Delaware during the Revolutionary War

Award-winning historian Kim Rogers Burdick is the author of the recent book, REVOLUTIONARY DELAWARE: Independence in the First State. She will be talking about the War of Independence in our region during a special presentation at the Elkton Central Library on Thursday, October 19, at 7 pm.

When not writing, she is the curator of the historic Hale-Byrnes House, located on Christiana-Stanton Road.

She generously agreed to answer a few questions about the Rev War in our region.

What person from Delaware’s Revolutionary era do you find most interesting?

I am more interested in the experiences of the ordinary citizens who were over-run  than I am in the soldiers.  I live in an 18th century house that was home of a known Quaker Pacifist. The house was taken over  by Washington to be a site of a Council of War. You can read more about the house and Burdick’s research at https://allthingsliberty.com/author/kim-burdick/

What do you think is the most interesting historical site in Delaware related to the Revolutionary War?

I have a particular interest in the sites along the W3R, which is the route the soldiers followed both in the Philadelphia Campaign and the Yorktown Campaign.  It cuts across New Castle County to Head of Elk.

What lesson do you think those who lived through the War of Independence would share with us today?

There are a lot of parallels between then and now. Life is still (as John Adams later said about the French Revolution) a third; a third; and a third of the people with strong feelings about politics.