A House Divided: Slavery and Emancipation in Delaware, 1638-1865Delaware stood outside the primary streams of New World emancipation. Despite slavery's virtual demise in that state during the antebellum years and Delaware's staunch Unionism during the Civil War itself, the state failed to ratify the Thirteenth Amendment, which prohibits slavery, until 1901. Patience Essah takes the reader of A House Divided through the introduction, evolution, demise, and final abolition of slavery in Delaware. In unraveling the enigma of how and why tiny Delaware abstained from the abolition mandated in northern states after the American Revolution, resisted the movement toward abolition in border states during the Civil War, and stubbornly opposed ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment, she offers fresh insight into the history of slavery, race, and racialism in America. The citizens of Delaware voluntarily freed over 90 percent of their slaves, yet they declined Lincoln's 1862 offer of compensation for emancipation, and the legislature persistently foiled all attempts to mandate emancipation. Those arguing against emancipation expressed fears that it inadvertently would alter the delicate balance of political power in the state. What Essah has found at the base of the Delaware paradox is a political discourse stalemated by instrumental appeals to racialism. In showing the persistence of slavery in Delaware, she raises questions about postslavery race relations. Her analysis is vital to an understanding of the African-American experience. |
Contents
The Dutch Swedes English and Slavery | 9 |
The Making of Voluntary Emancipation 17401865 | 36 |
At the Margin of Freedom | 75 |
On the Bank of the River Jordan | 108 |
Carrying Their Own Weight | 129 |
A Government of White Men for the Benefit | 153 |
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A House Divided: Slavery and Emancipation in Delaware, 1638-1865 Patience Essah No preview available - 2016 |
Common terms and phrases
abolition bill abolition law abolition of slavery abolition society antislavery Asbury Atlantic slave trade black codes bondage Cannon Castle County census century Civil compensated emancipation plan court debate Dela Delaware blacks Delaware colony Delaware free blacks Delaware Gazette Delaware slaveholders Delaware slaves Delaware's Democrats Duck Creek Dutch economic election Essah ex-slaves Ezion farmers female free black population free blacks free their slaves freed freedom Garrett gradual abolition grain half-free House Journal Ibid indenture indentured servants Kent County legislative legislature liberty Lincoln's Compensated Emancipation LPPN male manumission manumission deed Maryland Methodist Munroe Negro number of slaves Pennsylvania percent petition Philadelphia political proslavery Quakers race racial remained Republican residents Returns for Delaware rural Delaware servitude slave codes slave labor slave owners slave population slavery in Delaware state's Sussex County thirteenth amendment tion tobacco U.S. Bureau Union voluntary manumission vote ware white citizens white Delawareans Wilmington