Table Of Content

A House Divided Slavery and Emancipation in Delaware, 1635-1865 Carter G. Woodson Institute Series in Black Studies ARMSTEAD L. ROBINSON General Editor Slavery and Emancipation in Delaware 1638-1865 Patience Essah UNIVERSITY PRESS OF VIRGINIA Charlottesville and London THE UNIVERSITY PRESS OF VIRGINIA Copyright © 1996 by the Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia First published 1996 The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI 239.48-1984. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Essah, Patience. A house divided : slavery and emancipation in Delaware, 1638-1865, / Patience Essah. p. cm.—(Carter G. Woodson Institute series in Black studies) Includes index. ISBN 0-8139-1681-X (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Slaves—Emancipation—Delaware. 2. Slavery—Delaware—History. 3. United States. Constitution. 13th Amendment. 4. Delaware— Constitutional law—Amendments—Ratification. I. Tide. II. Series. E445.D3E87 1996 96-15045 975-1'00496—dc20 CIP Printed in the United States of America Dedicated to the memory of my teacher, editor, and friend ARMSTEAD L, ROBINSON Contents Foreword BY ARMSTEAD L. ROBINSON Acknowledgments Introduction The Dutch, Swedes, English, and Slavery The Making of Voluntary Emancipation, 1740-1865, At the Margin of Freedom On the Bank of the River Jordan Carrying Their Own Weight aoBONPOoFO “A Government of White Men for the Benefit of White Men” Epilogue Notes 191 Index 209 Tables Population of Delaware, 1790-1 860 7-8 Number and percentage of blacks in Delaware, 1790-1860 25 Estimated population of Delaware, 1650-1780 26 Percentage of free blacks in black population, 1790-1860 39 Slave population in Delaware, 1790-1860 ayi f Change in Delaware’s black population, 1790-1860 79 Slave and free black population in Delaware, 1790-1860 79 Age structure of blacks in Delaware, 1830-60 91 Residence pattern of free blacks in Delaware, 1800-1860 132 cODCfCN&omOhDo wr T Free black households in selected Delaware hundreds, — fom] 1820, 1840, and 1860 133 _ bt Free blacks in white households, New Castle, Duck Creek, and Cedar Creek hundreds and Wilmington, by age and gender, 1820-60 134 12 Occupations of free blacks in Wilmington, 1815-57 139 13 Tax assessments of Red Lion, Little Creek, and Broadkill hundreds, 1804-52 140