The history of slavery in Delaware began when it was

Delaware Colony The Delaware Colony, officially known as the three Lower Counties on the Delaware, was a semiautonomous region of the proprietary Province of Pennsylvania and a '' de facto'' British colony in North America. Although not royally sanctioned, ...

and continued until the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment in December 1865. The

Delaware River The Delaware River is a major river in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States and is the longest free-flowing (undammed) river in the Eastern United States. From the meeting of its branches in Hancock, New York, the river flows for a ...

was an important waterway used for bringing slaves inland to

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

. In 1776, Delaware prohibited the importation of slaves, and on December 7, 1787, prohibited both imports and exports of slaves from the state. Delaware never abolished slavery and in order of admission to the Union was the first of the 15

slave states In the United States before 1865, a slave state was a state in which slavery and the internal or domestic slave trade were legal, while a free state was one in which they were prohibited. Between 1812 and 1850, it was considered by the slave s ...

but did not secede from the Union during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

. There were 1,798 enslaved people living in Delaware at the time of the 1860 U.S. census. A state with a mix of enslaved people and

free people of color In the context of the history of slavery in the Americas, free people of color (; ) were primarily people of mixed African, European, and Native American descent who were not enslaved. However, the term also applied to people born free who we ...

that lay in close proximity to the slave jails of traders in Baltimore and Washington, legally free blacks were sometimes kidnapped into slavery, and "freedmen found it wise to deposit apprentice and freedom papers with the

Pennsylvania Abolition Society The Society for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage was the first American abolition society. It was founded April 14, 1775, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and held four meetings. Seventeen of the 24 men who attended initia ...

in Philadelphia." The Johnson–Cannon gang, whose tavern and slave pen stood on the border between Maryland and Delaware, were notorious slave stealers and murderers. The state also hosted stations of the

Underground Railroad The Underground Railroad was an organized network of secret routes and safe houses used by freedom seekers to escape to the abolitionist Northern United States and Eastern Canada. Enslaved Africans and African Americans escaped from slavery ...

such as the Appoquinimink Friends Meetings House.

Thomas Garrett Thomas Garrett (August 21, 1789 – January 25, 1871) was an American abolitionist and assisted in the Underground Railroad movement before the American Civil War. He helped more than 2,500 African Americans escape slavery. For his effort ...

of Wilmington, Delaware, a businessman of the Quaker faith, reportedly assisted in the escapes of between 2,000 and 3,000 slaves.

References

External links

Special Collections: Slavery & the Underground Railroad (udel.edu)
{{History of slavery in the United States Slavery in the United States by state or territory History of slavery in Delaware African-American history of Delaware Pre-statehood history of Delaware

See also

References

Further reading

External links