Native Americans Before Delaware was settled by European colonists, the present-day state was home to the Eastern
Algonquian tribes known as the Unami
Lenape, or Delaware, who lived mostly along the coast, and the
Nanticoke who occupied much of the southern
Delmarva Peninsula. John Smith also showed two Iroquoian tribes, the Kuskarawock and
Tockwogh, living north of the Nanticoke—they may have held small portions of land in the western part of the state before migrating across the Chesapeake Bay. The Kuskarawocks were most likely the
Tuscarora. The Unami Lenape in the
Delaware Valley were closely related to
Munsee Lenape tribes along the
Hudson River. They had a settled hunting and agricultural society, and they rapidly became middlemen in an increasingly frantic fur trade with their ancient enemy, the Minqua or
Susquehannock. With the loss of their lands on the
Delaware River and the destruction of the Minqua by the
Iroquois of the Five Nations in the 1670s, the remnants of the Lenape who wished to remain identified as such left the region and moved over the
Allegheny Mountains by the mid-18th century.
Colonial Delaware The
Dutch were the first Europeans to settle in present-day Delaware in the middle region by establishing a trading post at
Zwaanendael, near the site of
Lewes in 1631. Within a year, all the settlers were killed in a dispute with
Native American tribes living in the area. In 1638,
New Sweden, a
Swedish trading post and colony, was established at
Fort Christina (now in
Wilmington) by
Peter Minuit at the head of a group of Swedes,
Finns and Dutch. The colony of New Sweden lasted 17 years. In 1651, the Dutch, reinvigorated by the leadership of
Peter Stuyvesant, established a fort at present-day
New Castle and, in 1655, they conquered the New Sweden colony, annexing it into the Dutch
New Netherland. Only nine years later, in 1664, the Dutch were conquered by a fleet of English ships by Sir Robert Carr under the direction of
James, the Duke of York. Fighting off a prior claim by
Cecil Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore,
Proprietor of Maryland, the Duke passed his somewhat dubious ownership on to
William Penn in 1682. Penn strongly desired access to the sea for his
Pennsylvania province and leased what then came to be known as the "Lower Counties on the Delaware" Massachusetts and New Hampshire also shared a governor for some time. Dependent in early years on indentured labor, Delaware imported more slaves as the number of English immigrants decreased with better economic conditions in England. The colony became a slave society and cultivated tobacco as a cash crop, although English immigrants continued to arrive.
American Revolution Like the other middle colonies, the Lower Counties on the Delaware initially showed little enthusiasm for a break with
Britain. The citizenry had a good relationship with the Proprietary government, and generally were allowed more independence of action in their Colonial Assembly than in other colonies. Merchants at the port of Wilmington had trading ties with the British. New Castle lawyer
Thomas McKean denounced the
Stamp Act in the strongest terms, and Kent County native
John Dickinson became the "Penman of the Revolution". Anticipating the Declaration of Independence,
Patriot leaders Thomas McKean and
Caesar Rodney convinced the Colonial Assembly to declare itself separated from British and Pennsylvania rule on June 15, 1776. The person best representing Delaware's majority,
George Read, could not bring himself to vote for a Declaration of Independence. Only the dramatic overnight ride of Caesar Rodney gave the delegation the votes needed to cast Delaware's vote for independence. Initially led by
John Haslet, Delaware provided one of the premier regiments in the
Continental Army, known as the "Delaware Blues" and nicknamed the "
Blue Hen's Chicks". In August 1777
General Sir William Howe led a British army through Delaware on his way to a victory at the
Battle of Brandywine and capture of the city of Philadelphia. The only real engagement on Delaware soil was the
Battle of Cooch's Bridge, fought on September 3, 1777, at
Cooch's Bridge in New Castle County, although there was a
minor Loyalist rebellion in 1778. Following the Battle of Brandywine, Wilmington was occupied by the British, and
State President John McKinly was taken prisoner. The British remained in control of the Delaware River for much of the rest of the war, disrupting commerce and providing encouragement to an active
Loyalist portion of the population, particularly in Sussex County. Because the British promised slaves of rebels freedom for fighting with them, escaped slaves flocked north to join their lines. Following the
American Revolution, statesmen from Delaware were among the leading proponents of a strong central United States with equal representation for each state.
Slavery and race Many colonial settlers came to Delaware from
Maryland and
Virginia, where the population had been increasing rapidly. The economies of these colonies were chiefly based on labor-intensive tobacco and increasingly dependent on African
slaves because of a decline in working class immigrants from England. Most of the English colonists had arrived as
indentured servants (contracted for a fixed period to pay for their passage), and in the early years the line between servant and slave was fluid. Most of the free African-American families in Delaware before the Revolution had migrated from Maryland to find more affordable land. They were descendants chiefly of relationships or marriages between white servant women and enslaved, servant or free African or African-American men. Under slavery law, children took the social status of their mothers, so children born to white women were free, regardless of their paternity, just as children born to enslaved women were born into slavery. As the flow of indentured laborers to the colony decreased with improving economic conditions in England, more slaves were imported for labor and the caste lines hardened. By the end of the colonial period, the number of enslaved people in Delaware began to decline. Shifts in the agriculture economy from tobacco to mixed farming resulted in less need for slaves' labor. In addition local
Methodists and
Quakers encouraged slaveholders to free their slaves following the American Revolution, and many did so in a surge of individual manumissions for idealistic reasons. By 1810, three-quarters of all blacks in Delaware were free. When John Dickinson freed his slaves in 1777, he was Delaware's largest slave owner with 37 slaves. In 1840, Delaware's population was 78,085 of whom 2,605 were slaves. By 1860, the largest slaveholder owned 16 slaves. Although attempts to abolish slavery failed by narrow margins in the legislature, in practical terms the state had mostly ended the practice. By the
1860 census on the verge of the
Civil War, 91.7% of the black population were free; 1,798 were slaves, as compared to 19,829 "free colored persons". An independent black denomination was chartered in 1813 by freed slave
Peter Spencer as the "
Union Church of Africans". This followed the 1793 establishment in Philadelphia of the
African Methodist Episcopal Church by
Richard Allen, which had ties to the Methodist Episcopal Church until 1816. Spencer built a church in Wilmington for the new denomination. This was renamed as the
African Union First Colored Methodist Protestant Church and Connection, more commonly known as the
A.U.M.P. Church. In 1814, Spencer called for the first annual gathering, known as the
Big August Quarterly, which continues to draw members of this denomination and their descendants together in a religious and cultural festival.
Reconstruction and industrialization During the
Reconstruction Era that followed the
Civil War, Democratic
Redeemer governments led by the South's
Bourbon aristocracy continued to dominate the region and imposed explicitly
white supremacist regimes in the former slave states. The Delaware legislature declared Black people to be second-class citizens in 1866, and restricted their voting rights despite the 15th Amendment, ensuring continued Democratic success in the state throughout most of the 19th century. Fearful that the
1875 Civil Rights Act passed by Congress might establish racial equality, Delaware legislators passed
Jim Crow laws that mandated
segregation in public facilities. The state's educational system was segregated by operation of law. Delaware's segregation was written into the state constitution, which, while providing at Article X, Section 2, that "no distinction shall be made on account of race or color", nonetheless required that "separate schools for white and colored children shall be maintained." Beginning in the late 19th century, the Wilmington area grew into a manufacturing center. Investment in manufacturing in the city grew from $5.5 million in 1860 to $44 million in 1900. The most notable manufacturer in the state was the chemical company
DuPont, which to this day is heavily credited with making the state what it is today in many ways. Because of Wilmington's growth, local politicians from the city and New Castle County pressured the state government to adopt a new constitution providing the north with more representation. However, the subsequent 1897 constitution did not proportionally represent the north and continued to give the southern counties disproportionate influence. As manufacturing expanded, businesses became major players in state affairs and funders of politicians through families such as the Du Ponts. Republican
John Addicks attempted to buy a US Senate seat multiple times in a rivalry with the Du Ponts until the passage of the
17th Amendment. The allegiance of industries with the Republican party allowed them to gain control of the state's governorship throughout most of the 20th century. The GOP ensured black people could vote because of their general support for Republicans and thus undid restrictions on Black suffrage. Delaware benefited greatly from World War I because of the state's large gunpowder industry. DuPont, the most dominant business in the state by WWI, produced an estimated 40% of all gunpowder used by the Allies during the war. It produced nylon in the state after the war and began investments into
General Motors. Additionally, the company invested heavily in the expansion of public schools in the state and colleges such as the
University of Delaware in the 1910s and 1920s. This included primary and secondary schools for Black people and women. Delaware suffered less during the
Great Depression than other states, but the depression spurred further migration from the rural south to urban areas.
World War II to present Like in World War I, the state enjoyed a big stimulus to its gunpowder and shipyard industries in World War II. New job opportunities during and after the war in the Wilmington area coaxed Black people from the southern counties to move to the city. The proportion of blacks constituting the city's population rose from 15% in 1950 to over 50% by 1980. The surge of Black migrants to the north sparked
white flight, in which middle class whites moved from the city to suburban areas, leading to
de facto segregation of Northern Delaware's society. In the 1940s and 1950s, Delaware attempted to integrate its schools, although the last segregated school in the state did not close until 1970. The
University of Delaware admitted its first black student in 1948, and local courts ruled that primary schools had to be integrated. Delaware's integration efforts partially inspired the US Supreme Court's decision in
Brown v. Board of Education, which found racial segregation in United States
public schools to be unconstitutional. The result of the
Brown ruling was that Delaware became fully integrated, albeit with time and much effort. In October 1954, the city of
Milford became the scene of one of the country's first pro-segregation
boycotts after eleven Black students were enrolled in the previously all-white
Milford High School. Mass protests continued in Milford; the school board eventually ceded to the protestors, expelling the Black students. The ensuing unrest, which included
cross burnings, rallies, and pro-segregation demonstrations, contributed to
desegregation in most of Southern Delaware being delayed for another ten years.
Sussex County did not start closing or integrating its segregated schools until 1965, 11 years after the
Brown ruling. Throughout the state, integration only encouraged more white flight, and poor economic conditions for the black population led to some violence during the 1960s. Riots broke out in Wilmington in 1967 and again in
1968 in response to the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr, after which the National Guard occupied the city for nine months to prevent further violence. Since WWII, the state has been generally economically prosperous and enjoyed relatively high per capita income because of its location between major cities like Philadelphia, New York, and Washington, DC. Its population grew rapidly, particularly in the suburbs in the north where New Castle county became an extension of the
Philadelphia metropolitan area. Americans, including migrants from Puerto Rico, and immigrants from Latin America flocked to the state. By 1990, only 50% of Delaware's population consisted of natives to the state. ==Geography==