Delaware

Delaware

THE THIRTEEN COLONIES

Delaware

CRAIG A. DOHERTY KATHERINE M. DOHERTY

Delaware Copyright © 2005 by Craig A. Doherty and Katherine M. Doherty Maps and graph copyright © 2005 by Facts On File, Inc. Captions copyright © 2005 by Facts On File, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher. For information contact: Facts On File, Inc. 132 West 31st Street New York NY 10001 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Doherty, Craig A. Delaware / Craig A. Doherty and Katherine M. Doherty. p. cm. — (The thirteen colonies) Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index. ISBN 0-8160-5414-2 (acid-free paper) 1. Delaware—History—Colonial period, ca. 1600–1775—Juvenile literature. 2. Delaware—History—1775–1865—Juvenile literature. I. Doherty, Katherine M. II. Title. F167.D64 2005 975.1'02—dc22 2004015049

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Note on Photos Many of the illustrations and photographs used in this book are old, historical images. The quality of the prints is not always up to current standards, as in some cases the originals are from old or poor-quality negatives or are damaged. The content of the illustrations, however, made their inclusion important despite problems in reproduction.

This book is dedicated to the many students of all ages we have worked with and taught over the years.

Contents Introduction Map: The Thirteen Colonies, 1790

1

First Contacts Henry Hudson HUDSON’S FOURTH VOYAGE, 1610 The Virginia Connection More Dutch Explorers and First Settlers Map: Settlements of New Netherland, 1631

THE DEMISE OF ZWAANENDAEL The Lenni Lenape

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1 2 4 4 5 7

8 8

Map: Territory and Language Groups of the Lenni Lenape

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CORN WAMPUM

11 14

New Sweden Conflicting Claims for Delaware The Dutch-Swedish Connection QUEEN CHRISTINA (1626–1689)

17 17 19 21

New Sweden Map: New Sweden, 1638

PETER MINUIT (1580–1638) A New Governor for New Sweden JOHAN PRINTZ (1592–1663)

3

4

5

Life in New Sweden Expansion

22 23

24 26 28 29 29

Map: Forts of New Sweden, 1647

29

Improving the Land BUILDING A LOG CABIN TOBACCO Isolation and Invasions PETER STUYVESANT (CA. 1610–1672)

30 32 32 34 36

The Dutch and Then the English Take Over Delaware The End of New Sweden The City and the Company Colonies THE DIKES OF THE NETHERLANDS MENNONITES The End of New Netherland

39 39 42 44 45 46

Map: Land Granted to James, Duke of York and Albany, 1664

47

JAMES, DUKE OF YORK AND ALBANY, LATER KING JAMES II (1633–1701)

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Delaware Becomes a Colony The Return of the Dutch The Coming of the Quakers THE QUAKERS

52 52 53 54

WILLIAM PENN (1644–1718) Delaware under William Penn Graph: Population Growth in Delaware, 1620–1790 Map: The Twelve-Mile Circle

57 58

EXCERPT FROM THE CHARTER OF PRIVILEGES GRANTED BY WILLIAM PENN TO THE INHABITANTS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND DELAWARE (OCTOBER 28, 1701) Delaware Separates from Pennsylvania THE MASON-DIXON LINE (1763–1769)

59 60 63

Map: Mason-Dixon Line, Official in 1769

Delaware Prospers

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56 57

The Road to Revolution The Sugar Act (April 5, 1764) The Stamp Act (March 22, 1765) SONS OF LIBERTY EXCERPT FROM THE RESOLUTIONS OF THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS (OCTOBER 19, 1765) The Townshend Duties (June 29, 1767) EXCERPT FROM THE FIRST ENTRY IN LETTERS FROM A FARMER IN PENNSYLVANIA, WRITTEN BY JOHN DICKINSON The Tea Act (May 10, 1773) COMMITTEES OF CORRESPONDENCE Declaring Independence and the War to Achieve It The First Continental Congress (1774) The Start of the Revolution

64

64 67 69 70 72 75 75

76 78 79

81 82 83

The Second Continental Congress CAESAR RODNEY (1728–1784) Fighting for Independence THE FIRST PARAGRAPH OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE The Battle of Cooch’s Bridge (September 3, 1777) Map: Battle of Brandywine, September 11, 1777

Patriots vs. Loyalists in Delaware THE BLUE HENS

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Creating a Nation The Articles of Confederation THE ANNAPOLIS CONVENTION (1786) The Constitutional Convention (1787) JOHN DICKINSON (1732–1808) Ratifying the Constitution PREAMBLE TO THE U.S. CONSTITUTION

Delaware Time Line Delaware Historical Sites Further Reading Books Web Sites Index

84 87 88 90 90 93

94 96 97 97 99 100 101 102 103 105 111 115 115 115 116

Introduction I

n the 11th century, Vikings from Scandinavia sailed to North America. They explored the Atlantic coast and set up a few small settlements. In Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, Canada, archaeologists have found traces of these settlements. No one knows for sure why they did not establish permanent colonies. It may have been that it was too far away from their homeland. At about the same time, many Scandinavians were involved with raiding and establishing settlements along the coasts of what are now Great Britain and France.This may have offered greater rewards than traveling all the way to North America. When the western part of the Roman Empire fell in 476, Europe lapsed into a period of almost 1,000 years of war, plague, and hardship. This period of European history is often referred to as the Dark Ages or Middle Ages. Communication between the different parts of Europe was almost nonexistent. If other Europeans knew about the Vikings’ explorations westward, they left no record of it. Between the time of Viking exploration and Christopher Columbus’s 1492 journey, Europe underwent many changes. By the 15th century, Europe had experienced many advances. Trade within the area and with the Far East had created prosperity for the governments and many wealthy people. The Catholic Church had become a rich and powerful institution. Although wars would be fought and governments would come and go, the countries of Western Europe had become fairly strong. During this time, Europe rediscovered many of the arts and sciences that had xiii

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Vikings explored the Atlantic coast of North America in ships similar to this one. (National Archives of Canada)

existed before the fall of Rome.They also learned much from their trade with the Near and Far East. Historians refer to this time as the Renaissance, which means “rebirth.” At this time, some members of the Catholic Church did not like the direction the church was going. People such as Martin Luther and John Calvin spoke out against the church. They soon gained a number of followers who decided that they would protest and form their own churches.The members of these new churches were called Protestants. The movement to establish these new churches is called the Protestant Reformation. It would have a big impact on America as many Protestant groups would leave Europe so they could worship the way they wanted to. xiv

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In addition to religious dissent, problems arose with the overland trade routes to the Far East. The Ottoman Turks took control of the lands in the Middle East and disrupted trade. It was at this time that European explorers began trying to find a water route to the Far East. The explorers first sailed around Africa. Then an Italian named Christopher Columbus convinced the king and queen of Spain that it would be shorter to sail west to Asia rather than go around Africa. Most sailors and educated people at the time knew the world was round. However, Columbus made two errors in his calculations. First, he did not realize just how big the Earth is, and second, he did not know that the continents of North and South America blocked a westward route to Asia. When Columbus made landfall in 1492, he believed that he was in the Indies, as the Far East was called at the time. For a period of time after Columbus, the Spanish controlled the seas and the exploration of what was called the New World. England tried to compete with the Spanish on the high seas, but their ships were no match for the floating fortresses of the Spanish Armada. These heavy ships, known as galleons, ruled the Atlantic. In 1588, that all changed. A fleet of English ships fought a series of battles in which their smaller but faster and more maneuverable ships finally defeated the Spanish Armada. This opened up the New World to anyone willing to cross the ocean. Portugal, Holland, France, and England all funded voyages of exploration to the New World. In North America, the French explored the far north. The Spanish had Depicted in this painting, Christopher Columbus completed three additional voyages to the Americas already established colonies in what are now after his initial trip in search of a westward route to Florida, most of the Caribbean, and much of Asia in 1492. (Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Central and South America. The Dutch Division [LC-USZ62-103980]) Introduction

xv

bought Manhattan and would establish what would become New York, as well as various islands in the Caribbean and lands in South America.The English claimed most of the east coast of North America and set about creating colonies in a variety of ways. Companies were formed in England and given royal charters to set up colonies. Some of the companies sent out military and trade expeditions to find gold and other riches. They employed men such as John Smith, Bartholomew Gosnold, and others to explore the lands they had been granted. Other companies found groups of Protestants who wanted to leave England and worked out deals that let them establish colonies. No matter what circumstances a colony was established under, the first settlers suffered hardships as

After Columbus’s exploration of the Americas, the Spanish controlled the seas, largely because of their galleons, or large, heavy ships, that looked much like this model. (Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division [LC-USZ62-103297])

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they tried to build communities in what to them was a wilderness. They also had to deal with the people who were already there. Native Americans lived in every corner of the Americas. There were vast and complex civilizations in Central and South America. The city that is now known as Cahokia was located along the Mississippi River in what is today Illinois and may have had as many as 50,000 residents. The people of Cahokia built huge earthen mounds that can still be seen today. There has been a lot of speculation as to the total population of Native Americans in 1492. Some have put the number as high as 40 million people. Most of the early explorers encountered Native Americans. They often wrote descriptions of them for the people of Europe. They also kidnapped a few of these people, took them back to Europe, and put them on display. Despite the number of Native Americans, the Europeans still claimed the land as their own. The rulers of Europe and the Catholic Church at the time felt they had a right to take any lands they wanted from people who did not share their level of technology and who were not Christians.

Introduction

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FPO Map 1 Thirteen Colonies

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First Contacts I

n the rush to acquire land in North America, often more than one country claimed the same area.This was especially true with the area that is now Delaware, which was claimed by four different European countries. Often these claims were based on nothing more than an explorer sailing past the coast. In 1497 and 1498, John Cabot, an Italian sailing for the king of England, Henry VIII, made two voyages to North America. On the first voyage, he explored from what is now Labrador south along the New England coast. On his second trip, he sailed as far south as the Carolinas, establishing an English claim to what would become Delaware. Although the French concentrated their colonization efforts in North America to the north along the Saint Lawrence River, they also claimed much of the land along the east coast of the continent. In 1525, Giovanni da Verrazano, another Italian, sailing for the French, saw much of the same coast as Cabot, and he claimed it for his employers. Despite these early explorers in the area, Giovanni da Verrazano sailed to America in 1524 in there was no European settlement in Dela- search of a passageway to China. (National Archives ware for more than 100 years. of Canada) 1

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HENRY HUDSON The search for a passage to Asia by sailing west was the goal of many explorers who sailed after Christopher Colombus’s first voyage to the New World in 1492. The English navigator Henry Hudson made four trips in search of a passage to Asia. On his first two trips, he sailed for the English Muscovy Company. In 1607, he sailed north along the east coast of Greenland to the Svalbard Islands. He reached 80° 23’ north latitude before being forced back by ice and cold. The next year, 1608, he tried again, sailing around the northern coast of Europe reaching the island of Nova Zemlya in the Barent Sea before again being forced to abandon his search for a passage. Hudson’s English employers had had enough and refused to finance a third attempt at finding a northern passage to Asia. Hudson still believed that there was a way to reach Asia without sailing around Africa and turned to the Dutch to sponsor his next voyage. In 1609, the Dutch East India Company, which had the rights to trade with Asia on behalf of the Dutch, outfitted the ship the Half Moon and hired Hudson to continue his search. At first he sailed for Nova Zemlya, but his crew mutinied because of the cold. Hudson turned south and west. He went as far south as Chesapeake Bay and then headed back north, making a close exploration of the coast in hopes of finding a passage through the continent. Hudson believed that North America was just a thin strip of land with Asia close to its other side. After Hudson turned the Half Moon north, he entered a large, shallow bay on August 28, 1609. After running the ship aground on sandbars in the bay, Hudson anchored for the night, and then he sailed away the next day, convinced that this was not the passage he was looking for. He then went north and sailed into another large bay that looked more promising. Sponsored by the English Muscovy Company, Henry Hudson spent a month exploring the Hudson completed his first expedition in search of the Northwest Passage. (National Archives of Canada) bay and the river that emptied into it. He 2

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Henry Hudson sailed the Half Moon in a 1609 expedition sponsored by the Dutch East India Company. Holland built this replica of the ship in 1909 and donated it to the people of New York for a celebration commemorating the 300th anniversary of Hudson’s discovery of the river that bears his name. This replica burned in 1931, but a newer replica built in New York was launched in 1989. (Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division [LC-USZ62-72068])

named the two rivers based on their relative position: He called the first the South River, and he called the second the North River. Later they would be known as the Delaware River and the Hudson River. Although Hudson did not find a passage to the East, based on his voyage the Dutch claimed all the land along the North and South Rivers and everything in between. On its return to Europe, First Contacts

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3333333333 Hudson’s Fourth Voyage 1610 When Henry Hudson landed in England after his trip to North America that was sponsored by the Dutch, he and his ship were seized by the English authorities. In exchange for his release, he agreed to serve only England in any future voyages. In 1610, a newly formed English company purchased a new ship, the Discovery, and hired Hudson to make another trip in search of the Northwest Passage. When he reached Hudson Strait, between the northern tip of eastern Canada and Baffin Island, it was already summer. Hudson then spent the rest of the summer and well into the fall exploring Hudson

Bay. By November, ice had begun to form in the bay and the Discovery was trapped. During the winter, Hudson and his crew suffered from the cold and a lack of provisions. Being trapped on the ship caused all sorts of problems among the crew and in June 1611, they mutinied. Hudson, his son, and seven loyal crew members were set adrift in one of the ship’s boats. A few of the mutineers finally reached England and when it was learned what had happened, they were put in prison. Henry Hudson and those who had stayed with him were never heard from again.

3333333333 the Half Moon landed in an English port where Hudson was arrested for working for the Dutch. The Half Moon returned to the Netherlands without him.

THE VIRGINIA CONNECTION On May 14, 1607, what was to become the first permanent English settlement in North America was founded and called Jamestown. It was on an island in the James River southeast of modern-day Richmond, Virginia. Approximately 500 settlers arrived at Jamestown in 1607. By the end of the winter of 1609–10, all but 50 of them had died from disease and famine. The colonists were ready to abandon the colony when Thomas West, Lord De La Warr, arrived with three ships full of supplies and additional settlers. West remained as governor of Virginia for about a year. However, his name would be given to the bay, river, and eventually a colony north of Virginia.

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In August 1610, Governor West sent one of his ships, under the command of Captain Samuel Argall, to the British island of Bermuda. Argall hit rough weather when he left the Chesapeake, so he sailed north looking for a safe harbor. He soon entered a large bay that was not yet on his charts. He found what is now called the Harbor of Refuge on the bay side of Cape Henlopen on August 17, 1610. Argall drew the bay onto his charts and named it De La Warr Bay after the governor. The spelling was changed to Delaware and was used for the bay, the river, the colony that would grow on its shore, and the Native Americans who lived in the area (who called themselves the Lenni Lenape).

MORE DUTCH EXPLORERS AND FIRST SETTLERS

Thomas West, Lord De La Warr, brought three ships full

Following the descriptions and charts pro- of supplies to the Jamestown colony in early 1610, just vided by the voyage of the Half Moon in as the colonists were preparing to abandon the colony. 1609, more Dutch explorers visited West was governor of Virginia for the next year. His Delaware Bay. Cornelis Hendrickson in name was later used for Delaware, the colony northeast 1616 was probably the first European to of Virginia. (Independence National Historical Park) actually travel up Delaware Bay into what the Dutch called the South River. By 1620, another Dutchman, Cornelis Jacobsen May (or Mey), also explored and charted the area giving his name to Cape May, which is the southernmost point on the north side of the bay that is now New Jersey. In the Netherlands in 1621, the Dutch West India Company was formed and granted the right to trade and colonize along the North and South Rivers in what the government called New Netherland. An early group, the United New Netherland Company, had been granted the rights to the area but had failed to do anything with them. The Dutch West India Company first established a trading post they called Fort Nassau in 1614. It was located near the modern-day city of Albany, New York.

First Contacts

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In 1624, the Dutch established their second settlement on Manhattan Island, which they called New Amsterdam. With settlements established on the North River, the Dutch decided to expand their trading area to the southern end of the land they claimed. In 1631, 33 Dutch settlers moved to a spot near modern-day Lewes, Delaware. They were impressed by the number of waterfowl that were in the area and called their settlement Zwaanendael, which means “valley of swans” in Dutch. The existence of Zwaanendael was short lived. When David Pieterssen de Vries arrived at the colony in December 1632, he found the settlement burned to the ground and the bones of the settlers lying where they had been killed by Native Americans. De Vries spent the winter at Zwaanendael, using it as a base for whaling operations off the coast. He left in the spring, fearing further conflict with the Lenni Lenape. It was 1638 before the next attempt was made to colonize the Delaware River area. In the meantime, the Lenni Lenape continued to trade furs with the occasional ship that visited the area. Despite the claims by the Dutch, Charles I made two grants of land in the area in 1632. The first went to Lord Baltimore and included everything between Virginia and 40° north latitude. This became the Colony of Maryland, and

This detail of a 17th-century map of New Netherland by Nicolaes Visscher is a vignette of New Amsterdam, which would later become New York City. (Library of Congress)

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By 1631, New Netherland had two settlements on the Hudson River. They established Zwaanendael on Delaware Bay to expand trade with the Indians.

the first settlers arrived in 1634. At the same time, Charles I granted all the land east of Delaware Bay to Edmund Plowden.This area was called New Albion, and Plowden never did anything to First Contacts

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3333333333 The Demise of Zwaanendael After discovering the bones of the settlers at Zwaanendael, de Vries was able to learn what happened from some of the Lenni Lenape, the Native Americans in the area. It seems that the Dutch had put up a metal coat of arms of the Netherlands on a post outside their main building. A Lenni Lenape who was trading with the settlers did not realize the importance of the coat of arms and took it, in hopes of making something useful out of the metal.

The Dutch settlers were so upset by what they thought was an attack on their country’s symbol that some of the Lenni Lenape found the thief and killed him to make amends. Seeking revenge for the hasty death of their relative, warriors from the thief’s family arrived at Zwaanendael pretending to want to trade with the Dutch settlers. Then they killed them all. This was the only battle fought between settlers and Native Americans in Delaware.

3333333333 develop a colony there. The grant would later be revoked.

THE LENNI LENAPE

Charles I granted some of the land that later became New Jersey to Edmund Plowden (shown here), but Plowden never tried to develop a colony there. (Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division [LC-USZ62-83721])

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At the time the Europeans arrived, there were approximately 40 different bands or groups of Lenni Lenape.The name Lenni Lenape translates as “the original people.”They lived in the Delaware River watershed, the lower reaches of the Hudson River, along the coastal plain of New Jersey, and throughout what would become Delaware. These people all spoke dialects of Algonquian languages and were divided by language into three distinct groups. The Lenni Lenape in the southern end of the area that includes Delaware spoke what are called Southern Unami dialects.The people in the middle of the area spoke Northern Unami–Unalachtigo dialects. In the northern reaches of their territory, the Lenni Lenape groups spoke what are called Munsee dialects.

Published in 1702 in a history of New Sweden written by Thomas Campanius Holm and known as Campanius’s, this image depicts a Lenni Lenape family. (University of Delaware Library)

The Lenni Lenape belonged to the cultural group of Native Americans that anthropologists and ethnographers refer to either as Eastern Woodland Indians or as Northeast Indians. Like all woodland Indians at the time, the Lenni Lenape lived in small bands or groups that depended on farming, hunting, and fishing for their survival. A single band of the Lenni Lenape would live in First Contacts

9

The Lenni Lenape, who were referred to as the Delaware by early European settlers, lived throughout the Delaware River watershed and are divided by their language variations.

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three or four places during the course of the year. In the spring and the summer, they lived in an area where they planted their crops. The primary crops of the Lenni Lenape were corn, beans, and a variety of squashes and gourds. Corn was the most important crop. It was the main staple of the Lenni Lenape diet and was prepared in a number of ways. Dried corn and beans were stored and eaten throughout the winter months. The Lenni Lenape cleared their fields by burning. When a field lost its fertility, a new area would be burned. In their fields, the Lenni Lenape made small hills of soil, and in each hill they placed a few corn seeds.The beans were planted around the corn hills.The cornstalks served as supports for the bean vines. They planted squash between the hills to maximize the use of the cleared land. In addition to the food crops, the Lenni Lenape, like many other Native American groups, grew small amounts of tobacco for smoking in pipes. The women of a band were primarily responsible for tending the crops.The Lenni Lenape men spent much of their time hunting and fishing. Fishing in the spring and summer was done in a variety of ways, from shore and from the canoes they made by shaping and scraping out logs. Large, weighted nets called seines, which could encircle a school of fish in shallow water; dip nets; hooks and lines; fish traps; and even bows and arrows were used to catch the

3333333333 Corn Corn, known as maize, was first domesticated 6,000 to 8,000 years ago in Central America. Its cultivation spread until it was being grown throughout the temperate regions of North America. Corn is a member of the grass family. Through careful seed selection and hybridization, Native Americans were able to develop many varieties of corn and adapt its growth to a wide range of climatic zones. In Pennsylvania, the

Native Americans grew three main varieties of corn. The most important type was dried and ground into cornmeal to make a variety of dishes. They also grew a variety of corn that was dried whole and added to soups and stews throughout the winter. It was also eaten fresh, like modern corn on the cob. They also cultivated a type of corn that was used as popcorn.

3333333333 First Contacts

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Corn was one of the primary crops and foods of the Lenni Lenape. (PhotoDisc)

Native Americans used almost every part of the whitetailed deer that they killed. (National Park Service)

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abundant fish in the rivers, lakes, and bays of the Lenni Lenape territory. The Lenni Lenape also gathered shellfish. Near the fishing camps around Delaware Bay and along the New Jersey coast, large mounds of shells accumulated. There are still remnants of these mounds at several locations in New Jersey, including near Barnegat and Tuckerton. Like many Eastern Woodland Indians, the Lenni Lenape used a variety of clamshells to create wampum for jewelry and trade. Fish and shellfish were usually dried by laying them out on racks in the sun. The dried fish were later added to soups and stews made with the corn, beans, and squash raised in the fields as well as wild plants. In addition to fish and shellfish, the Lenni Lenape hunted and ate all sorts of wild game. Deer was the most important game they pursued, and all parts of the animal were used in some way. The meat was eaten fresh as well as dried. The hide was used to make clothes.The bones and antlers were made into a wide variety of tools. The sinew, which connects the muscles to the bone, was used like string. Large groups of Lenni Lenape worked together to drive deer into large traps where they could be more easily harvested. During these deer drives, the Lenni Lenape often used fire to force the deer in an area to move toward their traps. These communal hunts required the cooperation of several bands of Lenni Lenape. In addition to deer, the Lenni Lenape harvested many other animals. Moose, bear, and many small animals and birds were hunted or trapped. In the

spring, many Lenni Lenape traveled to areas where the now-extinct passenger pigeon nested to gather the young birds called squab from the nest. Turkeys were also plentiful in the area of the Lenni Lenape. They ate turkeys and used the feathers as decoration for their clothing and headdresses. The Lenni Lenape had two similar types of shelters. At their hunting, fishing, and farming locations, they often built small huts known as wigwams by placing the ends of saplings (young, flexible trees) in the ground in a circle. They then bent the tops of the saplings into the middle to form a dome. The dome was covered with bark. The floors were covered with woven reed mats. In the winter, the Lenni Lenape tended to live in more permanent villages. The winter villages were often built on the top of the hills and were surrounded by a stockade or palisade made of logs. Inside the stockade, there would be a number of “longhouses.” Like a wigwam, a longhouse was also built using saplings, but instead of setting them in a circle, the Lenni Lenape would set saplings into two long rows. The tops of the saplings were then tied together to form a long, arched frame. The frame was covered with large sections of chestnut tree bark that were often six feet long.The largest longhouses were more than 100 feet long and 20 feet wide. A

In this illustration, published in a 1702 history of New Sweden, some Lenni Lenape longhouses are surrounded by a stockade, or a perimeter made of tall timbers, sharpened at one end and driven into the ground. (University of Delaware Library)

First Contacts

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3333333333 Wampum The Lenni Lenape, like many other Native American groups along the East Coast of North America, made beads using clamshells. They used a variety of clamshells to create white beads, which were always the most plentiful. They used the quahog clamshell to produce dark colored beads that ranged in color from black to purple and blue. The beads were then strung on leather or hemp twine and fashioned into belts and jewelry. Much of the wampum was used for decoration, but some wampum belts used a series of symbols that depicted a story or sent a message from one group to another. The Native Americans who had access to the coast often traded wampum for goods with other Native Americans in the interior of the continent. Historical accounts of contacts with the Lenni Lenape indicate that they were experts at fashioning elaborate items using wampum. The colonists soon began to use wampum as money. In the early years of the American colonies, there was little or no money available. At first, people exchanged food as a form of currency, but this had many drawbacks—the major one being its perishable nature. If the food was not consumed, the person accepting the food

would soon lose his or her profit. To solve this problem, the colonists began to accept wampum in exchange for goods, and the colonial governments set exchange rates.

With uses ranging from recording agreements to sending messages, wampum became more important in trade for Native American tribes after the arrival of European explorers and settlers. (National Archives, Still Picture Records, NWDNS-106-IN-18A)

3333333333 longhouse of this size was divided into family sections, and as many as seven to 10 families lived in it. Along the peak of the roof of the longhouse, a slot was left open to allow the smoke from the cooking fires to escape. 14

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Throughout the winter, the families in a longhouse prepared their meals in large clay pots, and they primarily ate soups and stews. The floors of the longhouse were covered with woven mats. Similarly decorated mats covered the walls. Their beds were made from the hides of animals with the fur left on for comfort and warmth.The family sections of the longhouse were divided by partitions, and each family had its own cooking fire. Among the Lenni Lenape, as with many Native American groups, there was very little in the way of private property, and the survival of the band depended on the cooperation of the group. When Europeans first arrived in New Netherland, the Lenni Lenape were eager to trade with them for metal goods, cloth, and

Published in Historia general de las cosas de Nueva España in the 1570s, this illustration shows Aztec people sick with smallpox. Native Americans suffered great losses from the influx of European diseases that accompanied colonization. (PhotoDisc)

First Contacts

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other manufactured items they did not have. The Europeans wanted to get the pelts of various animals, especially beaver, which were in high demand in Europe. As the colonists spread out, they adopted many Lenni Lenape names for places and geographical features of areas that are still used today. William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania and governor of Delaware when it was taken over by the English, treated the Lenni Lenape and other Native American groups better than other European leaders did. However, the Lenni Lenape suffered from exposure to European diseases that were previously unknown in North America, and to which they had no immunity. Diseases such as chicken pox, measles, and smallpox killed many more Lenni Lenape than ever died in direct conflict with the colonists. As more and more colonists flooded into the Lenni Lenape territory, armed conflicts arose with the Dutch in the eastern areas. Eventually, those Lenni Lenape who survived the fighting and European diseases migrated westward. The remaining Lenni Lenape ended up on reservations in the Midwest and West. Today, there is an active group of Native Americans who consider themselves the descendants of the Delaware and Pennsylvania Lenni Lenape.

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2 3

New Sweden CONFLICTING CLAIMS FOR DELAWARE

B

ased on the voyage of Henry Hudson and the establishment of the failed Zwaanendael colony, the Dutch considered the lands along the Delaware River and Bay to be theirs. The English also claimed the area because of the voyages of John Cabot in the 15th century. Based on this claim, Charles I, king of England,

Charles I granted land between the Potomac and Delaware Rivers to Cecilius Calvert, Lord Baltimore (shown above left), following the death of his father, George Calvert (above right). Calvert used it to establish the colony of Maryland. (Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division [LC-USZ62-102742])

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The Dutch had established a colonial settlement named Zwaanendael near present-day Lewes, Delaware, in 1631 that lasted only about a year, which enabled them to claim the land bordering Delaware Bay. In this engraving, four Dutch ships explore a bay. (Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division [LC-USZ62-71451])

granted the lands between the Potomac River and east along 40° north latitude to the Delaware River to Cecilius Calvert, Lord Baltimore. 18

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Lord Baltimore was a Catholic who proceeded to establish a haven for Catholics in English North America that he called Maryland. Catholics in England were persecuted for their beliefs by the Protestant majority. It appeared that Charles I had given Lord Baltimore all of the land that would become Delaware. However, the charter from the king gave Lord Baltimore the rights only to land that had been “hitherto uncultivated” by Europeans. The fact that the Dutch had established Zwaanendael in 1631, and “cultivated” the land there, gave validity to their claim along the Delaware. The other factor involved in keeping Delaware from becoming part of Maryland was that no one from Maryland had settled there. In the struggle for colonies, the land claims were often huge and sometimes extended from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. However, the reality of the situation restricted colonies to what they could settle and hold. The fact that neither the Dutch nor the English had established colonies there left Delaware open for the Swedes to attempt to establish an American colony.

THE DUTCH-SWEDISH CONNECTION Before his death in 1632, Gustavus Adolph, king of Sweden, had made his country a military power in northern Europe. Through a number of wars, Sweden ended up in control of almost all of the shoreline of the Baltic Sea. Although New Sweden

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in control of the shores, they did not have a sufficient fleet of merchant ships to support all the trade that was going in and out of Swedish ports. To supply the needs of Sweden, more than half the ships entering Swedish ports were Dutch, and they carried more than three-quarters of the goods. The connection between Sweden and the Dutch was so extensive that when Gustavus Adolph had the new city of Gothenburg built to give Sweden a port on the Atlantic, more than half of the 18-member city council were Dutch. Dutch was the second language of the city as the two groups cooperated to make Sweden one of the most prosperous countries in Europe at the time. Because of this close connection between the Swedes and Dutch merchants, when members of the Dutch West India Company became unhappy with the way the company was being run, they turned to the Swedish king for help to compete for the Amer-

Gustavus Adolph ruled as king of Sweden from 1611 until 1632. He died during the Battle of Lützen in 1632, shown here. (Bettman/Corbis)

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ican fur trade. In 1626, a Dutch-backed company called the South Company was formed to pursue foreign trade in the Americas and elsewhere. The company never raised enough money to attempt a

3333333333 Queen Christina (1626–1689) Queen Christina was the head of Sweden from her father’s death in 1632 until she abdicated the throne in 1654. From 1632 until 1644, she was queen in name only, as the country was ruled by Count Axel Oxenstierna and a board of regents. When Christina turned 18 in 1644, she became the actual leader of Sweden. During her

reign, she tried to increase the power of the monarchy by allying herself with the lower house of the Swedish government in their battle with the country’s nobility. Christina is reported to have been an intellectual who was influenced by the French philosopher René Descartes, who lived in Sweden during part of her reign. The long years of her father’s wars caused numerous economic problems for Sweden that Christina was unable to solve. Christina never married and therefore had no direct heir. When she decided to step down as queen in 1654, she named her cousin Charles the new king. Christina then announced to her Lutheran subjects that she had decided to become a Catholic. She then left Sweden and moved to Rome, where she stayed for the rest of her life.

Daughter of Gustavus Adolph, Christina was queen of Sweden from 1632 until 1654. She did not actually assume rule of the country until she turned 18 in 1644. (Bettman/Corbis)

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major effort in North America, and it never realized the profits that its investors had hoped for. When Gustavus Adolph died in battle in 1632, it looked like Sweden’s interest in North America died with him. His daughter Christina became the queen of Sweden upon her father’s death. However, Christina was only six years old at the time, and a board of regents led by Count Axel Oxenstierna ruled the country. The Dutch in Sweden were still interested in competing with the Dutch West India Company, and in 1637 a charter was granted to a new Dutch-Swedish company called the New Sweden Company. To keep the Swedes interested in the America venture, Oxenstierna and other members of the Swedish government were made members of the New Sweden Company. The primary Dutch members of the company were Samuel Blommaert and Peter Minuit. Minuit had been the director general of New Amsterdam and had been fired for looking after the interests of his friends at the cost of profits for the Dutch West India Company.

NEW SWEDEN In November 1637, two ships, the Key of Kalmar (Kalmar Nyckel) and the Griffin (Vogel Grip) left Gothenburg, Sweden, under the command of Peter Minuit. Although the ships were Swedish, the captains and at least half of the crews were Dutch. After being forced back to port by fierce storms in the North Atlantic, the two ships were able to head out across the ocean on December 31, 1637. They arrived in Delaware Bay sometime around the middle of March 1638. Much as he had in New Amsterdam, Minuit met with local Native Americans and purchased land for the colony of New Sweden. The land he bought ran along the western shore of the Delaware River and Bay from what is now known as Duck Creek north to the Schuylkill River where Philadelphia is now situated. Minuit picked a spot two miles up a river the Dutch called the Minquas Kill (Kill is Dutch for “river”), after the Native American group who used the river to attack the Lenni Lenape of the area. The Swedes renamed it the Christina River and built Fort Christina where the Brandywine River joined the Christina. At this spot, there is a stone outcrop in the river known as the Rocks 22

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Swedish settlers led by the Dutchman Peter Minuit settled near what would become Wilmington, Delaware.

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that forms a natural pier. The Swedish settlement was on what is today the east side of Wilmington, Delaware, and was the first permanent European settlement in what would become Delaware. In June 1638, Minuit left Måns Kling in charge of 24 settlers at Fort Christina and left for Europe on the Key of Kalmar. Minuit died during a storm at sea, but the ship returned to Europe with a cargo of 700 fur pelts and a quantity of tobacco. Although the furs were valuable and the tobacco would play an important role in the growth of the colony, the arrival of the Key of Kalmar from New Sweden served more to annoy the Dutch West India Company over the invasion of their territory than it was able to turn a profit for Blommaert and his Swedish partners.

3333333333 Peter Minuit (1580–1638) Peter Minuit is remembered by historians for his role in establishing the Dutch colony on Manhattan Island. It is reported that he exchanged approximately 60 guilders’

($24) worth of trade goods with a group of Native Americans for the island. Most likely the Native Americans assumed that the Dutch were just paying to use their land, as they did not have the same ideas about property ownership the Europeans had. After leading the Swedish settlers to the west bank of the Delaware River, Minuit died at sea during a hurricane on his trip back to Europe in 1638.

Peter Minuit governed New Netherland and founded New Sweden. (Library of Congress)

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Published in Thomas Campanius Holm’s 1702 history of New Sweden, a diagram of Fort Christina shows its location on the Christina River in Delaware Bay (present-day Wilmington, Delaware). (Delaware Public Archives, Dover, Delaware)

Before leaving, Minuit had sent the Griffin south to see if they could establish trade with the Virginia settlements or farther to the south in the Caribbean. As a trading mission, the voyage of the GrifNew Sweden

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fin was a failure. The Virginians were suspicious and did not want to trade with them. There was little success among the islands of the Caribbean. However, one significant event did occur on the voyage: An African slave was purchased. When the ship returned to Fort Christina, the slave became the first African American in Delaware and set the stage for the use of slaves on the farms of the colony. In April 1639, the Griffin headed back to Sweden with a cargo of 1,500 furs. The soldiers left behind in America most likely had a hard time of it in the winter of 1639–40, and rumors circulated in the Netherlands that the Swedes in New Sweden were ready to move to New Amsterdam if they did not soon get relief from Sweden. Although the Dutch partners were reluctant to invest more in the New Sweden venture, the Key of Kalmar was made ready to return to Fort Christina in February 1640. The Dutchman Peter Hollander Ridder sailed with them as the new governor of New Sweden. Since the economic problems that later contributed to Queen Christina giving up her throne had not yet disrupted the prosperity of Sweden, it was difficult to find Swedes who were willing to leave home for the uncertainties of the American wilderness.To get colonists, the Swedish government banished some army deserters and minor criminals to New Sweden. They also captured some Finns who had illegally crossed the border between Finland and Sweden and had tried to established farms. Some of these Finns were also sent to New Sweden. None of these people were violent criminals, and many of them became prosperous farmers in New Sweden. It was so hard to get colonists that the Swedish government also granted a group of Dutch farmers from Utrecht the right to settle in New Sweden. At first, it appeared as though a large number of Dutch farmers would head for New Sweden. However, when they shipped out to America, only about 50 families actually went.

A NEW GOVERNOR FOR NEW SWEDEN Governor Ridder did little to improve the situation in New Sweden. He is credited with purchasing more land from the Lenni Lenape

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for the colony. New Sweden grew to include the west bank of Delaware Bay and River from Cape Henlopen to the first falls upriver, at modern-day Trenton, New Jersey. During his brief time as governor, he was at the center of conflicts between the recent Dutch arrivals and the Swedish and Finnish colonists. Shortly after Ridder arrived in New Sweden, events in Sweden changed the situation in New Sweden for the better. In 1641, the Swedish government, along with Oxenstierna and some of his relatives, bought out their Dutch partners. With Oxenstierna in charge of the government and the New Sweden Company, the company now had the direct support of the government. One of the first orders of business was to send out a Swede to serve as governor of the colony. The company recruited Lieutenant Colonel Johan Printz, an unassigned army officer, to take over running New Sweden. It was a big job, but Printz was up to the task both in size and determination. Printz was almost seven feet tall and weighed close to 400 pounds. In many ways, Governor Printz turned out to be the right person for the job.When he arrived in the colony in February 1643, Printz not only worked for the New Sweden Company but was also a government official and an army officer. He arrived at Fort Christina with his wife and the younger of his six children. In addition to his family, he brought more soldiers and settlers once again drawn from the ranks of deserters, debtors, and small-time criminals. The Key of Kalmar, which was making its third and final trip to America, was also loaded with supplies that were much needed by the colony. Printz brought Johan Printz governed New Sweden for 10 years. Clear grain and peas for planting, as well as in this portrait of Printz is his formidable size and muskets, clothing, paper, wax, wine, and presence. (American Swedish Historical Museum, malt for making beer. There was also Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)

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3333333333 Johan Printz (1592–1663) Early in his life, Johan Printz was educated to became a Lutheran minister and attended college in Germany. When his father, a minister, died, it is reported that Johan spent some time preaching in his father’s church in Bottnyard, Sweden, although there is no record of the younger Printz having been ordained. In 1620, while he was traveling in Germany, his life took an unexpected twist. Printz was kidnapped by a wandering group of mercenary soldiers (men who fought for whoever was willing to pay them). Rather than ransom himself from his captors, he joined them and hired on as a mercenary and at different times fought for the Germans, Austrians, and Danes. When he returned to Sweden in 1625, he enlisted

in the Swedish army and rose through the ranks until he became a lieutenant colonel, leading a unit in a war with Germany. During a battle with a much larger German force in 1640, Printz’s soldiers were defeated, and he returned to Sweden without permission from his commanders. He was arrested and court-martialed for his actions. The court found him innocent of any wrongdoing during the battle but found him guilty of leaving his post without permission. The Lenni Lenape called him “Big Belly” because of his size. After 10 years as governor of New Sweden, he returned home, where he was made governor of the area where he had grown up. In 1663, Johan Printz died after a riding accident.

3333333333 livestock on board to improve the food production of the colony. As governor, Printz saw to it that New Sweden expanded and became self-sufficient.

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3 3

Life in New Sweden EXPANSION

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hen Governor Printz arrived in New Sweden in 1643, he was concerned about the position of the capital at Fort Christina. He thought it was too vulnerable to attack. He also had instructions to increase Swedish control on the Delaware. His first act was to purchase land from the Lenni Lenape on the east coast of Delaware Bay and River from Cape May upriver to near modernday Trenton, New Jersey. On the east side, at the mouth of Salem Creek, he had Fort Elfsborg built. To control the river and to give himself a more secure capital, Printz moved the main Swedish settlement to Tinicum Island in the river just south of what would become Philadelphia. He called the new capital New Gothenburg, after the Swedish port. This is the first permanent settlement in the area that would become Pennsylvania. In addition to a fort, the governor had a house built for himself and his family. It was called Printzhof (Printz Hall) and, unlike the majority of homes in New Sweden, it was two stories tall, had brick fireplaces, and glass in the By 1647, nine years after the first settlers had arrived, New windows. Sweden had only three small settlements around its forts. 29

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Located in present-day Wilmington, Delaware, the interior of this Swedish church, built in 1698, is much more elaborate than most homes were at the time. (Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division [HABS, DEL, 2-WILM, 1-21])

Under the governor’s direction, the colony soon had a water mill and a brewery. The first Lutheran church in North America was built at Fort Christina in 1643. However, by 1647, there were still fewer than 200 people in New Sweden. This made it hard for the governor to expand the colony further. The Dutch, Swedish, and Finnish settlers were spread out around the forts: Christina, New Gothenburg, and Elfsborg. Despite the small size of the colony, many of the colonists were well suited for life in America.

IMPROVING THE LAND In the 17th century, most of the forests of England and France had long since been cut down. The remaining woodlands were often reserved as the private hunting grounds of the nobility. In Scandi30

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navia, the situation was very different. Much of northern Europe was still forested, and many of the Finns and Swedes who were sent to New Sweden had lived along the forested frontiers of the two countries. They had experience clearing land and putting to good use the wood harvested from the forest. It was in this area that the settlers in New Sweden made their greatest contribution to the American experience. Many had lived in houses made of logs, and it seemed only natural to take advantage of the forests of North America. Most of the settlers in New Sweden made log cabins as the first dwellings on their farms. In the years that followed, the log cabin became the most common shelter along the American frontier. Living in their log cabins, the colonists at first had difficulty growing enough food to support the colony. However, as more

Shown in a 1934 photograph, an old stone church known as Old Swedes Church or Holy Trinity Church in present-day Wilmington, Delaware, was built by Swedish colonists in 1698. The church and surrounding burial ground remain in use. (Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division [HABS, DEL,2-WILM,1-15])

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3333333333 Building a Log Cabin The first log cabins in America were simple structures that required only an ax and logs to build. A small cabin was laid out by first leveling a piece of ground that would be packed hard to serve as the cabin’s floor. Next, notched logs would be laid out to form the base of the walls. An opening would be left for the doorway. The cabin builder would then notch additional logs that would be set on top of the base logs. The notches caused the walls to lock together and reduced the space between the logs. If large logs were used, only four or five rows of logs were needed to create

the walls. The space between the logs was packed with moss and mud to keep out the weather. The gable ends were formed by stacking shorter and shorter logs until the peak of the roof was reached. The roof was made by using smaller logs, which were then covered with bark to make it watertight. A hole was left in the roof for the smoke from the cooking fire, often an open fire made directly on the dirt floor. As time went by, a stone or brick fireplace might be added as well as a wooden floor, shingled roof, and windows.

3333333333 land was cleared and additional seed was sent from Sweden the colonists became self-sufficient. They grew corn from seed they had traded for with the Lenni Lenape, as well as European crops like rye and barley. Each expedition to New Sweden brought more

3333333333 Tobacco When Christopher Columbus first arrived in the Caribbean in 1492, he observed the people there smoking the leaves of a plant through a tube they called a “tobago.” They also rolled some of these leaves tightly with another leaf, making the equivalent of a modern cigar, which they also smoked. Columbus introduced “tobacco,” as he called it, to Spain. From there, it spread throughout Europe, first as a medicine

claimed to cure all sorts of ailments. Then, by the end of the 16th century, pipes and cigars were smoked throughout Europe for enjoyment. Tobacco became the major export of the colonies from the Delaware River south to North Carolina. Many historians agree that without tobacco as a cash crop, many colonies such as Virginia and possibly New Sweden would have failed.

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The settlers of New Sweden built log cabins, which slowly became common on the American frontier. (Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division [HABS, MD,16-ETCH,1-3])

livestock, and the colony gradually established herds of cattle, sheep, pigs, and goats. One crop that proved well suited for the climate of New Sweden was tobacco. This was a plant that most Native Americans in North America were familiar with.They smoked it in pipes during a variety of social and religious ceremonies. Many early explorers and settlers in North America sent tobacco back to Europe, where it became increasingly popular. In New Sweden, farmers put so much effort into growing tobacco to sell that there were often shortages of food. In the first few years that Johan Printz was governor, this was not a problem because supplies arrived from Sweden in 1644, 1646, and 1647. Fortunately, by the time the last supply ship arrived in 1647, Life in New Sweden

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Governor Printz had improved farming practices.

ISOLATION AND INVASIONS From 1647 until 1653, there was no communication from Sweden to the colony. Governor Printz continued to rule with a firm hand. One ship, loaded with colonists, was sent out during that time but it sank in a storm. Many felt that the governor was a little too strict in the way he ran the colony. Not only was he governor, but he also served as judge and prosecutor. Printz wrote regularly to Sweden asking for an assistant to help him with all his duties, but he never heard back from the government in Sweden. In 1653, 22 members of the colony signed a petition claiming that the governor was conducting the business of the colony for his own profit. They also stated that he dealt with unnecessary brutality toward people who opposed his actions. Printz’s reaction to the petition probably proved that the complaints were in part justified. Anders Jönsson, the leader of the Tobacco, the plant in this 18th-century drawing, was protest, was arrested. Then, with Printz as an important, profitable crop to many people in the prosecutor and judge, he was quickly concolonies. (National Archives of Canada) victed and executed. As brutal as he was with his own colonists, Printz was very successful in dealing with the Lenni Lenape. He may have understood that the small colony of New Sweden had to be fair and just with their Native American trading partners. The Lenni Lenape could easily have eliminated New Sweden and the governor’s three dozen soldiers if they had wanted to. Despite the good relations with the Lenni Lenape, the fur trade dwindled after trade goods stopped arriving from Sweden. The nearby Dutch in New Netherland picked up the slack as they traded with the Lenni Lenape and other tribes further to the north. 34

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Despite the governor’s good relations with the Lenni Lenape, there were numerous conflicts between Europeans and the Lenni Lenape on the outskirts of the settlements. Some colonists were killed in Indian attacks, and many others died of disease. Many believe that the shortages of food in New Sweden contributed to the loss of colonists. Still other colonists left for Maryland,Virginia, and New Netherland. During this time, both the Dutch and the British were allies of Sweden in the Thirty Years’ War (1618–48), and the governments in Europe agreed to leave one anothers’ colonies alone. Although the official policy in Europe might have been hands off, in the other colonies, people had their eyes on the area of New Sweden. Puritans who had settled in New Haven, Connecticut, tried to establish a colony on the Salem River near what is now Salem, New Jersey. Without ships arriving from Sweden, the people in New Sweden had become dependent on trading with the other North American colonies. Merchants from New Haven and other New England colonies regularly called at Fort Christina. Although the New Haven colonists abandoned their New Jersey outpost in the late 1640s, they continued to claim land along the Delaware. The Dutch also renewed their claims in the area after the Thirty Years’ War ended in Europe. Peter Stuyvesant became the governor of New Netherland in 1647. Like Johan Printz in New Sweden, Stuyvesant ruled his colony with a strong hand. However, unlike New Sweden, New Netherland grew and prospered. At first, Stuyvesant’s superiors in the Netherlands instructed him to leave New Sweden alone. Although the Dutch had established a trading post called Fort Nassau upriver from New Sweden, it was on the east side of the river, which made it hard to trade with the Lenni Lenape and other tribes to the west. Stuyvesant finally took matters into his own hands and sent a fleet of 11 ships to Delaware Bay in summer 1651. He also sent a force of 120 men Peter Stuyvesant became director of New to Fort Nassau to strengthen the Dutch position Netherland in 1647. (Delaware Public Archives) Life in New Sweden

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3333333333 Peter Stuyvesant (ca. 1610–1672) Peter Stuyvesant was born in the Netherlands and shipped out to the Dutch West Indies as a soldier in 1625. Nine years later, he had risen to the position of governor of Curaçao, which was a colony of the Dutch West India Company. He remained governor until 1644, when he was seriously injured in a battle to take the island of Saint Martin away from the Portuguese. Due to his wounds, the surgeons were forced to

amputate his right leg. Stuyvesant returned to the Netherlands, where he had a wooden leg made. In 1647, he was sent to New Amsterdam to take over control of New Netherland. Although often criticized by the colonists in New Netherland, Stuyvesant remained governor until 1664, when a British fleet sailed into New Amsterdam’s harbor and forced the colony to surrender.

3333333333 on the east bank of the Delaware. Stuyvesant’s ships landed on a sandy point about seven miles downriver from Fort Christina. Here he bought land from the Lenni Lenape. This was at least the third time that this same area was sold to Europeans. Because Native Americans did not have the same ideas about property ownership as the Europeans, they may not have understood what they were doing. On the other hand, if the Europeans wanted to keep paying for the same piece of land, maybe the Lenni Lenape were just being shrewd businesspeople by repeatedly taking their money. The Dutch built Fort Casimir on the site that would eventually become New Castle, Delaware. In addition to the fort, about two dozen Dutch settlers moved to the area. Governor Printz was extremely upset by this bold move by the Dutch. However, his dwindling colony was in no position to drive out the 36

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Dutch. Printz and the other residents of New Sweden were forced to accept their new neighbors, who now controlled the water approach to New Sweden. By this time, Printz was fed up with his lack of support from Sweden and sent his oldest son, Gustaf Printz, to plead his case at home. Gustaf was successful, and in 1654 a ship, the Eagle, was outfitted to relieve the colony. But Governor Printz became impatient and took the rest of his family to New Amsterdam, where they boarded a ship for Europe. The governor’s trip took more than three months, and storms forced an early landing in France. It was another two months before he finally got to Sweden, where he learned that help had been sent to New Sweden with Johan Rising and 350 colonists to aid the colony. People and supplies were what New Sweden needed. Thirty of the residents of New Sweden had traveled

To establish a claim in the Delaware area, the Dutch built Fort Casimir on the land on the western bank of the Delaware River that would later become New Castle, Delaware. This drawing of Fort Casimir was published in Thomas Campanius Holm’s 1702 history of New Sweden. (University of Delaware Library)

This undated image shows Peter Stuyvesant’s army entering New Amsterdam. Stuyvesant governed New Netherland from 1647 until 1664, when England assumed control of the colony. (Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division [LC-USS62-84371])

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with the governor, and the population of New Sweden was probably below 100. Rising arrived to find the Dutch Fort Casimir guarding the approach to New Sweden.When he fired a salute with the cannons of the Eagle, which was the custom of the time, the salute was not returned. Suspecting that the small fort with its few cannons did not have the powder to answer his salute, Rising decided to eliminate the problem of having a Dutch fort in New Sweden. He easily captured the fort without really fighting for it. The Dutch settlers were allowed to stay as long as they pledged allegiance to New Sweden. Rising had been instructed to tolerate the Dutch and claimed that the taking over of Fort Casimir had been done by peaceful means. It was a technicality that meant little to the easily angered governor of New Netherland. With the consent of the Dutch West India Company, Peter Stuyvesant made plans to settle the question of who controlled the Delaware once and for all.

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The Dutch and Then the English Take Over Delaware THE END OF NEW SWEDEN

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fter Johan Rising arrived in New Sweden and captured Fort Casimir from the Dutch, the final days for New Sweden had begun. From the beginning, the colony had lacked support from Sweden and had never attracted the number of colonists needed to make it succeed. Some of the colonists had become successful farmers who sold their tobacco to New England merchants and in Virginia, but overall the colony was doomed. When Rising asked officials in Maryland to send back colonists from New Sweden who had fled there to avoid the harsh treatment of Governor Printz, he was instead told that Maryland considered New Sweden to be on land granted to Lord Baltimore. In 1655, there were fewer than 500 people in all of New Sweden, and more than 300 of them had arrived with Rising in 1654. Rising focused his attention on building up the area around Fort Christina and laid out a new town that he called Christinahamn. However, in New Amsterdam plans were being made to make the Delaware area once again part of New Netherland. New Sweden might have been better prepared for what Stuyvesant was planning had the Golden Shark landed at Fort Christina instead of Raritan Bay in New Netherland. The Golden Shark had left 39

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Sweden two months after the Eagle with more colonists and supplies for New Sweden. However, the Dutch master of the ship missed Delaware Bay and entered Raritan Bay, between New Jersey and Staten Island in New Netherland. Supposedly the ship was seized by Peter Stuyvesant when it was sent to New Amsterdam for a pilot to guide it. Whether the Dutch master of the Golden Shark was aware of the problems between New Netherland and New Sweden is unknown. Most have assumed that the diversion of Golden Shark into Dutch territory was a legitimate error. Stuyvesant was able to convince the settlers on the ship to stay in New Netherland, and he was soon ready to take over the Swedish colony. On August 31, 1655, a Dutch fleet of seven ships sailed into Delaware Bay. On board were Governor Stuyvesant and more than 300 soldiers, almost as many soldiers as there were people in New Sweden. When the Dutch ships lined up to begin shelling Fort Casimir, which the Swedes called Fort Trinity, an argument broke out between two of the Swedish leaders in the fort. They had only 75 men and a few cannons. The commander, Sven Skute, wanted to surrender. Peter Lindeström and a few of his followers were ready to fight to the death to defend New Sweden from the Dutch. As they argued about whether to fight or surrender, what would turn out to be the only casualty took place. One of the Swedish soldiers tried to go over the wall of the fort to get away from the impending battle. He was shot in the leg by one of the Swedish officers. Skute prevailed, and the fort was surrendered to the Dutch on September 1, 1655. Stuyvesant then moved his force up to Fort Christina and prepared for a siege. His soldiers set up artillery on the south side of the Christina River while the ships got in position to bombard the fort. With the soldiers at Fort Casimir in captivity and many of the other residents of New Sweden seeking safety in Fort Christina, the Dutch soldiers raided the countryside, destroying farms and killing livestock. Although little damage was done, the Dutch periodically fired on the fort for two weeks. At that point, Johan Rising tried to negotiate with Stuyvesant. Total surrender was the only terms that Stuyvesant would accept. Rising polled those in Fort Christina, and they voted unanimously to surrender to the Dutch. In the end, Ris-

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In this 1890 illustration, Peter Stuyvesant and his army assume control of Fort Christina in 1655. (New York Public Library)

ing actually received decent terms from Stuyvesant. Anyone who wanted to could stay and be a citizen of New Netherland. Anyone who wanted to leave would receive free passage back to Europe. In addition, Rising was to get a substantial amount of money for himself. It looked like the end of New Sweden. However, while waiting for the response from Rising and the people of New Sweden, Stuyvesant got upsetting news from New Amsterdam. It seemed that a Native American girl had been shot by a farmer when she picked one of his peaches. In retaliation, more than 100 colonists had been killed and 150 others had been captured in what has become known as the Peach War. Most of the farms in and around New Amsterdam had been abandoned, and the settlers had fled into the town. Stuyvesant needed to leave immediately, and he offered to give New Sweden back to Rising. It is not known for sure why Rising

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did not take his colony back, but he refused. Some have speculated he wanted the money Stuyvesant offered more than he wanted to run the struggling colony of New Sweden. Others have pointed out that once Stuyvesant had settled the Peach War, it would have been easy for him to return to the Delaware and recapture New Sweden. In the end, the treaty between Rising and Stuyvesant was signed on September 15, 1655.This was the end of any attempt by Sweden to have a colony in North America. However, most of the settlers there decided to stay, and the area continued to be dominated by Swedes and Finns. Rising was only able to persuade fewer than 40 people to return to Europe with him when he left in October. Despite the end of New Sweden, conditions had changed in northern Europe, and there was finally interest in Scandinavia for people to leave for America. Before news that Stuyvesant had captured New Sweden reached Europe, the Mercury sailed from Gothenburg, Sweden, and brought 100 new settlers to the Delaware area. At first, Dutch officials refused to let them land. However, a message from local colonists convinced the new arrivals to sail upriver and land there. Once ashore, the new colonists were allowed to stay. It has been speculated that the Dutch officials were afraid of upsetting the Scandinavian majority along the Delaware.

THE CITY AND THE COMPANY COLONIES In 1657, after Stuyvesant captured New Sweden, a deal was struck in Amsterdam that would divide the former colony of New Sweden into two parts. The Dutch West India Company would remain in control of the land from the Christina River north, which included Altena, the town that would become Wilmington, Delaware. This was called the Company Colony and was governed by an assistant to Peter Stuyvesant. The part of the area from the Christina River south to Bombay Hook was sold for 700,000 guilders (Dutch currency) to a group of civic leaders in the city of Amsterdam in the Netherlands. This became known as the City Colony. The Company Colony renamed the area around Fort Christina, Altena, and this became the center of the northern colony. Seven miles away, the City Colony renamed the area around Fort Casimir 42

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New Amstel, after a city in Holland, and this became their capital. The area around New Amstel was mostly marshland, and the Dutch did as they had done at home: They built a series of dikes and drained the marshes. During the time the Dutch ruled the colonies on the Delaware, progress was made in giving the settlers there a chance to participate in governing themselves. Peter Stuyvesant had been compelled to give the people of New Amsterdam a say in their government, and those rights were extended to the Company Colony. At the same time, the City Colony also instituted limited

The town of Altena, which would later become present-day Wilmington, Delaware, was grouped with the Company Colony when New Sweden was divided into two colonies in 1657. This historical map shows Wilmington in 1772. (Delaware Public Archives)

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3333333333 The Dikes of the Netherlands Today, about half of the land of the Netherlands is below sea level. Over time, the Dutch have built a series of dikes to hold back the sea. They then dug canals to help drain the land behind the dikes. Water is constantly pumped from the canals into the sea. In the past, more than 9,000 windmills were in operation in the Netherlands. Many of them were used to pump water out of the canals to keep the land behind

the dikes dry and usable. The first area drained was known as the Waddenzee and is now populated by numerous towns and farms. In 1932, the Dutch completed a much more ambitious series of dikes and began draining the Zuider Zee, a large shallow bay. Much of the land that used to be under the Zuider Zee has been reclaimed. The reclamation project continues today.

3333333333 participation for the colonists in the governing of their part of the colony. Peter Stuyvesant and leaders in Amsterdam, where the headquarters for both the City and Company Colonies were located, realized that New Netherland and especially its outposts on the Delaware were wedged in between serious threats from English colonies to the north and south.To try and hold onto as much land as possible, a small garrison was sent south to the former site of Zwaanendael to reestablish the Dutch claim there. Although people kept coming to the colonies, they were often more of a burden than a help. The colony needed farmers and woodsmen to clear the land, but many of the people who arrived via Amsterdam were artisans who knew trades such as weaving, clothes-making, and shoemaking. The colony was not yet prosperous enough to support these people in their chosen fields, and many of them were unsuited and/or unwilling to turn their hands to the hard work of clearing the forest and working the land. Feeding all these new arrivals put a burden on the small colonies. Although there were no reports of starvation, a number of people died of disease, and malnutrition probably contributed to that. Also, a number of settlers left the Delaware colonies for New Amsterdam or the English colonies to the south where conditions were better. The flight from the Delaware 44

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Located in New Castle, Delaware, this house, shown in a 1936 photograph, was probably built by Dutch settlers near the end of the 17th century. (Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division [HABS, DEL,2-NEWCA, 26-1])

3333333333 Mennonites In 1663, a different type of colonist arrived in the City Colony. These were the followers of Peter Cornelisson Plockhoy and were members of the Mennonite religious sect, a conservative Protestant group. The 24 Mennonite families that arrived at the former site of Zwaanendael planned to

begin a utopian community in the New World. Many Mennonites later settled in Pennsylvania. They believe in living a simple agricultural life, dress in plain, dark clothes, and have not adopted many modern conveniences, such as electricity and automobiles.

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colonies to Maryland drew the attention from officials in that colony to their neighbors on the Delaware. Maryland still believed that its charter included all the lands south of 40° north latitude east to the Delaware River and Bay. In conversations between the Dutch and officials from Maryland, who threatened the Delaware colonies, it was again pointed out that the English charter excluded lands that were under cultivation by other Europeans. The fact that the Dutch had been in Zwaanendael before Lord Baltimore was given the charter for Maryland seemed to give the Dutch the right to be there. However, as was the case with the Swedes, in colonial times, it was not what one claimed but what one could defend that mattered.

THE END OF NEW NETHERLAND During the years when Sweden and the Netherlands vied for the lands along the Delaware, the situation in England had been chaotic. First, the British king, Charles I, was overthrown by a Puritan rebellion and then executed in 1649. Oliver Cromwell, the Puritan leader, headed the government of Britain for the next 10 years. After Cromwell’s death, the Puritans were unable to maintain control of the country. On April 23, 1661, Charles II (1630–85) was crowned king and the monarchy was restored. Charles II was Charles I’s oldest son, and he had spent the years between his father’s execution and becoming king living in exile. As king, Charles II had many supporters that he wanted to reward. Foremost among them was his younger brother James. James became the duke of York and Albany as well as lord high admiral of the British navy. In addition, in 1664, his brother gave him a grant to a large tract of land in North America that was not yet an English colony. The main part of the land grant to James was all the land between the Connecticut and Delaware Rivers. Charles II ruled England, Scotland, and Ireland There was one problem with James’s land from 1660 until his death in 1685. (Library of grant: Most of it was already settled by the Dutch Congress, Prints and Photographs Division [LC-USZ62-96910]) as New Netherland. The solution for the head of 46

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After his brother, Charles II, had become king of England, James, duke of York and Albany, was granted all the lands in North America that were claimed as part of New Netherland by the Dutch.

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3333333333 James, Duke of York and Albany, Later King James II (1633–1701) In 1649, King Charles I was removed from the throne and executed after a Puritan revolution in England. His two sons, Charles, prince of Wales, and James, duke of York and (later) Albany, were forced to spend more than 10 years living in exile while the Puritan Oliver Cromwell ran England. Charles lived in poverty in the Netherlands, and James went to Spain, where he joined the Spanish navy in its war against Protestant England. When the English monarchy was restored in 1660, James’s older brother became Charles II, king of England. In 1672, James created a controversy by revealing that he had converted to Catholicism. Although England tolerated many different Protestant sects, the country was not tolerant of Catholics. In fact, in 1673, Parliament passed the Test Act, a law that barred Catholics from holding office. James was forced to resign his position as lord high admiral. Because his brother had not produced an heir, James was next in line to become king of England. On his brother’s death in 1685, many tried to block James from becoming king. However, they were unsuccessful, and he became James II, king of England. As king, he was faced with a number of uprisings in England. He was extremely brutal in addressing any resistance to his rule. He was so unpopular that, in 1688, he was removed from the throne in a bloodless coup, or overthrow, known as the Glorious

Revolution. After a brief and unsuccessful attempt to regain his throne, he spent the rest of his life in exile in France.

Many colonists who settled in North America desired religious freedom. In this imaginary scene in a 1793 engraving, Cecilius Calvert, Lord Baltimore, shows Lycurgus, orator and founder of Sparta’s government, the document establishing civil and religious liberty in Maryland in 1649. (Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division [LC-USZ62-51766])

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the most powerful navy in the world was simple. James sent a fleet of ships under the command of Colonel Richard Nicolls to sail into New Amsterdam and claim it for England. Once again, might overshadowed all other claims and Peter Stuyvesant, forced by the residents of New Amsterdam, surrendered his colony to the English on September 8, 1664. Nicolls quickly changed the colony’s name to New York, and the Swedish, Finnish, and Dutch settlers along the Delaware suddenly found themselves English subjects. In September 1664, Nicolls sent part of his fleet under the command of Sir Robert Carr to take control of the settlements along the Delaware. Nicolls instructed Carr to “protect the inhabitants

Peter Stuyvesant surrendered New Amsterdam on September 8, 1664, to an English force led by Colonel Richard Nicolls. (Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division [LC-USZ62-84401])

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In this 19th-century engraving, Richard Nicolls, first British governor of colonial New York, observes preparations for a horse race. (New York Public Library)

from injuries as well as violence of the soldiers.” However, Carr had to fight for control of New Amstel, and three Dutch soldiers were killed and 10 were wounded. After the brief battle for the fort, the English sailors ransacked the town on September 30, 1664. The captured Dutch soldiers were sent to Virginia, where Carr had them sold as indentured servants. As the Dutch had done nine years earlier, the English proceeded to rename the colony and its major towns. The colony became Delaware and New Amstel was changed to New Castle. New Castle was the capital of the colony, until the American Revolution, when the capital was located in Dover.The English divided Delaware into three counties. From north to south they are New Castle, Kent, and Sussex Counties. The claim to Delaware was somewhat clouded, as the area was not specifically mentioned by the charter Charles II gave James. It also seemed to be excluded from the Maryland charter by the 50

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rights of prior settlements. Once again, military and political power were more important than the arguments by the two sides. Due to the fact that the British navy had captured the area from the Dutch under the orders of James, the area was considered part of his grant. Maryland was in no position to take on James and his brother, King Charles II.

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Delaware Becomes a Colony T

he road from being a struggling Swedish colony to being the first state to ratify the U.S. Constitution in 1787 would be a rocky one for Delaware. Britain was the third European country to fly its flag over Delaware.The residents of Delaware soon found that they were part of the colony of Pennsylvania, and the dispute with Maryland over the colony was not finally settled until 1767. Even before William Penn arrived in New Castle in 1682 as the governor of the new colony of Pennsylvania, the residents of Delaware would see ownership of the colony change twice more.

THE RETURN OF THE DUTCH

In 1681, Charles II granted a tract of land that included what would later become the colony of Delaware to William Penn, whose portrait is shown here, to settle debts owed to Penn’s father’s estate. (Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division [LC-USZ62-106735])

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In 1672, the British and the Dutch went to war for the third time since 1648. The navies of the two countries fought for control of trade and colonies around the world. In North America, a Dutch fleet had been raiding the shipping lanes off the Virginia coast. A sailor on a merchant ship captured by the Dutch told them that New York was poorly defended. Seizing the opportunity, the Dutch commanders agreed to sail into New York Harbor in the same way Colonel Nicolls had nine years earlier.

The Dutch fleet experienced the same outcome as well. The governor of the colony was away and only about 100 soldiers were there to defend New York. In the face of an overpowering force, on July 30, 1673, the defenders of New York surrendered to the Dutch, and New York was once again New Amsterdam. Part of the Dutch fleet sailed to Delaware, and the Dutch flag flew over that colony as well. At this point, it must have mattered little to the residents of Delaware whose flag flew over the forts. As long as they were left to tend to their farms and businesses, they seemed to have been content to swear allegiance to whoever had the most guns in the colony. The renewal of New Netherland was short-lived. In February 1674, the British and the Dutch ended their war with the Peace of Westminster. In the treaty, the Dutch gave up their claim to New Netherland, and Delaware would remain a British territory until it joined the other 12 colonies in declaring independence in 1776.

THE COMING OF THE QUAKERS England had been a Protestant country since Henry VIII had the English church break away from the Catholic Church in Rome in the first half of the 16th century, and there was little toleration for groups other than the state-supported Church of England (also called the Anglican Church). Puritans and other groups had come to New England in the first half of the 17th century so they could worship as they wanted. The members of one group that were especially singled out because of their beliefs were the followers of George Fox. They called themselves the Society of Friends (more commonly called Quakers). Due to the persecution in England and in the other colonies, Quaker leaders sought a place for a Quaker colony in North America. The first attempt was in the western half of New Jersey when the colony was divided into two separate parts known as East and West Jersey. The Quaker settlement in West Jersey did not succeed to the extent that its backers had hoped. However, one of

George Fox founded the Society of Friends, or Quakers. (Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division [LC-USZ62-5790])

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the investors involved in West Jersey was William Penn, a wealthy Quaker to whom Charles II owed a substantial debt. Charles II agreed to pay off the debt with a grant of land in America west of the Delaware River and north of Maryland. William Penn was also friendly with the king’s brother, James, and asked him to include Delaware along with the main grant he was

33333333333 The Quakers During the 17th century, a number of new Protestant sects developed in opposition to the official Anglican Church in England. The government often persecuted these groups, and in 1649 the Puritans overthrew the government of King Charles I primarily in an effort to impose their religious beliefs on the country. In 1647, George Fox (1624–91) began preaching a new way of looking at religion. He said that all people were equal in the eyes of God and that they did not need ministers and fancy churches to find salvation. He believed that all people had an “inner light” that was their direct guidance from God. He and his followers claimed that just before they came in touch with this inner light, their bodies would quake uncontrollably. In 1650, after spending a year in prison, Fox was brought to court for preaching his beliefs. In court, he told the judge that he should “tremble at the word of the Lord.” The judge was not impressed with Fox’s warning and referred to Fox and his followers as “quakers.” Despite the persecution Fox and his followers experi-

enced, the group grew rapidly. They believed that all people were equal in the eyes of God, and they refused to show respect for the upper classes and other authorities in England. They also were pacifists (against war) and refused to join the military. At this time, England was almost constantly at war, and the pacifist teachings of the Quakers were seen as unpatriotic. The English authorities persecuted the Quakers more than any other religious group. At one point, more than 4,000 Quakers were in jail, and over the years more than 15,000 Quakers were imprisoned in England. Even in the colonies, Quakers were not welcome. Some Quakers who refused to follow the Puritan rules of the Massachusetts colony were executed. Leaders of the movement, including Fox, were in and out of prison on a regular basis. Despite this, the number of Quakers grew rapidly, and it is estimated that by 1680 there may have been as many as 60,000 Quakers in England. By this time, the group had become organized and

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receiving from the king. Penn wanted Delaware so that his new colony would have access to the ocean via Delaware Bay. He also tried to get the southern boundary of Pennsylvania set far enough south so that he would have access to Chesapeake Bay. Maryland’s grant extended to 40° north latitude, which would have put Philadelphia and everything to the south in Maryland.

33333333333 adopted the name “Society of Friends.” Their churches were simple meetinghouses, and they employed no ministers. On Sundays, Quakers would go to meetinghouses and sit quietly. If people in the group wished to share their prayers or thoughts, they could do so, but there was no organized service.

The Society of Friends (Quakers) traces its roots to George Fox’s preaching about an “inner light” that all people have. Fox claimed it was the manifestation of Christ in each person. This early 19th-century watercolor shows a traveler’s interpretation of a Quaker. (National Archives of Canada)

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3333333333 William Penn (1644–1718) William Penn’s father had been a staunch Loyalist and had been instrumental in restoring the monarchy with Charles II as king. As a favorite of Charles II, the senior Penn served as Lord High Admiral of the navy and was owed a substantial amount of money by the king when he died in 1670. His son William followed a different path than his father and was one of the few members of the upper class to become a Quaker. William Penn wrote extensively about his beliefs and was put in jail a number of times. When his father died, William Penn

inherited his estates and wealth. He also became the person to whom Charles II now owed a large debt. In 1680, William Penn offered Charles II a deal. He suggested that Charles II give him land in North America in exchange for the money owed to his father’s estate. His experience with the West Jersey colony had made him aware that the land north of Maryland and west of the Delaware River was unsettled by Europeans. The king agreed, as long as the colony was named Pennsylvania to honor Penn’s father.

3333333333 Eventually, James agreed to Penn’s request and, through very complicated arrangements, Penn became the proprietor of both Delaware and the new colony of Pennsylvania. Something that had to be settled before Penn could take over his new colonies was exactly where Delaware was. The boundary between Delaware and Pennsylvania was set as a circle 12 miles from the center of New Castle. This round top to Delaware, called the “Twelve Mile Circle,” continues as the border between the two states today. The western and southern boundaries between Maryland and Delaware were a point of contention between William Penn and Lord Baltimore for a number of years, and the issue was not settled until 1767, long after both proprietors were dead and the nature of their colonies had changed. In the end, Delaware won, with a line dividing the Delmarva Peninsula serving as the proposed boundary between the two colonies. Although Penn later had to return to England to fight for the boundaries of his colonies in the courts and the halls of government, he arrived in New

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Castle on October 27, 1682, to take possession of Delaware and Pennsylvania.

DELAWARE UNDER WILLIAM PENN In some ways, the arrival of Penn at New Castle created yet another change of government for Delaware. However, because of Penn’s Quaker beliefs and enlightened ideas about liberty and government, Pennsylvania and Delaware became very popular places for people to settle. Although Delaware is still the second smallest U.S. state in area (Rhode Island is the smallest), and it was the second smallest in population at the time of the Revolution (only Georgia had fewer people), it grew rapidly after Penn took over. In the first 20 years of Penn’s proprietorship, Delaware’s population more than doubled, from little more than 1,000 people in

Delaware’s population started out small under Swedish control, and although many more people would move into Delaware under the Dutch and English, it remained one of the smallest colonies at the time of the Revolution.

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When William Penn received his land grant from Charles II, Delaware was included in a separate deal with James. To establish where Delaware ended and Pennsylvania began, it was decided that the northern half of a 12-mile circle with New Castle as the center would be the boundary between the two areas.

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1680 to almost 2,500 people in 1700. At the same time, Pennsylvania attracted almost 18,000 new settlers. Many of these new arrivals were Penn’s fellow Quakers, but people of many religious groups from all over Europe rushed to take advantage of the liberties granted by Penn’s government. William Penn wrote out how he wanted the government of Pennsylvania and Delaware to function in a document called the Charter of Privileges. It granted the people of the two colonies more freedom and greater participation in government than anywhere else in North America. Penn also felt that the Native Americans in Pennsylvania should be treated fairly. Because of this, for many years Pennsylvania did not experience the conflicts with Native Americans that many other colonies had. At first, many people in the Lower Counties, as the three Delaware counties were called, were

James II, as shown in this early 19th-century engraving, ruled England for only four years. (Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division [LC-USZ62-92123])

3333333333 Excerpt from the Charter of Privileges Granted by William Penn to the Inhabitants of Pennsylvania and Delaware (October 28, 1701) BECAUSE no People can be truly happy, though under the greatest Enjoyment of Civil Liberties, if abridged of the Freedom of their Consciences, as to their Religious Profession and Worship: And Almighty God being the only Lord of Conscience, Father of Lights and Spirits; and the Author as well as Object of all divine Knowledge, Faith and Worship, who only doth enlighten the Minds, and persuade and convince the Understandings of People, I do hereby grant and declare, That no Person or Persons, inhabiting in this Province or Territories, who shall confess and acknowledge

One almighty God, the Creator, Upholder and Ruler of the World; and profess him or themselves obliged to live quietly under the Civil Government, shall be in any Case molested or prejudiced, in his or their Person or Estate, because of his or their conscientious Persuasion or Practice, nor be compelled to frequent or maintain any religious Worship, Place or Ministry, contrary to his or their Mind, or to do or super any other Act or Thing, contrary to their religious Persuasion.

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concerned about their new home being swallowed up by the fastgrowing and larger colony of Pennsylvania. Penn divided Pennsylvania into three counties, and he set up the colony’s assembly so that the Lower Counties had a number of representatives equal to those of the three Pennsylvania counties. However, Pennsylvania was growing so fast that the Lower Counties were soon greatly outnumbered in the assembly. Penn was forced to return to England in 1684 to defend his colonies in the border dispute with Lord Baltimore and his Maryland colony. As luck would have it, Penn arrived in England during a period of turmoil. First, Charles II died in 1685, shortly after Penn arrived. Then Charles II’s brother became King James II. This created numerous conflicts in Britain, as many people were upset that a Catholic was king. James II ruled for only three years, nine months before he was replaced in a bloodless revolt known as the Glorious Revolution. James II’s daughter Mary and her Dutch husband, William of Orange, became the joint rulers of the country in 1688. Fortunately, while James II was king, Penn was able to have the border dispute temporarily resolved in his favor. However, in the turmoil that took place in England at the time, Penn was arrested by the followers of William and Mary because of his close relationship with James II, who was then in exile in France. Although Penn was soon released on bail, he was not trusted by the new monarchs. They had him arrested twice more in the next two years. Eventually, some of Penn’s friends gained influence with the king and queen and convinced them that Penn was not a threat to their rule. Due to his uncertain status in England, Penn stayed there until 1699.

DELAWARE SEPARATES FROM PENNSYLVANIA With Penn in England and Pennsylvania growing fast, the Lower Counties faced a number of problems. Among those was the lack of military defense provided by the Quaker pacifists who now controlled the assembly in Philadelphia. Pirates were a common problem along the American coast in the 17th century. They frequently attacked ships entering and leaving Delaware Bay. Approximately 80

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pirates sailed into Lewes, Delaware, in the southern part of the colony in 1698.The pirates looted the town and killed much of the livestock in the area. The people in the area of the colony closest to Maryland also had problems. Maryland tax collectors would often come to their farms and try to forcefully collect Maryland taxes. Without support from the government in Philadelphia, there was little the people in Delaware could do. In 1691, Penn finally acted by appointing William Markham as the separate governor

Wheat, rye, and tobacco were among the profitable crops grown in Delaware. Located near present-day New Castle, Delaware, this farmhouse was probably built during the early 18th century. (Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division [HABS, DEL,2-NEWCA.V,2-1])

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Located in the vicinity of Middletown, Delaware, this water-powered grain mill was built around 1740 and, with only minor technical changes, operated until the mid-20th century. (Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division [HAER, DEL,2-MIDTO,1-2])

for Delaware. It could be argued that at this point Delaware became a unique colony, although it would remain under the authority of Penn’s heirs until 1777. With its own governor in charge of the colony, New Castle became the capital of Delaware and would continue to be so until the government moved to Dover during the Revolution. In 1701, Penn allowed the

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colonies’ assembly to divide so that the Lower Counties would have their own assembly to work with their governor. In November 1704, the first session of the independent Delaware legislature met.

3333333333 The Mason-Dixon Line (1763–1769) In 1735, Penn’s heirs found themselves once again contesting the colony’s boundaries with the fifth Lord Baltimore who was now in charge of Maryland. Over the next 15 years, both sides sought resolution to the problem at all levels of the British government. Eventually, the claims of the Penns won out. However, the boundaries had never been surveyed. In 1763, the two sides agreed to hire two well-known English surveyors, Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, to come to America and set the boundaries, based on the agreement of the two sides. Mason and Dixon established the boundaries of Delaware that are still used today and then established the long line that now separates Pennsylvania, Maryland, and West Virginia. It took them until 1768 to finish their survey, and this line is known as the Mason-Dixon Line. In the years prior to the Civil War, this became the dividing line between the states that still allowed slavery and those that had abolished it. Today, one refers to the Mason-Dixon Line as the division between the northern and southern states.

Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon established the boundary between Pennsylvania and Maryland, which later became known as the Mason-Dixon Line. This stone marker, covered by the emblems of the two states it separates, was erected between 1763 and 1767. Maryland’s symbol is visible in this photograph. (Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division [HABS, PA,1-ZORA.V,1-1])

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Two surveyors from England, Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, were sent in 1763 to finally survey the boundary between Maryland and its two neighbors Delaware and Pennsylvania. The part of the survey line they established became the boundary between slave and free states prior to the Civil War.

DELAWARE PROSPERS Delaware differed in many ways from Pennsylvania, and once the colony had control of its own affairs the differences became more apparent. In the next 60 years, the population of Delaware would increase more than 10 times what it was in 1700. In 1760, there 64

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were more than 33,000 people in the colony, and many of them prospered. Agriculture remained the most important activity in Delaware. Grain crops, such as wheat and rye, were grown and exported to the Caribbean and other colonies in North America. Tobacco remained the most valuable crop, especially in the part of the colony south of New Castle. Tobacco required a lot of work for it to be grown successfully. Many of the farmers in Delaware owned African slaves to work their fields. However, slavery was never as much a factor in Delaware as it was in other colonies to the south. In 1760, only 5 percent of the population of the colony was of African descent. In other colonies, the percentages of blacks were much higher. Next door in Maryland, 30 percent of the population was of African descent, while Virginia was 41 percent and South Carolina was 60 percent black. In addition to farming, Delaware had a number of successful mills. The northern part of the state was especially well suited to the creation of water-powered mills. Both sawmills and flour mills flourished at the time. One mill, along the Brandywine River, created flour that was called Brandywine Superfine, and it was known throughout the colonies. In addition to milling, brick making also became important. Many of the buildings built in the early 1700s in Delaware were constructed from locally made brick and are still in use today. One factor that contributed to the success of the colony was its diversity. People descended from the original Swedish, Finnish, and Dutch settlers still made up a substantial portion of the people in the colony. In addition, more recent arrivals had come from all parts of the British Isles as well as many areas of Europe. This diverse population soon found that working together for the good of the colony benefited everyone. Despite moving out of the shadow of Pennsylvania politically, Delaware still looked to Philadelphia for much of its commerce. Philadelphia quickly became the largest and richest city in North America and continues to be the economic hub of the area. The people of Delaware often found that goods they could not make for themselves came either directly or indirectly to them from Philadelphia. Delaware was also in a unique position when it came to the wars known as the French and Indian wars. This was

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a series of four wars fought in North America between the British colonies and French Canada between 1689 and 1763. It was a long way from Delaware to the lands claimed by France to the north and west of the English. However, in the end Delaware would feel the effects of the French and Indian wars when the government in London attempted to tax the colonies to pay the debt they built up during the fourth and final French and Indian war.

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The Road to Revolution A

fter the French and Indian War ended in 1763, the British government found itself deeply in debt. Many of the leaders in London thought that those in America should help in paying for the war and for the increasing cost of running and protecting the colonies. At the same time, the people in the colonies had become increasingly removed from their British roots. By 1763, very few people in the thirteen colonies had been born in England. Many had been born in America, and most of the more recent immigrants to the colonies had come from someplace other than England. Groups like the Scots and Scotch-Irish felt little loyalty to London.The same was true of people who moved to America from other European countries. The people of the colonies had become Americans, and events would soon make that fact apparent to the world. The events leading up to the Declaration of Independence and the Revolutionary War showed that Massachusetts and Virginia were the centers of radical ideas in the colonies. In Delaware, people at first were much more concerned with maintaining their independence from Pennsylvania, and avoiding people like Benjamin Franklin who were working to end the proprietorship of the Penns. The Penns had allowed a great deal of autonomy to Delaware and about the only time their governor was in Delaware was when the 18-member (six from each county) assembly met in New Castle. However, as time went on, 67

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New Castle was the capital of colonial Delaware until the Revolutionary War, when the capital was moved to Dover. Photographed in 1936, the courthouse in New Castle, Delaware, was first built in 1680 and has been expanded in increments ever since. (Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division [HABS, DEL,2-NEWCA,1-11])

the people of Delaware joined in the various protest movements that arose in reaction to the attempts of the Crown to impose taxes on the colonies. 68

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THE SUGAR ACT (April 5, 1764) The first attempt to tax the colonies was known as the Sugar Act. It was passed by Parliament on April 5, 1764, and was intended to raise money for the Crown. It also was expected to reform the courts that oversaw trade in the colonies. It was hoped that the act would also put an end to illegal trade in sugar and molasses. The British authorities saw all their colonies around the world as existing to help support the trading system of the British Empire. People were supposed to trade only within the empire. Almost from the beginning, traders in the colonies, especially those in New England, found it necessary and profitable to trade with the French and Spanish colonies in the Americas as well as with other countries in Europe and elsewhere. Often goods achieved in this trade had to be smuggled into the ports of the British colonies. One area where smuggling had become an important part of trade was in the sugar and molasses trade between New England and the Caribbean. New England ships took food, lumber, and other supplies to the Caribbean and traded them for sugar and molasses. The molasses was then distilled into rum. The rum was in turn sold throughout the world. The molasses from non-British sources was much cheaper. The Sugar Act was supposed to make British sugar and molasses less The Road to Revolution

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expensive. It was also supposed to stop the smuggling. One way the act was supposed to help was by creating a special court in Halifax, Nova Scotia, that would hear all cases involving violations of any of the trade laws. Before this, all cases were heard before juries in the home ports of the accused, and it was almost impossible for the Crown to get a conviction. The protests over the Sugar Act came mostly from the merchants who were directly affected. Most of the people, especially those outside New England, were unaffected by the Sugar Act. After receiving protest letters from a number of merchants, the Crown reduced the tax on sugar and molasses and there were few lasting problems over the act. The same cannot be said about the next attempt by the Crown to raise money in America.

THE STAMP ACT (March 22, 1765) On March 22, 1675, the British Parliament passed the Stamp Act. It was intended to raise enough money to pay for the British soldiers and officials in the American colonies. A stamp tax was not a new idea. Stamp taxes were common in England and had even been used by some of the colonies. This type of tax involves a stamp being put on certain documents and consumer goods. Today this type of tax is still used on items 70

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Many British colonies in the Caribbean produced sugar from sugarcane. In this mid-18th century British engraving, a white overseer directs some Native peoples (possibly in the West Indies) while they process sugarcane. (Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division [LC-USZ62-7841])

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When affixed to goods, this stamp signified that a tax must be paid upon purchase. Many colonists felt that the British unfairly introduced these taxes when they implemented the Stamp Act in 1765, which affected goods and services ranging from business transactions to playing cards. (Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division [LC-USZ61-539])

like cigarettes and alcohol but an actual stamp is no longer used. The stamp tax that was created by Parliament was to be used on all legal documents, diplomas, shipping manifests, newspapers and other printed matter, and playing cards. When the act came to a vote in Parliament, only a few spoke against it. The colonists’ reaction was almost unanimous. Most people in the colonies felt that it was wrong for Parliament to tax them. It was the general feeling that only the elected colonial assemblies had the right to tax the colonies.There were no elected representatives from the colonies in the Parliament in London. The slogan of the anti–Stamp Act movement became “No taxation without representation.” Throughout the colonies, people, often led by the Sons of Liberty, organized protests against the Stamp Act. People who were appointed to distribute the stamps often became the targets of the protesters. In Lewes, Delaware, a large group of people convinced officials to agree not to distribute the stamps. In New Castle, a jury made it known that it would not participate in a trial if

3333333333 Sons of Liberty When the Stamp Act was passed by Parliament in 1765, people in the colonies formed groups in their communities to protest the act. One of the opponents of the Stamp Act in the House of Commons, Isaac Barré, called the protesters the “sons of liberty.” Soon the name spread to the

colonies, where it was readily adopted. Various Sons of Liberty groups organized protests against the Stamp Act and later held “tea parties” in such places as Boston, New Jersey, and South Carolina when the Tea Act was passed.

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The announcement of the Stamp Act appears as printed in a 1766 manuscript in London. Its 1765 passage sparked protests by the colonists. (Library of Congress)

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stamps were put on the documents needed for the case. The Massachusetts assembly sent out a letter asking all the colonies to send representatives to a congress to be held in New York City in October 1765. The purpose of the congress was to present a unified voice in the protest against the Stamp Act. In Delaware, there was a concerted effort to participate in the congress. Each of the three counties held meetings and issued similar letters that nominated the same three delegates to the congress—Jacob Kollock from Sussex County, Caesar Rodney from Kent County, and Thomas McKean from New Castle County. Kollock did not make the trip to New York, but McKean and Rodney joined delegates from eight other colonies to respond to the Stamp Act.The governors of Georgia, North Carolina, and Virginia refused to allow Thomas McKean represented Delaware at the the states’ assemblies to select delegates. New 1765 Stamp Act Congress. (Library of Congress, Hampshire did not send delegates but did send a Prints and Photographs Division [LC-USZ62-83822]) letter supporting the actions of the delegates. There was little talk of independence at the Stamp Act Congress. At this point, most people assumed that the Crown and the colonies would work out their differences.The delegates felt that the king would come to their aid once he understood their position.Therefore, they wrote him a letter explaining why the people in the colonies were upset and how they planned to protest the Stamp Act. The protests in Delaware and the rest of the colonies, along with the resolutions of the congress, forced the government in London to repeal the Stamp Act before it actually went into effect. The only colony that ever issued any stamps was Georgia. In all the others, the stamps stayed hidden on ships or in government offices. It seemed that the colonists had won the battle over taxation without representation, and anti-British feeling quieted down. However, when Parliament repealed the Stamp Act, it passed another law called the Declaratory Act in 1766 in which it declared that Parliament had the right to pass whatever laws it thought necessary to rule the colonies. 74

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3333333 Excerpt from the Resolutions of the Continental Congress (October 19, 1765) The main points of contention among the colonists in America were clearly expressed by the Stamp Act Congress in the 14 resolutions they passed. Two of the most important were: That His Majesty’s liege subjects in these colonies, are entitled to all the inherent rights and liberties of his natural born subjects within the kingdom of Great-Britain. That it is inseparably essential to the freedom of a people, and the undoubted right of Englishmen, that no taxes be imposed on them, but with their own consent, given personally, or by their representatives.

3333333 THE TOWNSHEND DUTIES (June 29, 1767) A little more that a year after the Declaratory Act, on June 29, 1767, Parliament passed a series of laws that were intended to raise money for Britain. These laws were called the Townshend Duties, and they put an import tax on a number of items that people in the colonies had to bring in from Britain. These included paper, glass, lead, painter’s colors, and tea. One of the objections to the Stamp Act was that it was a direct tax on the people in the colonies imposed by the Parliament in England. The Townshend Duties were an indirect tax, and people in the British government thought the colonists would find this type of tax more acceptable. At first, people in the colonies were not sure how to react to the Townshend Duties. However, radical leaders around the colonies tried to convince people that these taxes were just as bad as the taxes the Stamp Act would have imposed. One

John Dickinson wrote Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania and later signed the Constitution as a representative of Delaware. (Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division [LC-USZ62-26777])

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person who influenced the reaction against the Townshend Duties was John Dickinson, who owned property in Delaware and would later sign the U.S. Constitution on behalf of Delaware. He wrote a series of articles that were published in newspapers around the colony and as a pamphlet in 1768. They were called Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania, and explained why it was wrong for Parliament to tax the colonies. In at least two instances, protests over the Townshend Duties ended in clashes between colonists and British soldiers. On January 18, 1770, in New York City, soldiers who had been working in New York when they were not on duty, and therefore taking jobs from colonists, fought a large group of colonists. This fight is known as the Battle of Golden Hill, and a number of people on both sides were injured, but no one was killed. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about the confrontation in Boston a couple of months later, which came to be called the Boston Massacre. On March 5, 1770, a large group of protesters was assembled outside the Boston Customs House after a soldier had hit a boy on the head with his rifle because the boy had yelled insults at him. More than 400 people came to confront the soldiers. They yelled insults and threw snowballs and chunks of ice at the soldiers. In an attempt to disperse the crowd, the soldiers loaded their rifles. The

3333333333 Excerpt from the First Entry in Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania, Written by John Dickinson From infancy I was taught to love humanity and liberty. Inquiry and experience have since confirmed my reverence for the lessons then given me by convincing me more fully of their truth and excellence. Benevolence toward mankind excites wishes for their welfare, and such wishes endear the means of fulfilling them. These can be found in liberty only, and therefore her sacred cause ought to be espoused by every man, on

every occasion, to the utmost of his power. As a charitable but poor person does not withhold his mite because he cannot relieve all the distresses of the miserable, so should not any honest man suppress his sentiments concerning freedom, however small their influence is likely to be. Perhaps he may “touch some wheel” that will have effect greater than he could reasonably expect.

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Paul Revere’s engraving of the Boston Massacre depicts the event that many consider the beginning of the struggle for independence. It occurred on March 5, 1770. (Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division [LC-USZ62-35522])

crowd would not leave and continued to taunt the soldiers. It is not known who said it, but someone yelled “Fire!” The soldiers fired into the crowd, and three men died immediately. Two others died later of their wounds. As a result of the problems in the colonies, and because the Townshend Duties had not generated much revenue, they were repealed later in 1770, except for the duty on tea. Although people in the colonies had been stirred up over the The Road to Revolution

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Stamp Act and the Townshend Duties, there was still very little support for independence from Britain.

THE TEA ACT (May 10, 1773) If the Crown had left the colonies alone at this point, Delaware and the other 12 colonies might still be a part of the British Common-

Tar and feathering consisted of pouring tar on a person’s skin and then covering the person with feathers. In this image created in 1774, some colonists in Boston tar and feather a tax collector. (National Archives/DOD, War & Conflict #5)

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3333333333 Committees of Correspondence Between 1772 and 1775, groups of people, often including political leaders, organized into Committees of Correspondence. Towns and counties had committees to let each other know what was going on in the protests against the Crown in their area. There were also committees for each colony that wrote to one another about events in their colonies. As the movement toward

independence and war grew, the Committees of Correspondence became even more important and sometimes functioned as the government for the Patriot movement. In October 1773, the Delaware assembly formed a Committee of Correspondence made up of Thomas Robinson, John McKinly, Caesar Rodney, Thomas McKean, and George Read.

Built in 1723 and photographed two centuries later in 1936, this stone house belonged to Thomas Robinson, one of Delaware’s five Committees of Correspondence members. (Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division [HABS, DEL, 2-NAMA, 2-1])

3333333333 wealth. However, on March 10, 1773, Parliament passed the Tea Act, and again misjudged the reaction in America. The Tea Act was designed to help the British East India Company avoid going The Road to Revolution

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bankrupt by changing the rules under which it did business. Before the Tea Act, the company had to ship all its tea from Asia to England, where it was sold to wholesalers who then sent it to merchants in the American colonies. The Tea Act eliminated the middleman and gave the company exclusive rights to sell tea in America. It also included a small tax on tea that people in Parliament thought no one would mind because the tea, even with the tax, would be cheaper when sold directly by the company. Tea was an important drink in the colonies and elsewhere, and most people drank smuggled Dutch tea that was less expensive than British tea. By this time, many people in the colonies were looking for a way to turn more people against the Crown. When the first shipment of tea arrived in Boston, approximately 60 members of the Sons of Liberty boarded the ships on December 16, 1773, and threw £10,000 worth of tea in the harbor. They were disguised as Indians and were careful not to do any damage to the ships. There were other, less famous tea parties in other colonies. Along the Delaware, word went out from the Sons of Liberty in Philadelphia that a ship, the Polly, was headed for Delaware Bay and no pilot (a person who guides a ship into an unfamiliar port) should help them.They also sent a message to the ship’s captain that they were waiting to put a “halter around (his) neck” and that they planned to cover him with “ten gallons of liquid tar” and “the feathers of a dozen geese.” The captain of the Polly did the prudent thing and turned his ship back toward England without reaching Philadelphia. At first, it looked like the protests of the colonists would once again defeat the powers of the British Empire. However, the Crown had had enough. Britain felt it was time to punish its misbehaving children in the North American colonies. Parliament went to work fashioning a series of laws that pushed the colonies into armed rebellion.

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he reaction to the Boston Tea Party in London was swift and severe. The first law that Parliament passed, on March 31, 1774, was called the Boston Port Bill. It closed the port of Boston until someone paid for the tea that had been dumped in the harbor. Parliament then passed a number of other laws that gave the Crown more control over the government in Massachusetts and allowed for people to be shipped to England to stand trial. They also forced the colonies to pay for British soldiers sent to the colonies and gave favored status to the English colonies in Canada. As a group, these laws were called the Coercive Acts in Britain. However, the people in the colonies saw them in a different light and called them the Intolerable Acts. In reaction to the Intolerable Acts, meetings were held throughout the colonies. In Delaware, large public meetings were held in all three countries. Each county formed its own Committee of Correspondence and collections were taken up to aid the people of Boston who were suffering due to the closing of their harbor by the British. Many colonies contributed food and other goods to the relief of Boston. These goods were shipped to open ports near Boston and then hauled overland to be given to people in Boston who were short of food and other essentials. Through the Committees 81

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of Correspondence, Massachusetts sent out a call for a Continental Congress to be held in Philadelphia in September 1774.

THE FIRST CONTINENTAL CONGRESS (1774) On September 5, 1774, representatives from all the colonies except Georgia convened in Philadelphia to come up with a response to the Intolerable Acts. Delaware sent Thomas McKean, Caesar Rodney, and George Read to the Congress. The talk was of boycott and addressing the problems between the Crown and the colonies.The

The First Continental Congress met in Philadelphia and composed and sent resolutions to the king of Britain. The delegates planned a second congress for the following spring to assess their situation. (Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division [LC-USZ62-45328])

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outcome was a boycott of British goods followed by a refusal to export goods to Britain if there was no solution to the conflict. The representatives also adopted a list of rights and grievances that was to be sent to the king. And, most important, they called for a second Continental Congress to meet in 1775 to assess the situation and come up with further plans.

THE START OF THE REVOLUTION Before the Second Continental Congress could convene, the situation in the colonies took a radical turn toward war. Throughout the colonies, militia groups were formed and Thomas Gage was the commander in chief of the began to drill in case they were needed. The British forces at the beginning of the Revolutionary idea was to have armed citizens ready to fight War but was later replaced by William Howe. on short notice. These militia became known (Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division as minutemen because of their ability to get [LC-USZ62-40243]) ready to fight quickly. General Thomas Gage, the commander of the large force of British troops stationed in Boston, got orders to capture some of the Patriot leaders and to disarm the minutemen. Gage learned that John Hancock and Samuel Adams, two of the leaders of the Patriots in Massachusetts, were near Boston in Lexington. He also learned that the Patriots had a large number of weapons stored in Concord. On April 18, 1775, Gage sent 800 soldiers out to Lexington and Concord to round up the Patriot leaders and to seize the Patriots’ weapons supply. The Patriots quickly learned what was going on and arranged a signal to tell when and how the British would be leaving Boston. If the British traveled by boat across Back Bay two lanterns would be lit. If they marched all the way on land one lantern would be lit. The signal was raised in the Old North Church in Boston that the British were taking the water route, and Paul Revere, William Dawes, and others rode out to warn the Patriot leaders and call out the minutemen. Declaring Independence and the War to Achieve It

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When the British arrived at Lexington Common on the morning of April 19, 1775, there were approximately 80 minutemen waiting for them. The British soldiers, called redcoats by the people in the colonies because of their bright red uniforms, lined up in ranks facing the Patriots. The British officer called for the Patriots to surrender. Instead, they tried to leave and the British troops fired on them. Eight Patriots were killed and 10 were wounded. The British then moved on to Concord, where they burned some buildings and confiscated a small amount of weapons and powder. By this time, minutemen from throughout the area were rushing to Concord. At the North Bridge, a detachment of British soldiers was turned back by the Patriots and the British decided to head back to Boston. Along the way, Patriot sharpshooters picked off a number of the redcoats. General Gage sent a larger force out from Boston to relieve the retreating soldiers. If he had not done this, he might have lost the entire force. As it was, the Patriots killed or wounded 273 British soldiers, and there were only 95 Patriot casualties. When word of the Battle of Lexington and Concord reached Delaware, the counties began to organize their own militia units. However, there was still a strong sentiment in Delaware for reconciliation with the Crown. A Quaker from Kent County, Robert Holliday, wrote a letter to a Philadelphia paper claiming that nine out of 10 people in his county were still loyal to the Crown. It is not known how true this assessment was, but the Delaware delegates to the Second Continental Congress would play an important role in passing the Declaration of Independence.

THE SECOND CONTINENTAL CONGRESS George Washington, in a painting by Gilbert Stuart, served as commander of the colonial troops during the Revolutionary War. (National Archives/DOD, War & Conflict #56)

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On May 10, 1775, the Second Continental Congress convened in Philadelphia and would remain in session until the U.S. Constitution came into effect in 1789. It fell to

The Second Continental Congress convened on May 10, 1775, and remained in session until the newly independent United States had a constitution. (National Archives, Still Picture Records, NWDNS-148-CCD-35)

the Continental Congress to deal with the crisis in Boston, which was still occupied by British troops. At about the time the Patriots in Boston fought the Battle of Bunker Hill on June 17, 1775, the congress decided to form the Continental army and appointed George Washington as the commanding general.Washington’s first job was to free the people of Boston. In December 1775, the congress asked the colonies to send soldiers to be part of the Continental army. In Delaware, the First Delaware Regiment was formed. Other Delaware volunteers had already gone off to aid other Patriots who were fighting. As 1776 began, many in the colonies were turning in favor of independence. When George Washington drove the British out of Boston in March 1776, it might have looked like it would be easy to win independence. Declaring Independence and the War to Achieve It

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In Philadelphia, the debate over independence had begun, and a committee made up of Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, John Adams of Massachusetts, and Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania began drafting a document that the congress could vote on. Jefferson is given credit for doing most of the work, although the document was reviewed by the committee and then discussed by the entire congress before it reached its final form. In the days leading up to the passing of the Declaration of Independence, there was much heated debate over whether this was the right path for the colonies to follow. Many delegates still hoped to reconcile the differences between the colonies and the crown. It was decided that the vote for independence would

Benjamin Franklin was one of the representatives at the Second Continental Congress responsible for drafting the Declaration of Independence. In this painting, Franklin (center) returns to Philadelphia in 1785 after serving as a commissioner to France. (Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division [LC-USZC4-9906])

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3333333333 Caesar Rodney (1728–1784) Caesar Rodney, like many Patriots, was a native-born American; he had grown up on his parents’ farm near Dover, Delaware. Although it is believed that he did not attend school, he was well educated, probably by his mother, who is reported to have had a love of books and learning. Rodney’s father died when he was 17, and he helped his

mother raise his much younger brother, Thomas. When he was 27, Rodney was elected sheriff of Kent County. From 1758 until 1776, he served in the Delaware colonial assembly. He was a delegate to both the First and Second Continental Congresses and was a signer of the Declaration of Independence.

3333333333 have to be unanimous with each colony’s delegation having one vote. Delaware had sent Caesar Rodney, George Read, and Thomas McKean back to Philadelphia as the delegates to the Second Continental Congress. On July 1, 1776, an unofficial poll was taken of the delegations. At that point, nine colonies were in favor of independence. South Carolina and Pennsylvania were opposed. New York’s delegates said they could not vote until they had word from officials at home, but they assured the Congress that they would vote for independence when the official vote came. Delaware had a problem. Caesar Rodney was not there for the unofficial vote. Thomas McKean was in favor of independence, but George Read was opposed. After some maneuvering, the Pennsylvania delegates said they would now vote in favor of independence. South Carolina’s delegates were still reluctant, but said they would vote with the other colonies rather than stand alone. That left Delaware. Rodney was the speaker of the house for the Delaware Assembly and had gone back to New Castle for a session of the assembly. When that ended, he led a large force of Kent County militia to help break up a meeting that was attended by 1,500 Loyalists in Sussex County. It is believed that approximately one-third of the 2.5 million people in the colonies were Patriots, in favor of independence; one-third were undecided; and one-third remained loyal to the Declaring Independence and the War to Achieve It

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Crown.When Rodney returned home to Dover, he found an urgent message from McKean telling him that the vote for independence hung on his arriving in time in Philadelphia. The story many believe is that Rodney jumped on a horse and raced off to Philadelphia through a thunderstorm to vote. Although he probably rushed, and it was a stormy night, it is much more likely that he took a carriage. Throughout his life, Caesar Rodney suffered from asthma, and in the 1760s a cancerous tumor appeared on his face. Although doctors attempted to remove the tumor from his face, they apparently did not get all the cancer, as he died from it in June 1784. Rodney arrived in time for the vote on July 2, 1776, breaking the tie in the Delaware delegation, which voted two to one in favor of declaring independence. After a couple of minor revisions, the Declaration of Independence became official on July 4, 1776. There was no turning back now, and it would be a long struggle before the British would finally surrender to Washington at Yorktown, Virginia, in 1781.

FIGHTING FOR INDEPENDENCE After driving the British out of Boston, George Washington headed for New York in hopes of doing the same there. However, after suffering a series of defeats in and around New York City, Washington fled with his army through New Jersey and across the Delaware River into Pennsylvania. For the next two years, the British and the 88

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Members of the Second Continental Congress signed the Declaration of Independence in July 1776. (National Archives/DOD, War & Conflict #20)

Americans fought a number of small battles in New Jersey without either side gaining an advantage. Finally, after General William Howe became the commander of the British forces, the British gave up the idea of fighting their way across New Jersey to attack the American capital at Philadelphia. Declaring Independence and the War to Achieve It

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3333333 The First Paragraph of the Declaration of Independence Thomas Jefferson of Virginia is given credit as being the primary author of the Declaration of Independence. He began it with the following paragraph: When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

3333333 Instead, Howe loaded his forces onto several ships and sailed away from New York. Washington and the other Patriot leaders assumed he was headed for Pennsylvania but did not know where he intended to land. When Howe’s fleet arrived at Elk Creek near the headwaters of Chesapeake Bay, it became apparent what his route would be. Washington moved his forces to the south of Philadelphia along Brandywine Creek. To reach the Brandywine and ultimately Philadelphia, the British would have to march through Delaware.

THE BATTLE OF COOCH’S BRIDGE (September 3, 1777) General William Howe commanded the British forces for three years during the Revolutionary War. (Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division [LC-USZ62-45303])

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As the main force of Howe’s 18,000-man army headed north toward Philadelphia, Washington sent out a force of less than 1,000 light infantry and cavalry to slow them down. When the British forces entered Delaware on September 3, 1777,

the Americans under General William Maxwell began firing on them. The heaviest fighting took place at Cooch’s Bridge, a few miles southeast of modern-day Newark, Delaware. Considering the size of the two forces, no one expected the Americans to win the battle, but they did succeed in forcing Howe to stop in Delaware for three days while the rest of his force and supplies caught up with those who had fought the Americans at Cooch’s Bridge.

In September 1777, General William Howe led British troops through Delaware, where they were defeated by the American forces at the Battle of Cooch’s Bridge. (Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division [LC-USZ62-45179])

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The British forces defeated the colonists at the Battle of Brandywine on September 11, 1777. (Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division [LC-USZ62-100726])

Unfortunately, when Washington confronted Howe’s force as it crossed the Brandywine River in Pennsylvania on September 11, 1777, it was a total defeat for the American forces. Howe marched his troops from the Battle of Brandywine directly into Philadelphia, which had been serving as the Patriots’ capital. The Continental Congress was forced to move. On the night after the British victory at the Battle of Brandywine, the British marched into Wilmington, Delaware and took over the town. They also captured the Patriot governor of Delaware, John McKinly. Since the Delaware state government was still in nearby New Castle, it was decided it would be a good idea to move the capital inland and south to Dover, where it remains to this day.The British now controlled the land approach to Philadelphia. By November, they had removed the Americans from the last of their fortifications along the river and could bring their ships directly into Philadelphia. As winter approached, Washington and his army were forced to hastily erect a camp at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. 92

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The winter of 1777–78 was a low point for the American forces. The British now controlled Philadelphia and New York, two of the major ports in the Northeast.The British control of Delaware

The defeat of George Washington and the Continental army on September 11, 1777, cleared the way for the British force led by General Howe to capture Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Wilmington, Delaware.

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Bay caused a number of problems for the Patriots in Delaware while it gave hope to those who remained loyal to the Crown.

PATRIOTS VS. LOYALISTS IN DELAWARE While the Patriot-dominated assembly met in Dover and elected Caesar Rodney to replace McKinly as governor, Loyalists along Delaware Bay willingly sold food and other supplies to the British.

George Washington and his troops spent winter 1777–78 at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, about 20 miles from Philadelphia, occupied, at that time, by the British. The colonial forces had little food or supplies at their winter camp. (National Archives/DOD, War & Conflict, #36)

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There were also armed conflicts between Loyalists and Patriots in Delaware. The Delaware militia captured the fortified headquarters of a large group of Loyalists in Kent County led by Cheney Clow. Clow continued to raid Patriot farms and businesses in Delaware until he was captured in 1782. In June 1778, the British decided on another course of action. They loaded all their soldiers onto ships and went off to capture the South, where they thought there were many Loyalists waiting to join them. They soon captured Savannah, Georgia, and then Charleston, South Carolina. Then they fought their way north into Virginia, where they eventually lost the war at the Siege of Yorktown, which ended with the British surrender on October 19, 1781. Soldiers from Delaware were with the Continental army throughout the war. Despite the departure of the British, problems between Patriots and Loyalists in Delaware continued to exist. British ships continued to harass merchant ships as they left Delaware Bay, and many Loyalists began to leave the state. In June 1778, the assembly voted to confiscate the property of 46 Loyalists. It then passed a law requiring anybody who wanted to vote in an election to swear allegiance to the state of Delaware. Loyalists also used boats to interrupt commerce in Delaware Bay. At times, they would sail into the rivers and creeks of Delaware and attack Patriot farms and storage places. John Dickinson’s farm was attacked in August 1781, and in almost all cases

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3333333333 The Blue Hens Cockfighting was a popular sport in colonial America, and the story goes that one of the Delaware regiments had some very successful fighting roosters with them. They were called the “blue hen’s chickens” because they were hatched from the eggs of a blue hen. Because the Delaware soldiers fought as fiercely as their gamecocks, the term blue hen’s chickens was applied to them as well. It is reported that the Delaware soldiers would yell, “We’re sons of the blue hen, and we’re game to the end!” as they ran into battle. To this day, Delaware is often referred to as the “Blue Hen State,” and the blue hen chicken is the state bird.

The blue hen chicken is the state bird of contemporary Delaware. (Facts On File)

3333333333 the raiders were able to escape back into the bay before the militia could arrive to catch them. Eventually, the state government armed a boat, and it patrolled the bay to try and protect shipping and coastal farms. After the British surrender at Yorktown in 1781, the fighting in the colonies came to an end and the states had won their independence. However, they still faced numerous problems before they truly became the United States of America.

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he Second Continental Congress served as the government of the United States during the Revolution. However, the war was about the only issue the thirteen former colonies could agree on. In 1777, John Dickinson, who at the time was serving as a delegate for Pennsylvania, was called upon to draft a framework for a national government. The document he presented to the congress would have created a strong central government. Most of the delegates, and most of the people in America, were not ready to replace the tyranny of the Crown with a strong government that could overrule the states. People at the time were loyal to their states, and the notion of a national government was a new idea. Dickinson’s proposal for a federal government went through a number of changes in the Congress. The document that came out of the Congress called for a weak central government that was totally dependent on the states. But even this compromise was not immediately accepted by all the states. Delaware and some of the other small states without claims to lands beyond the Appalachian Mountains were worried about Virginia and other states that claimed an almost unlimited amount of land in the West. Had Virginia been able to pursue its land claims to the west, it might have become bigger than all the other colonies combined. The smaller states wanted all the western land to be under the control of the federal government. Eventually, the bigger states gave in, and Delaware and New Jersey ratified the Articles of 97

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The Articles of Confederation, shown here, were written by a committee of the Continental Congress and intended as a constitution for the colonies. (National Archives, National Archives Building, NWCTB-360-MISC-ROLL10F81)

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Confederation in 1779. Maryland, which was very concerned about the land claims of Virginia, waited until 1781 to ratify. By the time the Revolution ended in October 1781, people began to see many of the flaws in the Articles of Confederation.The federal government had no authority to raise funds and had to beg the states for money. During the time the articles were in effect, the federal government got only a fraction of the money it needed to pay the debts from the war and run the government. The situation was so bad that many soldiers were not paid for serving in the Continental army. In summer 1783, a large number of soldiers marched on the congress in Philadelphia demanding their back pay. The congress chose the only option that seemed to exist at the time. They packed up and moved the capital to Princeton, New Jersey. By 1787, including leaving Philadelphia when the British captured it, the capital had moved nine times. Not only could the federal government not settle on a capital, it was powerless to solve the problems that came up between the states. Trade conflicts arose as states competed with each other for foreign trade, and finally people realized that change was needed. Virginia called for a convention of delegates from the states to be held at Annapolis,

3333333333 The Annapolis Convention (1786) The main reason for the Annapolis Convention was to try and regulate trade between the states. As the Articles of Confederation did not grant the federal government any power to regulate trade, the convention immediately ran into problems. It was also faced with another issue. The articles required that all the states had to agree to make any changes in the way the country was run. This was a big problem, as only five states—Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia—sent

delegates. Alexander Hamilton of New York was one of the leaders of the Annapolis Convention, and he proposed that they call for a convention in Philadelphia in May 1787 to try and fix the Articles of Confederation. Technically, the Annapolis Convention had no authority to call for such a convention, but many in the congress saw the need to make changes, and the call went out for the states to send delegates to Philadelphia once again.

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Maryland, which was one of many places to serve as the national capital, in September 1786. When word went out that there was to be a convention in Philadelphia to address the problems of the Articles of Confederation, every state except Rhode Island selected delegates. As they arrived in Philadelphia in May 1787, only a few of the delegates had thought about throwing out the Articles of Confederation and starting with a blank sheet of paper. The Constitutional Convention convened in Philadelphia in May 1787 and remained in session until mid-September. (Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division [LC-USZ62-92869])

Richard Bassett represented Delaware at the Constitutional Convention. (Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division [LC-USZ62-93367])

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THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION (1787)

Twelve states sent a total of 55 delegates to Philadelphia in May 1787. Delaware sent five delegates—Richard Bassett; Gunning Bedford, Jr.; Jacob Broom; John Dickinson; and George Read. All five were involved in politics and/or business in Delaware. Dickinson and Read had served in both the First and Second Continental Congresses, although Dickinson had represented Pennsylvania at the time. The people in Delaware were in favor of strengthening the federal government but were very concerned that the smaller states have an equal say in the government. When the delegates began their meeting in Philadelphia, they set an agenda. Although they may not have had the authority to do it under the Articles of Confederation, they agreed that the articles were too flawed to fix. They decided to write a completely new constitution, and so the meeting has come to be known as the Constitutional Convention. As the delegates debated and set up the rules for themselves, they decided that the new constitution would need nine states to ratify it for passage. They were also confronted with a major problem.

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3333333333 John Dickinson (1732–1808) John Dickinson was born on his parents’ plantation in Maryland. Wealthy Quakers, they moved to land near Dover, Delaware, when John was eight. Dickinson was educated at home by a private tutor, William Killen, who, like his pupil, became active in politics and rose to be the chief justice of the Delaware courts. As was the case with the children of many wealthy Americans, when Dickinson was 21 he was sent to England to further his studies. He spent three years in London studying law. Because of his Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania and numerous other writings supporting the American cause, he is often called the “penman of the Revolution.” At the time of the Declaration of Independence, Dickinson was a member of the Second Continental Congress, and he was opposed to the declaration. It was his vote that prevented Pennsylvania from supporting the declaration in the unofficial vote on

July 1, 1776. When the actual vote came the next day, Dickinson stayed away, and Pennsylvania’s delegation voted three to two in favor of the Declaration of Independence. Many were puzzled by his position after he had written so much in support of the Patriot cause. Those who knew Dickinson well understood that his Quaker beliefs prevented him from supporting the declaration, which he knew would lead to war. Once the declaration passed and the Revolution was under way, Dickinson put aside his pacifist beliefs and joined the militia. He is one of only a small number of Continental Congress members who served in both the government and the army. The fact that he owned a large estate in Delaware and practiced law in Philadelphia created another unique situation. During his political career, John Dickinson served terms as governor of Delaware and of Pennsylvania.

3333333333 Large states, such as Virginia and Massachusetts, wanted representation in the federal congress to be based on population, which would have given them more power. Small states, such as Delaware and New Jersey, wanted each state to have equal representation, as they had in the Continental Congresses and under the Articles of Confederation. At first, it looked like the Constitutional Convention was deadlocked. Then a group of delegates, including John Dickinson, came up with what has become known as “the Great Compromise.” They suggested that the federal legislature have two houses—a senate, Creating a Nation

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In addition to representing Delaware at both the First and Second Continental Congresses, George Read participated in the Constitutional Convention on behalf of the state. Read later served as a U.S. senator from Delaware. (Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division [LC-USZ62-64707])

with two senators from each state, and a house of representatives, with the number of representatives based upon the population of the states.This seemed to satisfy both sides. It became a part of the Constitution and continues to be the way the federal legislature is set up today.

RATIFYING THE CONSTITUTION When the new national constitution was sent to the states, it received mixed reviews. Some states took a long time to agree to ratification. However, the people in Delaware were eager to return their approval to Philadelphia.The Constitution was signed on September 17, 1787, and all five Delaware delegates’ names appear on it, although Dickinson had already left for home and had asked George Read to sign for him. A state convention was called in Delaware to meet at Dover on December 3, 1787. Four days later, on December 7, 1787, a vote 102

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3333333 Preamble to the U.S. Constitution We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

3333333 was held, and Delaware voted in favor of the new constitution.This made Delaware the first state to ratify the U.S. Constitution. It is an honor that Delaware’s citizens cherish even today, as their state motto proclaims them “The First State.” Five days later, on December 12, 1787, Pennsylvania followed Delaware’s lead and ratified the new constitution. It would take until June 21, 1788, for New Hampshire to become the ninth state to ratify, and for the Constitution to go into effect. Rhode Island, which had not sent delegates to the Constitutional Convention, was the final state to ratify the Constitution in May 1790. Delaware’s role in the creation of the United States was much greater than its size as the second smallest in land area and the smallest in population at the time. Rodney, Dickinson, and all the other Patriots of the state did their fair share and often more.

Delaware was the first state to ratify the Constitution, an act the state memorializes in its motto, “The First State,” which is visible on the quarter representing Delaware in the U.S. Mint’s 50 State Quarters Program. (U.S. Mint)

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Delaware Time Line 1524 ★ Verrazano explores Delaware Bay. 1609 ★ Henry Hudson “discovers” Delaware Bay. 1610 ★ English explorer Samuel Argall names present-day Cape Henlopen “Cape De La Warr” for Virginia governor Thomas West, Lord De La Warr. 1613 ★ Cornelis May explores the Delaware’s coastline. 1614 ★ Cornelis Hendrickson explores it as well and informs the Dutch. 1630 ★ A company of patrons is given the first grant in Delaware Bay region for land between Cape Henlopen and Bombay Hook by New Netherland’s Peter Minuit. 105

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1631 ★ Dutch patroons establish the Zwaanendael (valley of swans) colony. Captain David Pietersen de Vries heads a Dutch trading company that sends 33 people with Captain Peter Heyes on the ship De Walvis (The Whale), near present-day Lewes on the west bank of Lewes Creek. 1632 ★ Captain de Vries returns and finds the settlers have been killed. 1634 ★ Cecilius Calvert, Lord Baltimore, founds Maryland, receiving Delaware as part of 1632 grant. 1638 ★ The first permanent settlement in present-day Wilmington is established on the Christina River at an outcrop known as “the Rocks.”Two ships, the Key of Kalmar (Kalmar Nyckel) and Griffin (Vogel Grip), under Peter Minuit, the former director-general of New Netherland, land in late March. 1639 ★ The first African slaves arrive in New Sweden. 1640 ★ Dutch settlers arrive in New Sweden. 1643–53 ★ Colonel Johan Printz, governor of the colony, establishes capital at Tinicum. 1651 ★ Under Peter Stuyvesant’s leadership, the main Dutch settlement is moved from Fort Nassau (currently Gloucester, New Jersey) to present-day New Castle, Delaware, then called Fort Casimir.

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1654 ★ The Swedes, under Johan Rising, the next governor, capture the Dutch Fort Casimir, renaming it Fort Trinity. 1655 ★ New Sweden is seized by the Dutch West India Company’s Peter Stuyvesant. 1656 ★ The City of Amsterdam buys out the West India Company’s right to the area between the Christina River and Bombay Hook in Delaware. 1657 ★ The City of Amsterdam places Jacob Alrichs in charge of the colony and settlement of New Amstel (New Castle) is encouraged. 1659 ★ Zwaanendael, present-day Lewes, is resettled by Dutch. 1664 ★ All the Dutch settlements in Delaware Valley are taken by the English. 1669 ★ Marcus Jacobson leads an unsuccessful revolt of Swedes and Finns against the English. 1672 ★ War between English and Dutch restarts. 1673 ★ New Netherland is retaken by the Dutch during the Third Anglo-Dutch War.

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1674 ★ The Dutch and the English reach an agreement in which land is returned to the duke of York and Major Edmund Andros becomes the governor of Delaware. 1681 ★ King Charles II grants Pennsylvania to William Penn who asked for land on the west side of Delaware River and Bay for direct access to the Atlantic Ocean. 1682 ★ The duke of York gives most of Delaware to William Penn in response to his request. ★ October 27: William Penn lands in New Castle and takes possession from Duke of York’s agents as proprietor of the Lower Counties. ★ December: The three Delaware counties, called the Lower Counties by Penn, are annexed by Pennsylvania. 1683 ★ Charles Calvert, Lord Baltimore of Maryland, loses land as a result of the duke of York giving land to Penn. 1685 ★ James, duke of York, becomes James II, king of England. 1688 ★ The Glorious Revolution occurs in England and James II is replaced by William and Mary. Penn is arrested for his support of James II. 1694 ★ Penn reestablishes control of Pennsylvania and the Lower Counties.

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1704 ★ The first meeting of Delaware’s assembly takes place in New Castle, as a result of Delaware’s troubles with Pennsylvania. 1774 ★ George Read, Caesar Rodney, and Thomas McKean are sent to the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia to represent Delaware; the First Continental Congress is convened to discuss the Intolerable Acts. 1775 ★ The same delegates are sent to the Second Continental Congress, attended by all thirteen colonies. 1776 ★ July: McKean and Read are at the Continental Congress when the Declaration of Independence is voted on. Read is opposed and McKean supports it; Rodney was in Delaware. He rides all night to Philadelphia (80 miles) in a thunderstorm to break the tie between Read and McKean. Read changes his mind so all three sign the Declaration of Independence. McKean, Read, and Rodney create a government that is separate from Pennsylvania; they name it Delaware. 1777 ★ Delaware adopts a constitution and elects its first “president” (what they called their governor), John McKinly. ★ September 3: At the Battle of Cooch’s Bridge, near Newark, soldiers in the Continental army under George Washington, encamped at Wilmington, fight British troops en route to Philadelphia from Maryland. ★ September 11: British troops defeat Washington at the Battle of the Brandywine, just over the line into Pennsylvania. The British then cross Delaware and attack Wilmington and capture President McKinly.

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★ October: After occupying Wilmington for a month, the British leave, but British ships control the coast until June 1778. ★ Delaware’s capital is moved to Dover, as it was thought to be safer; McKean and then Read serve as acting presidents. 1778 ★ Rodney is elected president. ★ June: All British ships but one leave.The remaining one guards Cape Henlopen. 1786 ★ John Dickinson of Delaware heads the Annapolis Convention, which calls for a federal constitutional convention to strengthen the Articles of Confederation. 1787 ★ Five delegates are sent from Delaware to the Constitutional Convention, led by John Dickinson and George Read. ★ December 7: Delaware is the first to sign the U.S. Constitution by unanimous vote in Dover.

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Delaware Historical Sites DOVER John Dickinson Plantation John Dickinson’s house and other buildings depict life on an 18th-century plantation. Address: 340 Kitts Hummock Road, Dover, DE 19952 Phone: 302-398-3698 Web Site: http://www.destatemuseums.org/Information/ Museums/jdp/dickinson.shtml

LEWES Lewes Historical Society The Lewes Historical Society has 12 historic houses in the historic district, including the BurtonIngram House, built around 1780. Address: 110 Shipcarpenter Street, Lewes, DE 19958 Phone: 302-645-7670 Web Site: www.historiclewes.org Zwaanendael Museum The Zwaanendael Museum depicts life in the “Valley of Swans”—from the first Dutch settlement to the 20th century.

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Address: 102 Kings Highway, Lewes, DE 19958 Phone: 302-645-1148 Web Site: http://www.destatemuseums.org/Information/ Museums/Zwan/zwaanendael.shtml

NEW CASTLE Amstel House This house, built in 1738, exhibits period antiques. It was used as the governor’s house and hosted George Washington in 1784. Address: 2 East Fourth Street, New Castle, DE 19720 Phone: 302-322-2794 Web Site: http://www.newcastlehistory.org/houses/visit. html Dutch House Built in the 17th century, this house shows how the early Dutch colonists lived. Address: 32 East Third Street, New Castle, DE 19720 Phone: 302-322-2794 Web Site: http://www.newcastlehistory.org/houses/visit. html New Castle Court House Museum The colonial and state assemblies met at the New Castle Court House, built in 1732. Address: 211 Delaware Street, New Castle, DE 19770 Phone: 302-323-4453 Web Site: http://www.destatemuseums.org/Information/ Museums/ncch/nc_courthouse.shtml

NEWARK Cooch’s Bridge The Battle of Cooch’s Bridge was fought at this bridge on September 3, 1777. It is thought that the Stars and Stripes flag was first used during this battle. Address: Route 4, East of Route 896, Newark, DE 19713

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Hale-Byrnes House The Hale-Byrnes House, built in 1750, was the site of a meeting between George Washington and his staff after the Battle of Cooch’s Bridge. Address: 606 Stanton-Christina Road, Newark, DE 19713 Phone: 302-998-3792

ODESSA Historic Houses of Odessa The Historic Houses of Odessa are restored 18th- and 19th-century buildings open to the public. Address: Main Street, Odessa, DE 19730 Phone: 302-378-4069 Web Site: http://www.fieldtrip.com/de/23784069.htm

WILMINGTON Fort Christina Park In 1638, the Swedes landed at “the Rocks,” now part of Fort Christina Park. Address: East Seventh Street, Wilmington, DE 19801 Phone: 302-652-8615 Greenbank Mill Although the first mill was built on this site in 1677, the present-day mill, which is open to the public, was erected in the 1760s. Address: 500 Greenbank Road, Wilmington, DE 19808 Phone: 302-999-9001 Web Site: www.greenbankmill.org Holy Trinity (Old Swedes) Church and Hendrickson House Museum Holy Trinity Church was built in 1698–99 and is the oldest church building in America still in its original form. Address: 606 Church Street, Wilmington, DE 19801 Phone: 302-652-5629

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Kalmar Nyckel Shipyard A replica of the ship, the Kalmar Nyckel, that brought the first settlers to New Sweden, is housed at the Kalmar Nyckel Shipyard. Address: 1124 East Seventh Street, Wilmington, DE 19801 Phone: 302-429-7447 Web Site: www.kalnyc.org Quaker Hill Historic District Settled in 1738, the Quaker Hill Historic District was Wilmington’s first neighborhood. Three of the original houses survive. Guided group tours are available as well as a map for self-guided tours. Address: 521 North West Street, Wilmington, DE 19801 Phone: 302-658-9295

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Further Reading BOOKS Britton, Tamara L. The Delaware Colony. Edina, Mich.: ABDO Pub., 2001. Fradin, Dennis Brindell. The Delaware Colony. Chicago: Children’s Press, 1992. Kallen, Stuart A. Delaware. San Diego: Lucent, 2002. Munroe, John A. Colonial Delaware: A History. Millwood, N.Y.: KTO Press, 1978.

WEB SITES Delaware. “State of Delaware (A Brief History).” Available online. URL: www.state.de.us/gic/facts/history/delhist/htm. Updated on February 26, 2004. Delaware Public Archives. “Document Exhibits.” Available online. URL: www.state.de.us/sos/dpa/exhibits/documents/index. shtml. Downloaded on April 18, 2004. Delaware Public Archives. “Maps and audio.” Available online. URL: www.state.de.us/sos/dpa/exhibits/misc/index.shtml. Downloaded on April 18, 2004. Historical Society of Delaware. “Delaware History Explorer Online Encyclopedia.” Available online. URL: www.hsd.org/DHE/ DHE_welcome.htm. Downloaded on April 18, 2004 115

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Index Page numbers in italic indicate photographs. Page numbers in boldface indicate box features. Page numbers followed by m indicate maps. Page numbers followed by c indicate time line entries. Page numbers followed by t indicate a table or graph.

A Adams, John 86 Adams, Samuel 83 Africa, Far East trade routes and xv African Americans. See slaves/slavery agriculture after Delaware’s separation from Pennsylvania 65 corn 11 Lenni Lenape 9, 11 Mennonites 45 New Sweden 32–34 Albany, New York 5 Algonquian languages 8 Alrichs, Jacob 107c Altena (Wilmington), Delaware 42, 43. See also Wilmington, Delaware America creating government for 97–103 effect of Protestant Reformation on settlement of xiv English colonization xvi French exploration xv

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search for Far East trade routes xv Viking exploration xiii American Revolution 67–103. See also War for Independence Americans, colonists as 67 Amstel House (New Castle, Delaware) 112 Amsterdam 42, 44, 107c Andros, Edmund 108c Anglican Church 53, 54 Anglo-Dutch War, Third 52–53, 107c Annapolis Convention 99, 99–100, 110c antlers, deer 12 architecture, brick 65 Argall, Samuel 5, 105c army deserters, as settlers for New Sweden 26 Articles of Confederation 97–101, 98, 99, 110c artisans, as colonists 44 Asia xv, 2, 80 asthma 88 Austria 28 Aztec Indian smallpox sufferers 15

B Baffin Island 4 Baltic Sea 19–20 Baltimore, Lord. See Calvert, Cecilius, Lord Baltimore Barent Sea 2 bark, as building material 13 barley 32 Barnegat, New Jersey 12 Barré, Isaac 72 Bassett, Richard 100, 100 beads 14 beans 11, 12 bear hunting 12 beaver pelts 16 Bedford, Gunning, Jr. 100 beds, of Lenni Lenape 15 belts, wampum 14 Bermuda 5 Blommaert, Samuel 22, 24 blue hens 96, 96 Bombay Hook 42, 105c, 107c bones, deer 12 Boston, Massachusetts 78, 81–83, 85

Boston Massacre 76–77, 77 Boston Port Bill 81–82 Boston Tea Party 72, 80, 81 Bottnyard, Sweden 28 boundaries Delaware and Pennsylvania 56, 58m dispute between Penn and Lord Baltimore 60 twelve-mile circle 56, 58m bow and arrow 11 boycott 82–83 Brandywine, Battle of 92, 92, 93m, 109c Brandywine Creek 90 Brandywine River 22, 65 Brandywine Superfine flour 65 brick making 65 Britain. See England British army Boston 76–77, 85 Battle of Brandywine 109c capture of southern cities 95 control of coast of Delaware 110c Battle of Cooch’s Bridge 90–91, 109c Battle of Golden Hill 76 Battles of Lexington and Concord 84 Loyalists in Delaware 94 Philadelphia 89–90, 92, 93, 109c Stamp Act 70 British East India Company 79–80 British Empire 69 British navy 36, 95 British officials, salaries for 70 Broom, Jacob 100

C Cabot, John 1, 17 Cahokia, Illinois xvii Calvert, Cecilius, Lord Baltimore 17, 48 Charles I’s Maryland land grant 6–7, 18–19, 106c Mason-Dixon Line 63

New Sweden 39 William Penn and 56, 60, 108c Calvert, George 17 Calvin, John xiv Campanius’s (Thomas Campanius Holm) 9 Canada 4, 66, 81 canals 44 cancer, Caesar Rodney’s death from 88 canoes 11 Cape De La Warr 105c Cape Henlopen 105c, 110c Cape May 5, 29 capital, of Delaware Dover 50, 92, 110c New Castle 62, 92 Tinicum Island 29, 106c Caribbean Ocean Dutch colonization xvi Griffin’s trading mission 25–26 Sugar Act 69 sugarcane processing in British colony 70–71 tobacco 32 Carr, Sir Robert 49–50 cash crop 32 cash crops 65 Casimir, Fort 36 capture by Swedes 107c City Colony 42–43 construction of 36 Dutch retaking of Delaware area 40 moving of main Dutch settlement to 106c Johan Rising’s capture of 38, 39 Catholic Church/Catholics Queen Christina 21 James II 48 Maryland as haven for 19 and Native Americans xvii power of, during the Renaissance xiii and Protestant Reformation xiv Central America xvii, 11

central government. See federal government Charles I (king of England) James II and 48 land grants 6–8, 17–19, 106c overthrow by Puritans 46, 54 Charles II (king of England, Scotland, and Ireland) 46 assumption of throne 46 death of 60 James II and 46–51, 48 land grants 46–47, 49–54, 56, 108c William Penn and 52–54, 56, 108c Charles (king of Sweden) 21 Charleston, South Carolina 95 Charter of Privileges 59, 59 Chesapeake Bay 2, 55, 90 chicken pox 16 Christina, Fort 23m, 25 construction of 22, 24 Dutch retaking of Delaware area 40–41 historical site 113 Lutheran Church 30 Johan Printz 27, 29 Johan Rising 39 Peter Stuyvesant 41 trade 35 Christinahamn 39 Christina (queen of Sweden) 21, 21, 22, 26 Christina River Amsterdam’s purchase of rights to region 107c Fort Christina 22 Company Colony and City Colony 42 Dutch retaking of Delaware area 40 first permanent settlement 106c historical map 25 chronology 105c–110c Church of England. See Anglican Church cigar 32

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City Colony 42–46, 45 Civil War 63, 64 clamshells 14 cloth, trade between Lenni Lenape and Europeans 15 Clow, Cheney 95 coat of arms, metal 8 cockfighting 96 Coercive Acts 81 colonial assembly, Delaware 87, 95, 109c colonies (as of 1790) xviiim colonists. See also specific nationalities, e.g.: Dutch, the artisans from Amsterdam 44 diversity of 65 earliest 6–8 lack of English roots as of 1763 67 New Sweden 35, 39 use of wampum as money 14 Columbus, Christopher xv, xv, 32 Committees of Correspondence 79, 81–82 communication, wampum’s use in 14 Company Colony 42–44, 46 Concord, Massachusetts 83, 84 Connecticut River 46 Constitutional Convention 100, 100–102, 110c Constitution of the United States of America 101–103, 103, 110c Continental army. See also Patriots Battle of Cooch’s Bridge 109c Delaware soldiers 95 formation of 85 lack of pay for 99 Continental Congress (1765). See Stamp Act Congress Continental Congress, First (1774) 82, 82–83 Intolerable Acts 109c George Read 102 Caesar Rodney 87 Continental Congress, Second (1775-1789) 84–88, 85 British occupation of Philadelphia 92

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Declaration of Independence 88–89 John Dickinson 101 Benjamin Franklin 86 government during American Revolution 97 George Read 102 Caesar Rodney 87 Cooch’s Bridge, Battle of 90–91, 109c, 113 cooperation, among Native Americans 15 corn (maize) 11, 11, 12, 12, 32 counties, division of Delaware into 50 court cases 70, 81 courthouse (New Castle, Delaware) 68–69, 112 court-martial 28 criminals, as settlers for New Sweden 26, 27 Cromwell, Oliver 46, 48 Curaçao, West Indies 36

D daily life, in New Sweden 29–38 Dark Ages xiii Dawes, William 83 debt 56, 66, 67, 99 Declaration of Independence 109c John Dickinson 101 drafting of 86 first paragraph 90 Benjamin Franklin 86 ratification 86–88, 109c Caesar Rodney 87 signing of 88–89 Declaratory Act 74 deer 12, 12 Delaware 23m, 29m, 47m, 58m, 64m historical sites 111–114 population growth (1620–1790) 57t population growth under Penn’s proprietorship 57, 59 renaming, by English 50

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separation from Pennsylvania 60–64, 109c Delaware Bay 18–19 Samuel Argall 5 British control of 93–94 Henry Hudson 105c Loyalist disruption of commerce 95–96 Peter Minuit 22 New Sweden 22, 27, 29 William Penn 55 piracy 60–61 shell mounds 12 Peter Stuyvesant 35–36 Delaware Indians. See Lenni Lenape Indians Delaware River Samuel Argall 5 Fort Casimir 37 English control 44, 49–51 Henry Hudson 3 James II’s land grant 46 Lenni Lenape 8 Maryland border 17, 18 New Sweden 22 De La Warr, Thomas West, Lord. See West, Thomas, Lord De La Warr Delmarva Peninsula 56 Denmark 28 Descartes, René 21 de Vries, David Pieterssen 6, 106c DeWalvis (The Whale) (ship) 106c Dickinson, John 75, 101 Annapolis Convention 110c Constitutional Convention 100, 110c federal government proposal 97 “Great Compromise” 101 Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania 75, 76, 76, 101 Loyalist attack of farm 95 Plantation (Dover, Delaware) 111 role in creation of United States 103 Townshend Duties 76 dikes 43, 44

Discovery (ship) 4 disease Dutch takeover of region 44 Jamestown settlers 4 Native American exposure to European 16 smallpox, Native Americans and 15, 16 diversity, of population 65 Dixon, Jeremiah 63, 64 Dover, Delaware assembly meeting 94 as capital 50, 92, 110c John Dickinson Plantation 111 ratification convention 110c Caesar Rodney 87 dried fish 12 Duck Creek 22 Dutch, the Robert Carr’s battle for control of New Amstel 50 Fort Casimir 36, 38 colonies and purchases in New World xv–xvi control of New Sweden 36–37 domination of Delaware 39–44, 46 early explorers and settlers 5–8 and the English 17–19, 107c exploration of New World xv–xvi and Finns 27 fur trade 34 Cornelius Hendrickson 105c Henry Hudson’s exploration for 2–4, 4 and Lenni Lenape Indians 35 Mercury 42 Peter Minuit 22, 24 New Amstel 50 New Amsterdam 6 New Sweden 26, 30, 35–38, 106c retaking of Delaware area 40–42, 107c retaking of New York 52–53 and Swedes 19–22, 27

Thirty Years’ War 35 Zwaanendael 8, 107c Dutch East India Company 2, 3 Dutch House (New Castle, Delaware) 112 Dutch language, in Gothenburg 20 Dutch West India Company Gustavus Adolph 20–22 Company Colony 42 establishment of 5 fur trade 20–22 Kalmar Nyckel’s return to Sweden 24 Peter Minuit 22 New Sweden Company 22 Peter Stuyvesant 36, 38, 107c duties 75–78

E Eagle (ship) 37, 38 early exploration 1–8, 15–16 east coast of North America xvi Eastern Woodland Indians 9, 12 economy, after Delaware’s separation from Pennsylvania 65–66 Elfsborg, Fort 30 Elk Creek 90 England. See also British army Coercive Acts 81 John Dickinson’s education in 101 earliest claims on Delaware region 1 exploration of New World xv French and Indian wars 66, 67 Henry Hudson’s arrest in 4, 4 loyalty of colonists 67, 84 Maryland charter 46 Mason-Dixon Line 63 New Netherland 37, 107c William Penn’s visit to 60 Quakers 54 retaking of Delaware from Dutch 53 royal charters xvi Spanish Armada xv Thirty Years’ War 35

English Muscovy Company 2 English settlers conflicts with the Dutch 17–19, 52–53 domination of Delaware 46–51 Henry Hudson’s search for Northwest Passage 2–3 European exploration, early 1–8, 15–16 Europe/Europeans. See also colonists attitude towards Native Americans xvii early trade with Lenni Lenape 15–16 first settlers 6–8 introduction of tobacco to 33 Renaissance xiii–xv export 32, 83. See also trade

F family, Lenni Lenape 15 Far East, trade routes to xv farmhouse (New Castle, Delaware) 61 farming. See agriculture federal government 97, 99, 100 federal legislature 101–102 Finns experience in clearing forest land 31 New Sweden 26, 30, 42 revolt against English control of Delaware 107c First Delaware Regiment 85 first European contacts 1–8, 15–16 “The First State” 103, 103 fishing, by Lenni Lenape 9, 11–12 Florida, Spanish colonization of xv flour mills 65 food as currency 14 Lenni Lenape 9, 11–13, 15 shortages 33, 35, 44 forests 30–31, 44 Fox, George 53, 53, 54, 55 France claims to east coast of America 1 exploration of New World xv

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France (continued) French and Indian wars 66 James II’s exile 48 Johan Printz’s landing 37 Franklin, Benjamin 67, 86, 86 freedom of religion. See religious freedom French and Indian wars 65–66 French colonies 69 Friends, Society of. See Quakers funding, of federal government 99 fur trade Dutch West India Company and 20–22 Griffin’s return to Sweden 26 Lenni Lenape—European 6, 16 New Sweden 34

G Gage, Thomas 83, 83, 84 galleons xv, xvi game, wild 12 Georgia 74 Germany 28 Glorious Revolution (1688) 48, 60, 108c Gloucester, New Jersey 106c Golden Hill, Battle of 76 Golden Shark 39–40 Gosnold, Bartholomew xvi Gothenburg, Sweden 20, 22, 42 gourds 11 government (federal). See federal government government (of Pennsylvania and Delaware) 59–60 grain mill (Middletown, Delaware) 62 “Great Compromise” 101–102 Greenbank Mill (Wilmington, Delaware) 113 Greenland 2 Griffin (Vogel Grip) 22, 25–26, 106c Gustavus Adolph (king of Sweden) 19–22, 21

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Hale-Byrnes House (Newark, Delaware) 113 Half Moon (ship) 2, 3, 4 Halifax, Nova Scotia 70 Hamilton, Alexander 99 Hancock, John 83 Harbor of Refuge 5 Hendrickson, Cornelis 5, 105c Hendrickson House Museum (Wilmington, Delaware) 113 Henlopen, Cape 5 Henry VIII (king of England) 1, 53 Heyes, Peter 106c hide, deer 12, 15 Historia general de las cosas de Nueva España 15 Historic Houses of Odessa, Delaware 113 Holliday, Robert 84 Holm, Thomas Campanius 9, 25, 36, 37 Holy Trinity (Old Swedes) Church (Wilmington, Delaware) 30, 31, 113 horse race 50 House of Commons 72 House of Representatives, U.S. 102 housing 13, 32 Howe, William 83, 89–92, 90, 91 Hudson, Henry 2, 2–4, 4, 17, 105c Hudson Bay 4 Hudson River 3, 8 Hudson Strait 4 hunting, by Lenni Lenape 9, 11 hybridization 11

I indentured servitude 50 Indies, Columbus’s journey to xv indirect taxation 75 interstate commerce 99, 99 Intolerable Acts 81, 109c Italy 1

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J Jacobson, Marcus 107c James (duke of York and Albany; later, James II, king of England) 48, 59 assumption of throne 108c Glorious Revolution 60 land granted to 46–51, 47m, 108c land grants to William Penn 54–56, 108c Jamestown, Virginia 4, 5 Jefferson, Thomas 86, 90 jewelry 12, 14 Jönsson, Anders 34 juries, local 70, 81

K Kalmar Nyckel. See Key of Kalmar Kalmar Nyckel Shipyard (Wilmington, Delaware) 114 Kent County militia 87 Patriot conflicts with Loyalists 95 Caesar Rodney 87 Stamp Act Congress 74 Key of Kalmar (Kalmar Nyckel) 22, 24, 26–28, 106c kidnapping xvii Killen, William 101 Kling, Måns 24 Kollock, Jacob 74

L Labrador, Cabot’s exploration of 1 land claims 17–19, 97. See also boundaries land grants Charles I’s grants to Lord Baltimore 6–7, 18–19, 106c Charles I’s grants to Edmund Plowden 7–8 Charles II’s grants to James II 46–47, 49–51 Charles II’s grants to William Penn 52–54, 56, 108c

to James II 46–47, 47m, 49–51, 108c James II’s grants to William Penn 54–56, 108c Maryland 6–7, 18–19, 50–51, 55, 106c Peter Minuit’s grants to company of patrons 105c New Netherland 46–47, 49–51 language groups, of Lenni Lenape Indians 10m legislature, federal 101–102 Lenni Lenape Indians 8–16, 9 fur trade 6 longhouses 13 Fort Nassau 35 New Sweden 26–27, 32, 35 Johan Printz and 28, 29, 34–35 Johan Ridder and 26–27 Peter Stuyvesant and 36 territory and language groups 8, 10m wampum 14 Zwaanendael 6, 8 Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania (John Dickinson) 75, 76, 76, 101 Lewes, Delaware David Pieterssen de Vries 106c Dutch claims and settlement 6, 18 historical sites 111–112 pirate raid 61 Stamp Act protests 72 Lewes Historical Society 111 Lexington, Massachusetts 84 Lexington and Concord, Battles of 83–84 life, daily. See daily life Linderström, Peter 40 livestock 33 log cabin 31, 32, 33 longhouse 13, 13–15 Lower Counties annexation by Pennsylvania 108c division of Pennsylvania and Delaware 62–63 government of 59–60

William Penn 108c pirate raids 60–61 Loyalists after War for Independence 95 assistance to British 94 disruption of commerce 95–96 Patriots vs. 94–97 and William Penn’s father 56 Philadelphia 84 Sussex County 87 Luther, Martin xiv Lutheran Church 21, 28, 30 Lützen, Battle of 20 Lycurgus 48

M malnutrition 44 Manhattan Island xv, 6, 24. See also New York City Markham, William 61–62 Maryland Articles of Confederation 99 Charles I’s land grants to Lord Baltimore 6–7, 18–19, 39 Delaware boundaries and land disputes 19, 52, 56 Delaware colonists in 46 John Dickinson 101 founding of 106c James II’s land grants 50–51 Mason-Dixon Line 63, 64, 64m New Sweden 39 William Penn’s land grant 55 slaves as portion of population 65 tax collection in Lower Counties 61 Mary (queen of England, Scotland, and Ireland) 60, 108c Mason, Charles 63, 64 Mason-Dixon Line 63, 63, 64m Massachusetts Coercive Acts 81 Continental Congress 82 persecution of Quakers 55 radicalism 67 Stamp Act Congress 74 mats 15

Maxwell, William 91 May (Mey), Cornelis Jacobsen 5, 105c McKean, Thomas 74 as acting president of Delaware 110c Committees of Correspondence 79 First Continental Congress 82, 109c Second Continental Congress 109c Declaration of Independence 87, 88, 109c Stamp Act Congress 74 McKinly, John British capture 92, 109c Committees of Correspondence 79 election as governor of Delaware 109c replacement by Rodney as governor 94 measles 16 medicine, tobacco as 32 Mennonites 45 mercenaries 28 merchants 35, 70 merchant ships 95 Mercury 42 metal goods, for trade 15 Middletown, Delaware 62 Midwest, Indian reservations in 16 militia groups blue hens 96 John Dickinson and 101 forming of 83 Kent County 95 Battles of Lexington and Concord 84 mill (Middletown, Delaware) 62 mills 65 ministry, Lutheran 28 Minquas Kill 22 Minuit, Peter 24, 24 Fort Christina 23 Griffin’s trading mission 25–26

Index

121

Minuit, Peter (continued) land grants for Delaware Bay region 105c New Sweden Company 22 Wilmington 106c minutemen 83 molasses 69–70 money 14 moose 12 Munsee dialects 8 mutiny 2, 4

N Nassau, Fort 5, 35–36, 106c Native Americans xvii Charter of Privileges 59 corn 11 Lenni Lenape Indians. See Lenni Lenape Indians Manhattan 24 Peter Minuit and 22, 24 Peach War 41 William Penn and 16 population xvii Johann Printz and 34–35 smallpox 15 tobacco 33 wampum 14 Zwaanendael 8 Netherlands 36, 44. See also the Dutch nets, fishing 11 New Albion 7–8 New Amstel 42–43, 49–50, 107c New Amsterdam. See also New York City Delaware colonists in 44 Peter Minuit and 22 New Sweden 26 retaking by the Dutch (1673) 52–53 retaking of Delaware area 39–42 self-government 43 Peter Stuyvesant and 36, 36–37, 49, 49 vignette detail 6 Newark, Delaware 91, 112–113

122

New Castle, Delaware as capital 62 Fort Casimir 37 courthouse 68–69, 112 Delaware assembly meeting 109c Dutch house 44 Dutch settlement 106c English naming of 50 farmhouse 61 historical sites 112 William Penn’s arrival in 56–57 removal of capital to Dover 92 Stamp Act protests 72, 74 tobacco 65 twelve-mile circle 56, 58m New Castle County 74 New Castle Court House Museum (New Castle, Delaware) 112 New England 69 Newfoundland xiii New Gothenburg 29, 30 New Hampshire 74, 103 New Haven, Connecticut 35 New Jersey Annapolis Convention 99 Articles of Confederation 97, 99 Cape May 5 equal representation 100 Lenni Lenape 8 shell mounds 12 Sons of Liberty and “tea parties” 72 Washington’s retreat 88 New Netherland Dutch West India Company 5 end of 46–47, 49–51 English threat 44 fur trade 34 historical map detail 6 James II’s land grant 46–51 New Sweden colonists in 41 original settlements 7m retaking by the Dutch (1673) 53 Peter Stuyvesant 35, 36, 37 trade between Lenni Lenape and Europeans 15–16

Delaware

New Sweden 22–42, 23m, 29m clearing and improving land 30–34 daily life in 29–38 division of former colony 42–46 Dutch claims on 35–38 end of 39–42 expansion of 29–30 isolation from Sweden 34–37 population (1647) 30 Johan Printz 26–30, 28 slavery 106c Peter Stuyvesant 41–42, 107c tobacco 32 New Sweden Company 22, 27 New World, Spanish power in xv New York City. See also New Amsterdam British control of 93 Dutch settlement on Manhattan Island 6 Battle of Golden Hill 76 Half Moon replica 3 Manhattan Island purchase xv, 24 Peter Minuit 24 renaming by Richard Nicolls 49 Stamp Act Congress 74 surrender to the Dutch (1673) 52–53 George Washington in 88 New York State 87, 99 Nicolls, Richard 49, 49–50, 50 North Bridge (Concord, Massachusetts) 84 North Carolina 74 Northeast Indians 9 Northern Unami—Unalachtigo dialect 8 North River (Hudson River) 3, 6 Northwest Passage 2–3, 4 “no taxation without representation” 72, 74, 75 Nova Scotia xiii Nova Zemlya 2

O Odessa, Delaware, Historic Houses of 113

Old Swedes Church. See Holy Trinity Church Ottoman Turks xv Oxenstierna, Count Axel 21, 22, 27

P pacifism 54, 101 Parliament Declaratory Act 74, 75 Sons of Liberty and 72 Stamp Act 70, 72 Sugar Act 69 Tea Act 79–81 Townshend Duties 75 passenger pigeon 13 Patriots Battle of Brandywine 92 British control of Delaware Bay 94 Committees of Correspondence 79 Delaware volunteers 85 John Dickinson 101 Battles of Lexington and Concord 83, 84 Loyalists vs. 94–97 role in creation of United States 103 Peach War 41, 42 pelts 16, 24. See also fur trade “penman of the Revolution” 101 Penn, William 52, 56 arrest during visit to England 60, 108c Charles II’s land grants to 52–54, 56, 108c Charter of Privileges 59 Delaware under 57–60 division of Pennsylvania and Delaware 62–63 heirs, and Mason-Dixon Line 63 James II’s land grants to 54–56, 108c Lower Counties 108c and Native Americans 16 and Quakers 54, 56

Penn family 67 Pennsylvania Annapolis Convention 99 Battle of Brandywine 109c corn 11 Declaration of Independence 87, 101 Delaware boundary 56, 58m Delaware colony as part of 52 Delaware’s relations with in early days of American Revolution 67 Delaware’s separation from 60–64 John Dickinson 101 Lower Counties 59–60 Mason-Dixon Line 64, 64m Mennonites 45 New Gothenburg 29 William Penn 56, 59, 108c twelve-mile circle boundary 56, 58m U.S. Constitution 103 Washington’s retreat to 88 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Battle of Brandywine 92 British occupation of 92, 93, 109c Constitutional Convention 99 First Continental Congress 82, 109c Second Continental Congress 84 Battle of Cooch’s Bridge 90 Declaration of Independence 86, 88 Delaware commerce 65 John Dickinson 101 William Howe 89–90 New Gothenburg 29 Quaker control of assembly 60 Caesar Rodney 88, 109c soldier’s back pay march 99 Tea Act protests 80 pipe (tobacco) 32, 33 pirates 60–61 Plockhoy, Peter Cornelisson 45 Plowden, Edmund 7–8, 8

Polly (ship) 80 popcorn 11 population Delaware, after separation from Pennsylvania 64–65 Delaware, under Penn’s proprietorship 57, 59 Delaware (1620–1790) 57t Native Americans (1492) xvii New Sweden (1647) 30 New Sweden (1655) 39 Pennsylvania, under Penn’s proprietorship 59 slaves, as portion of 65 Portugal xv Potomac River 17, 18 Princeton, New Jersey 99 printed matter, British tax on 72 Printz, Gustaf 37 Printz, Johan 27, 28 dictatorial rule of New Sweden 34 and Dutch designs on New Sweden 36–37 expansion of New Sweden 28–30 food supply in New Sweden 33–34 as governor of New Sweden 26–30 requests for assistance from Sweden 34 and Tinicum Island as capital of New Sweden 29, 106c Printzhof (Printz Hall) 29 property, Native American concept of 15, 24 proportional representation 102 prosperity, in Delaware 64–66 Protestant Reformation xiv Protestants/Protestantism xiv, xvi, 19, 53 protests, against Stamp Act 72–74 Puritans designs on New Sweden 35 loss of control of Britain after Cromwell 46

Index

123

Puritans (continued) New England 53 overthrow of Charles I 54

Q quahog 14 Quaker Hill Historic District (Wilmington, Delaware) 114 Quakers 53–57, 54–55, 55 John Dickinson 101 Lower Counties 60–61 William Penn and 56 population increase in Pennsylvania 59 quarter, Delaware (contemporary coin) 103

R radicals 75–76 Raritan Bay 39–40 ratification Declaration of Independence 86–88, 109c U.S. Constitution 102–103, 110c Read, George 102 acting president of Delaware 110c Committees of Correspondence 79 Constitutional Convention 100, 110c First Continental Congress 82, 109c Second Continental Congress 109c Declaration of Independence 87, 109c U.S. Constitution 102 reclaimed land 44 redcoats 84. See also British army religious freedom xiv Charter of Privileges excerpt 59 Mennonites 45 Pennsylvania 59 religious intolerance/religious persecution England 19, 53

124

New England 53 William Penn 56 Quakers 54 the Renaissance xiii–xv representative government 100–102 Resolutions of the Continental Congress (1765) [Stamp Act Congress] 75 Revere, Paul 83 Rhode Island 100, 103 Ridder, Peter Hollander 26–27 Rising, Johan Dutch retaking of Delaware area 40–41 Fort Casimir 107c New Sweden 37–42 return to Europe 42 Peter Stuyvesant’s offer to return New Sweden 41–42 Robinson, Thomas 79 “The Rocks” 22, 24, 106c Rodney, Caesar 87 acting president of Delaware 94, 110c Committees of Correspondence 79 First Continental Congress 82, 109c Second Continental Congress 109c Declaration of Independence 87–88, 109c Delaware quarter 103 role in creation of United States 103 Stamp Act Congress 74 Rome 21 roosters, fighting 96 royal charters xvi rum 69 rye 32, 61, 65

S Saint Lawrence River 1 St. Martin, West Indies 36 Salem, New Jersey 35 Salem River 35 Savannah, Georgia 95 sawmills 65

Delaware

Scandinavia xiii, 42 Schuykill River 22 Scots-Irish 67 seines 11 self-government 43–44, 59, 67 Senate, U.S. 101–102 settlements, Viking xiii settlers. See colonists shellfish 12 shell mounds 12 shelter. See housing shortage, of food 33, 35, 44 sinew, deer 12 Skute, Sven 40 slaves/slavery first slaves in New Sweden 106c Griffin’s trading mission to Caribbean 26 Mason-Dixon Line 63, 64 as portion of population 65 tobacco farming 65 smallpox 15, 16 Smith, John xvi smuggling 69–70, 80 Society of Friends 55. See also Quakers Sons of Liberty 72, 72, 80 soups 11, 12 South America xvi, xvii South Carolina 65, 72, 87 South Company 21–22 southern colonies 44, 63 Southern Unami dialect 8 South River (Delaware River) 3, 5 Spain xv, 32, 48 Spanish Armada xv Spanish colonies 69 squab 13 squash 11, 12 Stamp Act 70, 72, 72, 72–74, 73 Stamp Act Congress 74, 75 stamp taxes 70 state bird (blue hen chicken) 96 state government, defense against Loyalists 96 state motto 103 states’ rights 100

stews 11, 12 stockade 13 Stuyvesant, Peter 35, 36, 41 Company Colony 42 Dutch settlement at Fort Casimir 106c New Amsterdam, army in 36–37 New Amsterdam, surrender of 49, 49 New Netherland 35 New Sweden 38, 41–42, 107c retaking of Delaware area 40 self-government in Delaware 43 Sugar Act 69–70 sugarcane processing, in British colony in Caribbean 70–71 supplies, for New Sweden 27–28 Sussex County 74 Svalbard Islands 2 Sweden Queen Christina 21 connection with the Dutch 19–22 military power under Gustavus Adolph 19–20 Peter Minuit’s journey to Delaware 22 and New Sweden 26, 34–37, 39, 42 Johan Printz 27, 28, 37–38 Thirty Years’ War 35 Swedish army 28 Swedish settlers after demise of New Sweden 42 capture of Fort Casimir 107c experience in clearing forest land 31 in New Sweden 30 revolt against English control of Delaware 107c symbols, on wampum belts 14

T tar and feathering 78, 80 taxation Articles of Confederation 99 British imposition of 66–80

French and Indian war debt 67 Lower Counties 61 Stamp Act 70, 72, 72, 72–74, 73 Sugar Act 69–70 Tea Act 78–80 Townshend Duties 75–78 “taxation without representation.” See “no taxation without representation” tax collector, tar and feathering of 78 tax stamp 72 tea, Townshend Duties and 77 Tea Act 78–80 “tea parties” 72, 80 Test Act 48 The Thirteen Colonies (1790) xviiim Thirty Years’ War 35 time line 105c–110c Tinicum Island 29, 106c tobacco 32, 34 as cash crop 33, 61, 65 Kalmar Nyckel’s return to Europe 24 Lenni Lenape agriculture 11 Townshend Duties 75–78 trade Dutch West India Company 5 European xiii–xv lack of goods from Sweden 34 Lenni Lenape 15–16, 35 Loyalist disruption of 95–96 New Sweden 35 Philadelphia 65 Sugar Act 69 Swedish connection with Dutch 20 wampum and 12, 14 trade conflicts, between states 99, 99 trade routes, to Far East xv trapping, by Lenni Lenape 12 Trenton, New Jersey 27, 29 Trinity, Fort 40, 107c. See also Casimir, Fort Tuckerton, New Jersey 12

turkeys 13 Twelve Mile Circle 56, 58m

U United New Netherland Company 5 United States, Delaware’s role in creation of 103 utopian community 45 Utrecht, Holland 26

V Valley Forge, Pennsylvania 92–94, 94–95 Verrazano, Giovanni da 1, 105c Vikings xiii Viking ship xiv villages, of Lenni Lenape 13 Virginia 4 Annapolis Convention 99, 99–100 British surrender at Yorktown 95 Dutch soldiers from New Amstel 50 Griffin’s trading mission 25–26 radicalism 67 slaves as portion of population 65 Stamp Act Congress 74 tobacco 32 Vogel Grip 22

W Waddenzee 44 wampum 12, 14, 14 War for Independence 83–96 Battle of Brandywine 92, 93m Battle of Cooch’s Bridge 90–91 John Dickinson 101 New Jersey area battles 88–90 Patriots vs. Loyalists in Delaware 94–97 start of 82–84 Washington, George 84 Battle of Brandywine 92, 109c British evacuation of Boston 85 as commanding general 85 Battle of Cooch’s Bridge 90, 109c

Index

125

Washington, George (continued) New York City–area defeats 88 Valley Forge 94–95 water-powered mills 65 West, Thomas, Lord De La Warr 4–5, 5, 105c West Jersey 53–54, 56 Westminster, Peace of 53 West Virginia 63 westward migration, of Lenni Lenape 16 wheat, as cash crop 61, 65 white-tailed deer 12 wholesalers 80 wigwams 13 William of Orange (William III, king of England, Scotland, and Ireland) 60, 108c

126

Wilmington, Delaware British departure from 110c British occupation of 92, 109c Fort Christina 23, 25 Company Colony 42 first permanent settlement 106c historical map 43 historical sites 113–114 Old Swedes Church 30, 31, 113 George Washington’s encampment at 109c windmills 44 women, role in Lenni Lenape agriculture 11

Y Yorktown, Siege of 95, 96

Delaware

Z Zuider Zee 44 Zwaanendael destruction by Lenni Lenape Indians 6, 8, 106c Dutch claims on Delaware 17–19, 46 Dutch settlement and naming of 6, 106c English threat to Dutch control of 44 Mennonites 45 resettlement by the Dutch 107c