A House Divided: Slavery and Emancipation in Delaware, 1638-1865

237 Pages·1996·10.473 MB·English

by  Patience Essah

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