I Saw Death Coming: A History of Terror and Survival in the War against Reconstruction
(Bloomsbury, 2023)

Saturday, September 30
12:30 p.m.
Rollins Community Center and Lewes History Museum

About the book
African Americans transitioning from bondage to freedom after 1865 were besieged by a campaign of White supremacist violence that persisted through the 1880s and beyond, but for too long their lived experiences have been sidelined. I Saw Death Coming is a breakthrough history of the Reconstruction period, transporting readers into the daily existence of formerly enslaved people. Williams deploys cutting-edge scholarship on trauma to consider how the effects of nighttime raids and Ku Klux Klan strikes would linger for decades — indeed, generations — to come.

This event is presented in partnership with Southern Delaware Alliance for Racial Justice (SDARJ).

About the author
Kidada E. Williams is Associate Professor of History at Wayne State University in Detroit. She is the author of They Left Great Marks on Me, coauthor of Charleston Syllabus, and creator of the podcast Seizing Freedom. Her essays have appeared in The New York Times, Slate, and multiple scholarly journals.

Purchase the book
Please help support local independent bookstores by purchasing this book at Browseabout Books, official bookseller of the History Book Festival. Online sources and digital versions are tempting; however, supporting local brick and mortar shops helps to preserve our vibrant main streets. Drop by Browseabout, order books online, or call the store at 302-226-2665. You also may purchase a copy at biblion in Lewes.

About the Festival
The History Book Festival is the first and only book festival in the United States devoted exclusively to history. With the help of our presenting funding partners — Delaware Humanities and The Lee Ann Wilkinson Group, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices I PenFed Realty — as well as our program and community partners, volunteers, and donors, the 2023 History Book Festival will be full of great discussions with authors of newly published narrative nonfiction and historical fiction. Our Keynote Address is presented by Sally Mott Freeman and John K. Freeman, and our Closing Address is presented by Dogfish Head Beer & Benevolence.

Special thanks to our program partners for their continuing support: the Lewes Public Library for event promotion and venue; Browseabout Books in Rehoboth Beach, official bookseller of the History Book Festival; Lewes Chamber of Commerce for event promotion, and the Cape Gazette and Delmarva Public Media, our media partners.

Additional thanks to our community partners: ACLU Delaware, Beebe Healthcare, CAMP Rehoboth, Historic Lewes Farmers Market, Lewes Historical Society, Rehoboth Art League, Rehoboth Beach Historical Society & Museum, Seaside Jewish Community, and Southern Delaware Alliance for Racial Justice (SDARJ).