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A state law banning the sale of Delaware slaves to the Carolinas, Georgia, and the West Indies (expanded 1789 to include Maryland and Virginia), helped make slaveowning increasingly unprofitable. In 1797, all Delaware slaves sold out of the state were declared automatically free.
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. There were 1,798 enslaved people living in Delaware at the time of the 1860 U.S. census.
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Jun 19, 2020 · But because Delaware was a border state between the North and South, Lincoln’s order did not apply to slaves in the First State. The last complete census in 1860 found 1,900 people living in slavery in Delaware. Most of those were in southern Delaware’s rural Sussex County, although smaller numbers were held throughout the state.
- Mark Eichmann
- Overview
- Slavery, the Civil War, and Reconstruction
- Influence of the du Pont family
- Development of the contemporary state
Throughout the first half of the 19th century, Delawareans became increasingly divided over the issue of slavery. Induced by both economic and religious motives, many slave owners freed their bondsmen during those years, but a few stubbornly refused. Delaware was a crossroads where abolitionists maintained a thriving line of the Underground Railroad to assist escapees, while other Delawareans engaged in the equally illegal capture of free blacks to be shipped southward into slavery. Thus, in 1860, on the eve of the American Civil War, the number of slaves in Delaware had been reduced to about 1,800, while the number of the state’s free blacks had grown to some 20,000.
Although Pres. Abraham Lincoln’s policy of refusing to recognize secession did not find favour with a majority of Delawareans, the state never seriously considered joining the Confederacy. Many Delawareans favoured the Union cause, although men from the state served in the armies of both sides. Fort Delaware, built on a small island in the Delaware River to protect Wilmington and Philadelphia in the 1850s, became one of the Union’s major prisoner-of-war camps.
Throughout the first half of the 19th century, Delawareans became increasingly divided over the issue of slavery. Induced by both economic and religious motives, many slave owners freed their bondsmen during those years, but a few stubbornly refused. Delaware was a crossroads where abolitionists maintained a thriving line of the Underground Railroad to assist escapees, while other Delawareans engaged in the equally illegal capture of free blacks to be shipped southward into slavery. Thus, in 1860, on the eve of the American Civil War, the number of slaves in Delaware had been reduced to about 1,800, while the number of the state’s free blacks had grown to some 20,000.
Although Pres. Abraham Lincoln’s policy of refusing to recognize secession did not find favour with a majority of Delawareans, the state never seriously considered joining the Confederacy. Many Delawareans favoured the Union cause, although men from the state served in the armies of both sides. Fort Delaware, built on a small island in the Delaware River to protect Wilmington and Philadelphia in the 1850s, became one of the Union’s major prisoner-of-war camps.
In the early 20th century the du Pont family and their gunpowder company dominated Delaware’s development. The DuPont Company, the country’s largest producer of explosives, earned enormous profits through its sales to both the United States and its allies during World War I. Several du Ponts used their wealth to benefit the state. T. Coleman du Pon...
During the second half of the 20th century, Delaware changed significantly. Population flowed from Wilmington to its suburbs. Resort and retirement communities developed along the Atlantic coast in the southeast portion of the state. Decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court integrated the state’s public schools and established a more equitable distribution of seats in the state legislature. Delaware became a leader in environmentalism when it adopted its Coastal Zone Act in 1971 to prevent heavy industrialization along the coast. Credit-card banking replaced the chemical industry as the leading private employer in the state.
Politically, the state is a bellwether in presidential elections. In elections for offices at the state level, Delawareans tend to vote for candidates on the basis of their qualifications as individuals rather than as representatives of their respective parties. Nationally prominent Delawareans in politics have included Senators William V. Roth, a Republican known for the Roth IRA, and Joseph Biden, a leading Democrat. In 2001 Delaware elected its first female governor, Ruth Ann Minner.
Slavery in Georgia is known to have been practiced by European colonists. During the colonial era, the practice of slavery in Georgia soon became surpassed by industrial-scale plantation slavery. The colony of the Province of Georgia under James Oglethorpe banned slavery in 1735, the only one of the thirteen colonies to have done so.
Sep 19, 2002 · Slavery in Colonial Georgia. Between 1735 and 1750 Georgia was the only British American colony to attempt to prohibit Black slavery as a matter of public policy. The decision to ban slavery was made by the founders of Georgia, the Trustees.
Only 1,798 slaves remained in the state in 1860, while freed blacks numbered nearly 20,000. As the size of the free African American population grew, Delaware's legislature enacted increasingly harsh legislation to restrict their political and economic progress.
