History of slavery in Delaware

The history of slavery in Delaware began when it was Delaware Colony and continued until the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment in December 1865.^[1] The Delaware River was an important waterway used for bringing slaves inland to Pennsylvania.^[2] In 1776, Delaware prohibited the importation of slaves, and on December 7, 1787, prohibited both imports and exports of slaves from the state.^[3] Delaware never abolished slavery and in order of admission to the Union was the first of the 15 slave states but did not secede from the Union during the American Civil War.^[4] There were 1,798 enslaved people living in Delaware at the time of the 1860 U.S. census.^[5]

Slave quarters at Gov. Ross Plantation, in Seaford, Delaware

A state with a mix of enslaved people and free people of color that lay in close proximity to the slave jails of traders in Baltimore and Washington, legally free blacks were sometimes kidnapped into slavery, and "freedmen found it wise to deposit apprentice and freedom papers with the Pennsylvania Abolition Society in Philadelphia."^[5] Johnson–Cannon gang, whose tavern and slave pen stood on the border between Maryland and Delaware, were notorious slave stealers (and quite homicidal as well).^[6] The state also hosted stations of the Underground Railroad such as the Appoquinimink Friends Meetings House.^[7] Thomas Garrett of Wilmington, Delaware, a businessman of the Quaker faith, reportedly assisted in the escapes of between 2,000 and 3,000 slaves.^[5]

See also

• Delaware § Slavery and race
• History of Delaware § Delaware in the American Civil War
• History of slavery in the United States by state
• List of Delaware slave traders

References

1. "Which Side of Black History is Delaware on?". ACLU Delaware. 2022-02-11. Archived from the original on 2023-05-31. Retrieved 2023-08-26.
2. Wax, Darold D. (1983). "Africans on the Delaware: The Pennsylvania Slave Trade, 1759–1765". Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies. 50 (1): 38–49. ISSN 0031-4528. JSTOR 27772875.
3. Jewett, Clayton E.; Allen, John O. (2004-02-28). Slavery in the South: A State-by-State History. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 35. ISBN 978-0-313-32019-4.
4. "North vs South in Delaware" (PDF). Delaware Historical Society. 2020. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2021-09-18. Retrieved 2023-08-26.
5. Newton, James E. (1997). "Black Americans in Delaware: An Overview". University of Delaware. Archived from the original on 2021-09-27. Retrieved 2023-08-26.
6. "First and Last: Delaware's Fraught History with Slavery and Abolition". Archived from the original on 2023-03-24. Retrieved 2023-08-26.
7. Hudson, J. Blaine (2015-01-09). Encyclopedia of the Underground Railroad. McFarland. p. 124. ISBN 978-1-4766-0230-1. Archived from the original on 2023-08-26. Retrieved 2023-08-26.

Further reading

• Maryland, Carole C., ed. (1996). A History of African Americans of Delaware and Maryland's Eastern Shore (PDF). Delaware Heritage Commission. ISBN 0-924117-12-5. LCCN 98-74339. 
• Nash, Gary B.; Stanley, Miles Albrook (2019-01-02). "The travail of Delaware slave families in the early republic". Slavery & Abolition. 40 (1): 1–27. doi:10.1080/0144039X.2018.1462301. ISSN 0144-039X. S2CID 150034104. 
• Williams, William H. (1996). Slavery and Freedom in Delaware 1639-1865. S.R. Books. ISBN 978-0842028479.

External links

• Special Collections: Slavery & the Underground Railroad (udel.edu)