DOVER, Del. – The Delaware Public Archives will host its monthly First Saturday program on December 6, 2025, at 10:30 a.m. with a free public lecture examining how the American Revolution fractured communities in Sussex County. Titled “A County Divided: Loyalists, Patriots, and the Revolutionary Experience in Sussex County,” the presentation will be delivered by Dr. Bruce Bendler, an adjunct professor of history at the University of Delaware and a recognized authority on Delaware’s colonial and revolutionary periods.
According to reports, the talk focuses on the deep political split that defined Sussex County during the 1770s and 1780s. While many residents preferred to remain under British rule, others actively supported independence. Dr. Bendler will highlight the contrasting paths of two prominent local men: William Peery, a farmer, attorney, and later a Delaware delegate to the Continental Congress who backed the Patriot cause, and Boaz Manlove, a wealthy landowner who openly sympathized with the Loyalist side. The lecture will trace the personal consequences each man and his family faced after 1776, as well as the broader impact of shifting allegiances and wartime tensions on everyday life in the county.
Dr. Bendler, who holds bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees from the University of Delaware, has published extensively on Delaware and regional history and is a frequent speaker on the state’s role in the founding era. The program is open to all and requires no registration. It will take place in the Mabel Lloyd Ridgely Research Room at the Delaware Public Archives, 121 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. North, Dover.
For more information on this and other events, visit archives.delaware.gov.
Photo: Delaware.gov