge huge amount of commerce being done here. This was built as a train on plan place to train ministers for the presbyterian church. It was the first originator of cincinnati. They had a lot of money and they wanted to make sure that this, the west, the athens of the west was something firmly in the camp of christ followers as they called it. Beecher himself said if we win the west allis one, one, if we lose the west, all is lost. He came here later in his life. He came here because it was important. He wanted to make sure their version of calvinism was spread throughout the west as an organizing principle. We are talking about 1832, dr. Beecher, harriets fathers father graduated from yale in the 1790s. They moved to connecticut, first loss to school in the country was there. The kids were very smart children. He had a large family, 13 children. Harriet was one of the last children born to Wyman Beecher and his first wife. She had a sister for three years before her also named harriet who passed away in infancy. Harriet was born and then henry and then charles. Her mother died when she was five years old. She spends time with her fathers family, her father remarried and shortly afterwards and she spent time going back and forth between her birthplace and her grandmothers home in connecticut. This is where she met john and samuel foot. This ignited her young imagination. A lot of the colorful descriptions of foreign lands she wrote about early in her career came from those descriptions from her brothers. Her brothers, charles and samuel foot moved here to cincinnati to improve their fortunes. They were here and had been here years before she got here. There are several stages of her life. She was a 21yearold shy, 21yearold shy, worried about being a spinster, always in the shadow of her famous sister catherine beecher. Catherine had let the Education World on fire by educating women. It taught people, the seventh graders taught the six graders, and so on. They taught they taught each other how to teach and in doing so they learned a lot more. They learned more than just what young women of the time would typically learn. They learned a lot of things that normally men would learn. So catherine came here to set up a school, harriet followed along. She followed along as a teacher. She taught in in her sisters school, many topics including piano. She lived downtown at first. She was a single, kind of quiet and she was introduced to the; club. They would gather every night at the home of her uncles john and samuel foot. It was not far from the red stadium. So this club would meet every monday night and they would submit writings anonymously, they would discuss issues of the day. They would sing, have sing, have snacks, dance, it was a social club. It attracted some of the highest levels of cincinnati. Dr. Daniel drake was a member who is beechers personal physician. A gentleman named judge james hall, a book about him called the literary pioneer of the ohio valley. These were the highest levels of Cincinnati Society and here Young Harriet and her sister catherine just weighed right in. She is shy at first but submits writings and she listens and watches and learns how to talk and meets eliza stowe whose husbands calvin was a professor at the seminary who work for her dad. As a member of the; club a contest was proposed, the publisher james hall offered a prize of 50 for the best stories submitted story submitted to his magazine, the western monthly. Harriet won the 50. That story the prize tail was published in 1834 in that magazine. She then gets married in 1836, the economy is falling apart. This is around the time that Andrew Jackson failed to renew the charter of the banks. The country was thrown into a depression. They were renting out parts of the house to make ends meet. Being a minister didnt pay much money back then, being a a College Professor didnt pay much money. Harriets husband calvin was both. They were chronically short of cash. She asked for for money to go back east. It was there, she was there a long time, she got it out of her system, she was physically and spiritually reenergized. She came back to cincinnati and became pregnant with her son Samuel Charles stowe. This this young man let her life up. She admitted, this is the sixth of her seventh child, this was her favorite child. The Water Treatment works so well that calvin took it the next year. So Little Charlie was born in 1848, 1849 calvin said this water here sounds like fun. Why dont i do it. He it was argued all the way to the Supreme Court. A few minutes from here not far from where harriet and calvin live. It was called the jones versus van zandt case. Van zandt was a farmer selling produce on a riverfront in cincinnati, when he was done he came up and stayed here. That morning as he woke up to go back north, there was some slaves going about his wagon. He was known to be active on the inter ground railroad, come on in and away they went. He was so sure they made it to safety that he met one of the slaves drive the wagon. Slave catchers caught up with them, most of the slaves were caught and he was sued by the owner of the slaves, this case was argued all the way to the Supreme Court by cincinnatis own calvin, that took place almost in her front yard. She was very much aware of slavery and slave controversy. It is now late winter of 1851, the fugitive slave act was just past. This law enacted into law. In the north it legally required anybody who became aware of the fugitive slave to help capture that slave. Talk about a conflict of interest. That captured slave would be brought before a magistrate who is paid 5 if the accused slave would be set free, 10 10 to send them back south. This was the law of the land. It infuriated people. All of the 18 years being here absorbing the atmosphere slavery and discrimination and then losing her child, this was the final straw. She had this vision while she was in church of a slave crucified. She writes to the friend and said i have an idea and i think i can run with this. In 1851, starting in june 1851 it was published in weekly one it was published in weekly installments all the way into 1852. It caused a sensation. The 1850s version of going viral. The polarized people because people in the south that this cant be, theres no way this really happen. Her description of slave slaves having feelings and suffering, flew right in the face of people in the south saying slaves like being slaves. The bible says they could be slaves. She hit she hit every one of those points and just buried them in this book. By the time she finished the story it was ready to be published in book form, that was 1852. They got a nice contract for, it may not of been the best contract but she never had to worry about money after that. There is a headlines and 300,000 copies sold. These are huge numbers, it was translated into over 70 languages. It was 70 languages. It was the second most popular book, must purchase book in the 19th century after the bible. When people come to the Harriet Beecher stone house in cincinnati, they can step into harriets world. They can stand in the room where her father wrote sermons and where they argued with students about whether they should have debates on abolition in the first place. There must have been fiery discussions in this house. They can stand in this room where her brothers and sisters ran around and played. They can theres a story of her coming from downtime bringing presents for her halfbrothers. When you come to the house you will see interpretive panels that tell a life stories. A timeline of things going on around harriet, there is a newspaper from the 1830s, an original set of newspapers. These are professors does newspapers that had name written on them. These are the papers that describe the riots, that have harriets letter to the editor. You can actually touch the walls and breathe the air that she breathes. It is an old house. While in cincinnati we visited the American Jewish archives at hebrew column. To learn about the history of jewish communities in the western hemisphere. The American Jewish archives was established in 1947 by that great, great American Jewish historian jacob marcus who is a member of the faculty for 75 years. Dr. Marcus has acknowledged as one of the great historians of the American Jewish experience. He was my teacher. Doctor marcus felt there were so many documents that needed to be collected and that although there was an archive collecting in new york, too much was going to be lost. In 47, he established he established it on the campus and the help of his graduate students he would collect materials mostly between the alleghenies. During his lifetime it grew to be one of the largest collections. Not this, it has many papers and many important organization. Right now, we are in the billows reading room at the American Jewish archives. We have taken out a few of our very precious documents that illustrate some of the story illustrating jewish history. It is impossible to even mention the history of jewish life in cincinnati without talking about isaac mayer. This is a picture of him from his younger years. Probably this is how he looked representative of when he first came to america. He arrived here from a community outside. He he wasnt all that impressed with the Jewish Community of america. He thought he would go into another field of endeavor. He was a charismatic and passionate man and he began to be a guest speaker at various synagogues and he did dedications of synagogues and before long he won himself a pulpit in albany new york. That is where he was in 1848 until he came to cincinnati in the 1854. By the time he gets to cincinnati has been americanized, he can speak pretty well in english. He had big dreams and Cincinnati Ohio as he is arriving and approaching the high point of its growth and expansion, he is writing this wave of enthusiasm and he sees for jewish life in cincinnati just what is going on in the general community. Are young and aspiring and are passed into a fixed. I shall go to cincinnati and in and powerful impetus and a livein choice of for the good of humanity for the religious bigots. I dont think anybody questioned the fact widely met with president of the United States he had a personal meeting with lincoln and about whom he could be very critical during this presidency but after he joined with so many others idolizing lincoln and in a eulogy that was published in cincinnati isaac says that he spoke to the president personally and he always be beefed that reason to this day there are many people that believe Abraham Lincoln as a direct descendent because of what he said in his eulogy. He was also if he wasnt a republican if he was actually invited to run for the state legislature here in ohio and his congregants kind of put a stop to that. They felt that he was doing plenty. I think they felt that going to congress was a little too much. This document is known in the scholarly world to be the very First Official notification that the mechanized destruction on the european jury had begun and im talking about the extermination of jewish life in germany and eastern europe. This is called the telegram because a man whose name is mentioned here who was working at the time for the World Jewish Congress and is located in geneva and he had engaged an informant and the informant brought the news of the fact that a meeting had taken place earlier in the year and he says is a meeting in which plans were being discussed and when he gets this information he sends it on to the rabbi and he also sends it on to Samuel Silverman who was a member of parliament and was also in the World Jewish Congress. The telegram somehow is not delivered and had to come during the military military auspices and is ever delivered. But silvermans telegram does arrive and so they sent a telegram to stephen, and now it makes sense because if you read it it says i have received the following message and back is going to quote the message that he has received says an alarming report and the headquarters planned and discussed under consideration at all jews in the countries occupied and controlled by germany number 3. 5 to 4 million chip after the deep concentration and east explained once and for all the jewish question in europe. It goes on to say in the second page that they are planning to a 68 the jews and at the end it says its a difficult story to believe that the informant is usually. He gets this telegram and holds a News Conference and announces that the jews of europe are being murdered. This is a very moving and gripping document that shows the jews were informed and to try to inform the american nation of what was going on but by the time they received a telegram at the end of august, already a million had perished. Because the decision to murder them into the plan was executed if you will work. Out it isnt until august that its delivered and we now know thanks to the scholarship both the british and the American Military is happening to the program would be run and this information was the focus of the war. There was information circulating but it was hard for people to believe at that the very tragic part of the history. The archive is a division of the college and so we are very grateful to the college because the college provides the wonderful professionals and the staff. Its available for anyone that wants to use it. Its a source for genealogy and researchers and the source for people that are curious about the american experience. Publishers use up all the it all the time because they have one of the largest elections of photographs. So if you need an elimination or illustration for something youre publishing, the chances are you are going to come to the American Jewish archives. For more information about the recent visit to cincinnati and the many other cities visited by the local content vehicles, go to cspan. Org mac local content. You are watching book tv on cspan2. We are in las vegas attending the freedom fest interviewing authors and joining us now is somebody thats been on book tv for the previous books