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History Matters: John Dickinson Plantation

Delaware Public Media

History Matters digs into the Delaware Historical Society’s archives each month to explore connections between key people, places, and events in history and present-day news.

April’s History Matters focuses on the John Dickinson Plantation, the Delaware home to a signer of the Constitution.

"Then join hand in hand, brave Americans all! By uniting we stand, by dividing we fall." - John Dickinson "The Liberty Song"

History Matters: John Dickinson Plantation

Delaware Public Media visits the John Dickinson Plantation (Producer/Videographer/Editor: Ben Szmidt):

Last month's creation of the First State National Monument is a major step toward creating a national park in Delaware. While the National Park Service begins working on presenting and interpret the history at the five sites included in the monument, Senator Tom Carper (D-Delaware) continues to work to combine those sites and four others into his proposed First State National Historical Park.

One of the sites on Carper's wish list is the John Dickinson Plantation, just south of the Dover Air Force base. ??Delaware Public Media visited the plantation to find out more about the home of one of Delaware’s founding fathers and why it is on the short list to become part of Delaware’s first national park.

According to historical interpreter Chris Merrill, the plantation and the area around it in South Dover is ripe with American history.

“Just across what is Kitts Hummock road today was the Rodney plantation," said Merrill. "I always tell people it’s kind of interesting that in Colonial times just across the way here you have a plantation owned by a signer of the Declaration of Independence with Caesar Rodney and right here with John you have a signer of the Constitution.”


This piece is made possible, in part, by a grant from the Delaware Division of the Arts, a state agency dedicated to nurturing and supporting the arts in Delaware, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts.

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