History of Delaware

The History of  is the story of a small American state, in the middle of the heart of the nation, and yet until recently often isolated and even invisible to outsiders. Still, because of its geographic location and settlement pattern it has been evenly divided on the key issues in American history and has often seemed like the United States in miniature.

Delaware is made up of three counties that have been well established since 1680, before the time of. Each has had its own unique settlement history and their inhabitants tended to identify more closely with the county than the colony or state. Large parts of southern and western Delaware were thought to have been in until 1767 and all of the state has existed in the looming presence of.

Native Americans
Before Delaware was settled by Europeans, the area was home to the (also known as Lenni Lenape), Susquehanna, and other  tribes.

Dutch and Swedish colonies
The Delaware River watershed was claimed by the based on the explorations of  in 1497,  and others, and was given the name held as a title by, the Governor of  from 1610 until 1618. At that time the area was considered to be part of the colony.

However, the Dutch thought they also had a claim, based on the 1609 explorations of, and under the auspices of the were the first Europeans to actually occupy the land. They established trading posts in 1624 at "Hooghe Eyland" (High Island), now Burlington Island, opposite, , in 1626 at Fort Nassau, now , , and at , now , Delaware in 1631. was the Dutch Director-General of the during this period and probably spent some time at the Burlington Island post, thereby familiarizing himself with the region.

In any case, had a falling out with the directors of the, was recalled from the , and promptly made his services available to his many friends in , then a major power in European politics. They established a and, following much negotiation, he led a group under the flag of  to the  in 1638. They established a trading post at, now in , Delaware. claimed possession of the western side of the, saying he had found no European settlement there. Unlike the, the Swedes intended to actually bring settlers to their outpost and begin a colony.

drowned in a hurricane on the way home that same year, but the Swedish colony continued to grow gradually. By 1644, Swedish and Finnish settlers were living along both sides of the from  to the. 's best known governor,, moved his residence to what is now , Pennsylvania, where he intended to concentrate the settlements.

While the Dutch settlement at, or present day , was soon destroyed in a war with native Americans, the Dutch never gave up their claim to the area and, in 1651, under the leadership of , built Fort Casimir, now , Delaware. Three years later, in 1654,, the Swedish governor captured Fort Casimir from Dutch. For the Swedes, this was a catastrophic miscalculation as the next summer, 1655, an enraged led another Dutch expedition to the, attacked all the Swedish communities and forcibly ended the  colony, incorporating the whole area back into the  colony.

British colony
It wasn't long, though, before the Dutch as well were forcibly removed by the, asserting their earlier claim. In 1664, James, the Duke of York, and brother of King Charles II, outfitted an expedition that easily ousted the Dutch from both the Delaware and Hudson Rivers, leaving the Duke of York the proprietary authority in the whole area. However,, Proprietor of claimed a competing grant to lands on the western shore of the Delaware Bay, including all of the present state of Delaware. The claim was not pressed in deference to the royal will of to please his brother,, who having won the area in war, and felt justified in his ownership of it. The area was administered from as a part of James' New York colony. At this point enters the picture and is granted "Pennsylvania," which grant specifically excluded  or any of the lands within 12 miles of it. Nevertheless Penn wanted an outlet to the sea from his new province, and persuaded James to lease him the whole western shore of the Delaware Bay. So, in 1682, arrived in  with two documents, a charter for the Province of Pennsylvania, and a lease for what became known as "the Lower Counties on the Delaware."

had inherited James' claims and thus began nearly 100 years of litigation between Penn and Baltimore, and their heirs, in the High in London. The settlement of the legal battles began by the heirs agreeing to the survey performed by and  between 1763 and 1767, which resulted in the famous. The final adjudication of the settlement did not occur until the very eve of the and was certainly a major reason for the close political alliance between the property owners of the Lower Counties and the Royalist Proprietary government.

In 's Frame of Government of 1682, he tried to establish a combined assembly for his whole domain by providing for equal membership from each county and requiring legislation to have the assent of both the Lower Counties and the of Chester, Philadelphia and Bucks. The meeting place also alternated between and. Once Philadelphia began to grow, its leaders resented having to go to and gain agreement of the assemblymen from the sparsely populated Lower Counties and so there was a mutual agreement in 1704 for the two assemblies to meet separately from thenceforth. The Lower Counties did continue to share a governor, but the Province of was never merged with the Lower Counties.

The now forms the whole boundary between Delaware and, and is known as the. The border between and Delaware is formed by an  known as  laid out in the seventeenth century to clearly delineate the area within the sphere of. A small dispute lingered until 1921 over an area known as, where the and  left a fragment of land claimed by  and Delaware.

American Revolution
The state was invaded and partially occupied by the British from September 1777 until June 1778. The battle was fought between British and troops under Generals, , and  and the colonial troops under General.

The engagement began August 30, about two miles south of the bridge. The Americans harried the lead forces of the. However, the roughly 700 colonials were greatly outmanned and outgunned Washington’s troops and slowly drove them back.

By September 3, the colonials had dropped back to Cooch’s Bridge. A handpicked regiment of 100 marksmen under General William Maxwell laid an ambush in the surrounding cover. Over the ensuing battle, several British and Hessian charges were repelled, but the Americans soon depleted their ammunition and called a retreat.

The property was taken by the British, and several buildings were burned. General Cornwallis used the Cooch house as his headquarters for the next week as the British regrouped. American casualties numbered around 30.

Shortly after General Howe moved his troops out. On September 11, he defeated the colonials in the and subsequently captured the colonial capital of Philadelphia.

State of Delaware
Delaware was one of the which revolted against British rule in the. After the Revolution began in 1776, the three counties became "The Delaware State," and in 1776 that entity adopted its first constitution, declaring itself to be the "Delaware State." Its first governors went by the title of "President."

The oldest black in the country was chartered in Delaware by former-slave  in 1813 as the "," which is now the. The which began in 1814 is still celebrated and is the oldest such cultural festival in the country.

The government of Deleware never formally abolished slavery; however a large portion of the states slaveowners voluntarily freed their slaves.

During the, Delaware was a state that remained in the Union (Delaware voters voted not to secede on , ). Delaware had been the first state to embrace the Union by ratifying the constitution, and would be the last to leave it, according to Delaware's governor at the time. While most Delaware citizens that fought in the War served in the regiments the State answered Lincoln's call to arms with, some did in fact serve in Delaware companies on the Confederate side in Maryland and Virginia Regiments.

Two months before the end of the Civil War, however, Delaware voted on, to reject the  to the United States Constitution and so voted unsuccessfully to continue slavery beyond the Civil War. Delaware symbolically ratified the amendment on February 12, 1901&mdash;40 years after 's. Slavery ended in Delaware only when the took effect in December of 1865. Delaware also rejected the during the  Era.