History of Delaware facts for kids
The history of Delaware began when European settlers arrived in North America. Delaware is made up of three counties that were created in 1638, even before William Penn arrived. Each county had its own unique story of how it was settled. People living there often felt more connected to their county than to Delaware as a whole.
For a long time, many people thought that large parts of southern and western Delaware actually belonged to Maryland. This changed in 1767. The entire state of Delaware has always been closely linked to the important city of Philadelphia in terms of its economy and politics.
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Who Lived in Delaware First?
Before Europeans settled in Delaware, the land was home to several Native American tribes. These included the Delaware (also known as Lenni Lenape) and the Susquehanna people.
Early European Settlements: Dutch and Swedish Colonies
The English claimed the Delaware area because of explorations by John Cabot in 1497 and Captain John Smith. They named it after Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr, who was the governor of Virginia from 1610 to 1618. At that time, Delaware was considered part of the Virginia colony.
However, the Dutch also claimed the land after Henry Hudson explored it in 1609. The Dutch West India Company was the first European group to actually settle there. They built trading posts:
- Fort Wilhelmus in 1624, on what is now Burlington Island.
- Fort Nassau in 1626, near Gloucester City, New Jersey.
- Zwaanendael in 1631, which is now Lewes, Delaware.
Peter Minuit was the Dutch Director-General of New Netherland during this time. He later had disagreements with the Dutch West India Company and offered his services to Sweden.
How New Sweden Began
In 1638, Peter Minuit led a group under the Swedish flag to the Delaware River. They set up a trading post called Fort Christina, which is now in Wilmington. Minuit claimed the western side of the Delaware River, saying no other Europeans were settled there. Unlike the Dutch, the Swedes planned to bring many settlers to their new colony, called New Sweden.
Minuit died in a hurricane that same year, but the Swedish colony slowly grew. By 1644, Swedish and Finnish settlers lived along both sides of the Delaware River. Johan Björnsson Printz, a well-known Swedish governor, moved his home to what is now Tinicum Township, Pennsylvania. He wanted to bring more settlements together there.
Dutch Take Back Control
The Dutch settlement at Zwaanendael (meaning "swan valley") was destroyed in a war with Native Americans. But the Dutch never gave up their claim to the area. In 1651, under the leadership of Peter Stuyvesant, they built Fort Casimir, which is now New Castle.
Three years later, in 1654, the Swedish governor Johan Risingh captured Fort Casimir from the Dutch. This was a big mistake for the Swedes. The next summer, in 1655, Peter Stuyvesant led another Dutch expedition to the Delaware River. He attacked all the Swedish communities and ended the New Sweden colony. The entire area became part of the New Netherland colony again.
Delaware Becomes a British Colony
It wasn't long before the English took control from the Dutch. In 1664, James, the Duke of York and brother of King Charles II, sent an expedition. They easily removed the Dutch from both the Delaware and Hudson rivers. This made the Duke of York the owner of the entire area.
Disputes Over Land Claims
Cecil Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore, who owned Maryland, also claimed land on the western shore of Delaware Bay. This included all of what is now Delaware. However, King Charles II wanted to please his brother, James. So, Calvert did not push his claim. James, the Duke of York, believed he had won the area in war and owned it fairly. The area was managed from New York as part of James's New York colony.
William Penn was given "Pennsylvania," but his grant specifically did not include New Castle or any land within 12 miles of it. Still, Penn wanted a way to reach the sea from his new province. He convinced James to lease him the western shore of Delaware Bay. So, in 1682, Penn arrived in New Castle with two important documents: a charter for the Province of Pennsylvania and a lease for what became known as "the Lower Counties on the Delaware."
The Mason-Dixon Line
Penn inherited James's land claims. This started almost 100 years of legal battles between Penn and Baltimore (and their families) in a special court in London. The legal fights began to end when their families agreed to a survey done by Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon between 1763 and 1767. Their work created the famous Mason–Dixon line. The final decision on the land dispute was made just before the American Revolution. This settlement was a big reason why the landowners in the Lower Counties and the Royalist government worked closely together.
Separate Assemblies
In William Penn's Frame of Government of 1682, he created a combined assembly for his lands. It had equal members from each county. Laws needed approval from both the Lower Counties and the "Upper Counties" of Chester, Philadelphia, and Bucks in Pennsylvania. The assembly meetings moved between Philadelphia and New Castle.
As Philadelphia grew, its leaders didn't like having to go to New Castle and get approval from the assemblymen from the less populated Lower Counties. In 1704, members from both regions agreed to meet and pass laws separately from then on. The Lower Counties still shared a governor with Pennsylvania, but they never officially joined with Pennsylvania.
The Mason–Dixon line forms the border between Delaware and Maryland. The border between Pennsylvania and Delaware is a curved line called the Twelve-Mile Circle. This circle was drawn in the 1600s to clearly mark the area around New Castle. A small disagreement lasted until 1921 over a piece of land called the Wedge. Both Pennsylvania and Delaware claimed this land.
Delaware and the American Revolution
Delaware was one of the Thirteen Colonies that fought against British rule in the American Revolution. After the Revolution began in 1776, the three counties became "The Delaware State." In 1776, Delaware adopted its first constitution and called itself the "Delaware State." Its first governors were called "President."
The Battle of Cooch's Bridge
The Battle of Cooch's Bridge was the only major battle of the Revolution that happened in Delaware. It started on August 30, 1777, about two miles south of Cooch's Bridge (near Newark today). American soldiers tried to slow down the British Army's advance. However, the roughly 700 American soldiers were greatly outnumbered and outgunned. Washington's troops were slowly forced to retreat.
By September 3, the American soldiers had fallen back to Cooch's Bridge. A special regiment of 100 skilled marksmen, led by General William Maxwell, set up an ambush in the nearby woods. During the battle, the Americans fought off several British and Hessian attacks. But they soon ran out of ammunition and had to retreat.
The British took over the property, and several buildings were burned. General Cornwallis used the Cooch house as his headquarters for the next week while the British regrouped. About 30 American soldiers were injured or killed.
Soon after, General Howe moved his troops. On September 11, he defeated the Americans in the Battle of Brandywine and then captured Philadelphia, the colonial capital.
In 1783, the independence of the United States and Delaware was confirmed in the Treaty of Paris.
Delaware from 1783 to 1860
Delaware was the very first state to approve the United States Constitution.
Éleuthère Irénée du Pont came to America from France in 1800. In 1804, he started the young United States' largest gunpowder factory on the banks of the Brandywine River just north of Wilmington. His company, DuPont, became the U.S. military's biggest supplier of gunpowder by the start of the Civil War. His family, the du Pont family, is now one of the wealthiest and most successful families in the country.
The oldest African American church in the country was started in Delaware by a former slave named Peter Spencer in 1813. It was called the "Union Church of Africans" and is now the A.U.M.P. Church. The Big August Quarterly, which began in 1814, is still celebrated today and is the oldest cultural festival of its kind in the country.
The building of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal between 1802 and 1829 brought a lot of shipping business to Delaware. This helped the state's trade and economy grow.
Delaware During the Civil War
Slavery was a big issue in Delaware for many years before the American Civil War began. Many slave owners in Delaware, influenced by Quaker ideas from Pennsylvania, chose to free their slaves. By 1810, half of the state's black population was free, and by 1860, more than 90% were free.
During the Civil War, Delaware was a slave state that chose to stay in the Union. On January 3, 1861, Delaware voters decided not to leave the Union. Delaware's governor at the time said that Delaware was the first state to join the Union by approving the Constitution, and it would be the last to leave it.
The government of Delaware never officially ended slavery on its own. However, many slave owners in the state freed their slaves voluntarily.
Two months before the Civil War ended, on February 8, 1865, Delaware voted against the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution. This meant they voted unsuccessfully to continue slavery even after the war. Delaware officially approved the amendment on February 12, 1901, which was 40 years after Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation. Slavery finally ended in Delaware when the Thirteenth Amendment became law in December 1865. Delaware also voted against the 14th Amendment during the Reconstruction Era.
Delaware After the Civil War
Even though Delaware is considered a northern state and mostly supported the Union during the American Civil War, it still had laws that separated people by race. These were called Jim Crow laws. Delaware lawmakers passed these laws in 1875 because they worried that a new Civil Rights Act passed by Congress might lead to social equality.
In 1952, a court case called Gebhart v. Belton was decided by the Delaware Court of Chancery and confirmed by the Delaware Supreme Court. Gebhart was one of five cases that were combined into Brown v. Board of Education. This was a very important decision by the United States Supreme Court in 1954. It said that separating students by race in public schools was against the Constitution.
Because of the Gebhart and Brown cases, Delaware eventually became fully integrated, though it took time and effort. Some people believe that while race relations were getting much better after Brown, progress was hurt by the riots that happened in Wilmington in April 1968. These riots occurred after Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in Memphis. Delaware's response to the Wilmington riots was very strong. The Delaware National Guard stayed in the city for over a year.
See also
In Spanish: Historia de Delaware para niños
