Delaware

Delaware is a state of the United States of America. Its largest city is Wilmington and its capital and second-largest city is Dover.

History

Postbellum

During and after the war, anticipating the abolition of slavery and reprisal from Unionist and anti-slavery radicals, many slaveholding families from Delaware resettled in Maryland. In particular, they would help rebuild Salisbury, Maryland, which had been ravaged by a fire in 1860. Meanwhile, many black freedmen and escaped slaves moved to Delaware, such that by 1864 it was called "the blackest state in the Union." That same year, the state abolished slavery, thereby eliminating slavery in the Union. The Confederate intellectual George Fitzhugh visited Delaware during his tour of the Union and wrote about it extensively in his work Race Relations.

The 1870 United States census showed that Delaware's population had swelled from 112,216 (90,589 white; 19,829 free colored; 1,798 slave) to 162,621 (100,234 white; 62,387 colored). Though they were supposed to be well-integrated into Delaware society, the state simply could not handle the sheer number of black immigrants and many ghettos formed within and without cities like Wilmington and Dover.