Adsactly Education: Delaware-The History
Delaware
The First State
Capital: Dover
Largest City: Wilmington
1982 sq. mi. 5130 sq. Km
49th Largest State
Admitted to US: 1787 (1st)
Population: 960,000 (45th)
Highest Point: 447 ft (136 m)
Lowest Point: Sea Level
State Bird: Blue Hen Chicker
State Flower: Peach Blossom
Motto: Liberty and Independence
Bordered By: Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey and the Atlantic Ocean.
Delaware
The name is derived from the Governor of Virginia Colony at the time the river bearing the name was first explored by Europeans - Thomas West, the 3rd Baron De La Ware.
The state is the second smallest in the US and has the 6th smallest population. The northern border of Delaware is the only circular boundary in the US and was drawn on a map from the courthouse in New Castle using a 12 mile radius. The boundary we see today was finally confirmed in the courts in 1921.
Colonial Delaware
The original people of Delaware were part of the well established ‘League’ system of tribal and area governance. They were long standing residents of the area first as hunter-gatherers and later as farmers and fishermen. The tribes most known during European contact were pushed off their lands mostly by other tribes from the 5 nation Iroquois League. Between that and the pressure from settlers, Delaware was left without a resident Tribe.
The Dutch and a group of Scandinavians were the first real settlers in what is now Delaware. First the Dutch with their settlement of Pennsylvania and the first real permanent settlement was called New Sweden in 1638. The Dutch conquered New Sweden and incorporated it into their New Netherlands colony in the 1650s. When the Dutch lost a sea war to England the whole area was placed under English control.
Delaware was originally considered part of Pennsylvania being known as ‘the lower counties of the Delaware (river). In 1704 the two areas started meeting separately and the area we now know as Delaware was established. Delaware was originally populated mainly by indentured servants from England but soon became a slave state and a prime tobacco growing area.
Revolutionary Delaware
Delaware initially did not favor a break with England. The English allowed the Delaware Assembly more freedom of choice than the rest of the colonies and the merchants had a good business and relationship with the English. The ‘Stamp Act’ changed all that. By a very narrow vote, Delaware cast it’s State vote for Independence.
Delaware provided one of the most highly regarded regiments in the Revolution but the state spent most of the time occupied by the British troops due to their proximity to Philadelphia. After the war, Delaware became one of the leading proponents of a strong central US government. Delaware became the first state to ratify the US Constitution and thus the first state to join the country.
Slavery and Minorities
Delaware started out as a tobacco growing region that turned to African Slaves after the indentured servant market from England declined. They were one of the original slave states after the end of the Revolutionary War but voted against secession in 1861 and so stayed with the Union during the Civil War.
Delaware sent the bulk of her troops to the Union during the Civil War, but there were quite a few that fought for the South. The number of slaves had gone down in the 50 years before the war as agriculture changed and a good number of slaves were freed by their owners under pressure from Methodists and Quakers. By the start of the Civil War 90% of the black people in Delaware were free. Delaware rejected an offer from President Lincoln and the country to buy and free all the remaining slaves in the state during the War.
Despite all that, Delaware did not ratify the 13th (freedom for all) 14th (citizenship for all native born including former slaves) and 15th (right to vote) amendments to the Constitution until 1901, at least 50 years after they were ratified by the rest of the nation.
Jim Crow was started in Delaware with the establishment of separate schools for white and African American students in 1875. The State College for Colored Students (now Delaware State) opened in 1891. Schools in Delaware were found to be separate and unequal, a position that was reaffirmed by the US Supreme Court in 1952. The Delaware Assembly outlaws segregation in all public facilities in 1963.
Public whipping of women was outlawed in 1889 and the general punishment of public whipping was outlawed entirely in 1972 making Delaware the last state in the Union to do so.
The first car was licensed in Delaware in 1907. One of the DuPont family built a highway the length of the state and gifted it to the state in 1924.
DuPont made dynamite and nitroglycerin in Delaware which made Delaware one of the largest suppliers of War Materials in WWI in which 10,000 Delaware citizens served.
In 1936 a researcher working at DuPont discovers the first artificial fiber, called fiber 66. DuPont opens the first nylon plant in Seaford, Delaware in 1939. Nylons are exhibited at the New York and San Francisco World’s Fairs.
More than 30,000 Delaware citizens serve in the armed forces during WWII. Two big airbases are created at Dover and New Castle along with the Fort Miles Army Base.
In response to riots in the city of Wilmington, Delaware has the National Guard occupy the city. The occupation would last 10 months, the longest in the nation beginning in 1963.
Dumb Laws
“R” rated movies shall not be shown at drive-in theatres.
It is illegal to fly over any body of water, unless one is carrying sufficient supplies of food and drink.
All images in this post are properly licensed and used.
This is part of a series on the various states. We will finish up Delaware in the next installment, I hope you will return.
Authored by: @bigtom13
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