FREE TO STAY THE TRUE STORY of Eliza Benson and the family she stood by for three generations.

Eliza Benson's portrait in permanent exhibit - Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African-American History and Culture, Inner Harbour, Baltimore

School districts adopting this title and Hollywood interested!

"I had to write Eliza's story. If I hadn't it might have been lost, and that would never do. 'No-sir-ree Bob, horsefly in the buggy,' as Eliza would say."

"Slaveholder Marse Bradford Harrison, a citizen of St. Michaels, Maryland, gave four-year-old Eliza Ann Benson to his daughter Braddie in 1841. Eliza would be a friend and a slave to her infant owner in Harrison's way of thinking. But a friendship began and a promise was made."

"Eliza was all good things rolled into one package...and she was smart, too. She could size up a situation and straighten it out 'before you could say boo to a goose.' She was warm when warmth was needed, strong when strength was needed, and brave when only bravery could lift sorrow above heartbreak."

"That Eliza was born a slave is beside the point. Small in body and monumental in character, she was a 'Worthy of Maryland' for three generations."

... Nan Hayden Agle, Author & Granddaughter of Braddie
(now 100 years' young)

"A story of black and white which moves far beyond color associations to humane treatment and human lives well-lived, both in times of plenty and in poverty. Definitely not a politically correct story in terms of today's standards, this story intones family, uprightness, steadfastness and virtue. It extols harmony and togetherness in a family which had little else in post-war Maryland."

... G. Ray Thompson, PhD., Chairperson History Department
Salisbury University & Co-Founder,
Edward H. Nabb Research
Center for Delmarva History & Culture

"Agle has embroidered authentic dialect and assumptive dialogue to produce a very readable and touching story."

... John Goodspeed, Book Critic
Star Democrat

"It is a beautiful story that we feel is especially needful in these days of racial tension. We would encourage everyone to read, enjoy, and promote this timely book."

... Carol Connell
Book Buyer

"I found your book charming and sensitive. It's wonderful to see how love conquered the racial barrier. I felt you let us really know Eliza. What a beautiful spirit, compassion, loyalty, honesty and devotion she had. I'm thankful for your efforts to write this wonderful book and letting us meet your family through your words. It's a delightful story."

... Mary Ellen Petersen
Florida (A Reader)

Paperback - Copyright 2000 - 160 Pages - 25 priceless images chronicle Eliza's "valuable" life, including portraits from The Maryland Historical Society and The Baltimore Museum of Art.

ISBN: 0-9703802-0-8 Price: $18.00 (Sales Tax & Shipping/Handling available at checkout).

Includes details about the occupation of Tangier Island/Harbor by a British fleet of 12,000 troops during the War of 1812. It also describes the British bombardment of Baltimore and St. Michaels, Maryland ... when townspeople outwitted the British.

(Funds are currently being raised to help restore the Joshua Thomas Meeting House on Deal Island, Md. A portion of the proceeds from the on-line sale of this book will be donated to that important cause)

ISBN: 0-9703802-2-4 - Hardback - Copyright 2001 - 412 pages - Illustrated - Price: $25.00 (Applicable Sales Tax & Shipping/Handling available at checkout)

FOR MARYLAND'S HONOR by Lloyd T. Everett

Reprint of a rare and very desirable 1922 edition by Christopher Publishing Co., Boston. New to this reprint: Photograph of lst Maryland Infantry Regimental Colors ("Bucktail Flag") presented by the Ladies of Baltimore (Maryland State Archives Special Collection)

Although For Maryland's Honor is a novel, the scholarly research and attention to detail is evident throughout the book. Included are details about Lt. Col. Bradley T. Johnson and his wife, known affectionately by the soldiers as Mrs. Capt. Bradley, who together were successful in recruiting and equipping Marylanders into Confederate service under the Maryland banner. This historical novel is a must read for men and women who seek to feel what it meant to be a citizen of Maryland during the Civil War. Starting with the political fervor surrounding Maryland in October 1860, it carries the reader through the Baltimore riots and most of the Civil War. In For Maryland's Honor, the woman's perspective of the "War for Southern Independence" on the home front is eloquently portrayed by the feisty Miss Marion Palmer who provides both the love interest and conflict...as her loyalty is to the North.

The author was the son of a Maryland Confederate veteran and well-known lecturer and writer on Confederate history. Mr. Everett also co-edited the re-publication of R.G. Horton's, A Youth's History of the Civil War.

"For Maryland's Honor is not primarily a story of campaign and battle, but rather an account of one family's confrontation with the issues & crises of these time."...." If Everett's book is foremost a celebration and defense of Maryland's COnfederate Heritage, it is also very much a romance. "The Strength of Everett's beliefs and his veneraton for Marylanders who espoused the Confederate cause make For Maryland's Honor an interesting contribution to the literature of the Lost cause."

......Brian Pohanka, military historian, author, lecturer,historical and military advisor to feature films - Gettysburg and Glory; Senior Researcher, writer and advisor on all TIme-Life Civil War books; consultant for the A & E History Channel television documentary Civil War Journal.

ISBN: 0-9703802-1-6  -  Hardback - Copyright 2001 - 229 pages - Illustrated - Price: $25.00(Applicable Sales Tax & Shipping/Handling available at checkout)

DOLLY PAULINE AND HER GRANDMOTHER , A STORY FOR CHILDREN

This story was originally written by a grandmother, Dorothy Pearl Ward Hancock, from Stockton, Maryland, who wanted her grandchildren to know about her own very loving grandmother. Later, it was put into booklet form together with a photographic section of the people and environs mentioned in the story. Original watercolor illustrations by Pocomoke City, MD., artist, William H. Buchanan, further enhance the passages of a gone-by era. This is a charming story that emphasizes family, hard work and fortitude. Older readers have warmed to the author’s descriptive scenes as being much like their own childhood. Others find it enchanting as an educational tool to young ones whose often hectic lives barely resemble the life and times of previous generations.

Plus second story in same book...