Delaware History

Before the arrival of Europeans, the area that is today the state of Delaware was home to the Unami League (also known as "Delaware") and Nanticoke Native American groups. The Unami League lived in a settled agricultural and hunting society.

The Dutch were the first Europeans to arrive in present day Delaware, and established a trading post near Lewesin 1633. However, all the settlers were wiped out within a year following a dispute with the Native Americans. In 1638, a Swedish colony was established near Wilmington. In 1651, tbe Dutch returned, established a new fort near the site of present day New Castle, and in 1655 absorbed the entire Swedish colony.

In 1664, the Dutch were evicted by the British under James, the Duke of York. William Penn wanted an outlet to the sea for his Pennsylvania province, so leased the " Lower Counties on the Delaware" from the Duke. As a result, from 1682 to 1704, Delaware and Pennsylvania had a combined General Assembly. Even after 1704, Penn and his heirs remained the Proprietors of both Delaware and Pennsylvania, and always appointed the same person as Governor for both colonies.

During the American Revolution (1775 to 1783), Delaware was initially reluctant to break with Britain. Delaware did however provide one of the premier regiments of the Continental Army, known as the "Delaware Blues" and nicknamed the "Blue Hen Chickens". Following the Revolution, Delaware was the first state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.

Delaware was founded as a slave state. Various local attempts were made to abolish slavery in the state, but all failed even though there were relatively few slaves in Delaware. Nevertheless, despite being a slave site, Delaware remained in the Union during the American Civil War (1861 to 1865), and was the only slave state not to assemble Confederate regiments or militia groups (although some of Delaware's citizens did fight on the Confederate side in Maryland or Virginia regiments).

Slavery was finally abolished in Delaware at the same time it was abolished in the country as a whole: when the 13th Amendment took effect in December 1865. After the abolition of slavery, the state legislature adopted a policy of segregation including poll tax and Jim Crow laws. Only in the mid 1950s did these restrictions begin to disappear, with the integration of the school system.

Note: Our company does NOT provide travel, vacation, hotel, car rental services or associated products or services. Any links (including but not limited to banners, text links, or search forms) to such items on this web site are adverts from third parties. Sorry we can NOT answer questions about these types of products or services.

Unless specifically noted on the page in question, our company is NOT associated with any particular destinations, resorts, attractions or places of interest that may be described on this website. In such cases, we have often provided links to the official sites where possible, or other third party sites containing useful information, purely as a courtesy and for informational purposes only.

All information about attractions, places of interest, travel destinations, travel services, etc., was believed to be correct at the time it was prepared, but may be change at any time. Readers are advised to check with the facility/resort operator, their travel agent, travel provider, or the attraction operator, for current information.

Copyright © 2006-2025, Answers 2000 Limited

CERTAIN CONTENT THAT APPEARS ON THIS SITE COMES FROM AMAZON SERVICES LLC. THIS CONTENT IS PROVIDED 'AS IS' AND IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE OR REMOVAL AT ANY TIME.
CERTAIN CONTENT THAT APPEARS ON THIS SITE,COMES FROM AMAZON EU S.� r.l. THIS CONTENT IS PROVIDED 'AS IS' AND IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE OR REMOVAL AT ANY TIME.

Disclosure: Our company's websites' content (including this website's content) includes advertisements for our own company's websites, products, and services, and for other organization's websites, products, and services. In the case of links to other organization's websites, our company may receive a payment, (1) if you purchase products or services, or (2) if you sign-up for third party offers, after following links from this website. Unless specifically otherwise stated, information about other organization's products and services, is based on information provided by that organization, the product/service vendor, and/or publicly available information - and should not be taken to mean that we have used the product/service in question. Additionally, our company's websites contain some adverts which we are paid to display, but whose content is not selected by us, such as Google AdSense ads. For more detailed information, please see Advertising/Endorsements Disclosures

Our sites use cookies, some of which may already be set on your computer. Use of our site constitutes consent for this. For details, please see Privacy.

Click privacy for information about our company's privacy, data collection and data retention policies, and your rights.

Contact Us Privacy Terms of Use Advertising/Endorsements Disclosures

In Association With Amazon.com
Answers 2000 Limited is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.
In Association With Amazon.co.uk
Answers 2000 Limited is a participant in the Amazon EU Associates Programme, an affiliate advertising programme designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.co.uk.
As an Amazon Associate, our company earns from qualifying purchases. Amazon, the Amazon logo, Endless, and the Endless logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates.

All trademarks are property of their respective owners.
All third party content and adverts are copyright of their respective owners.

Some graphics on our web sites are Copyright (C) 1997-2000 Hemera Technologies Inc., and used under license. All such pictures are provided for viewing purposes only and are not to be saved or downloaded. All such pictures of recognizable individuals are models and used for illustrative purposes only, and not meant to imply any association or endorsement of said individual with any product or service.