Oh I’m not trying to be creative. Delaware was both ahead and behind the times when it came to slavery. FWIW The free black population far out numbered the enslaved population and Delaware had about 1900 enslaved people in the 1860 census. They also had a Farming community in the southern counties that pulled a lot of shenanigan’s with slave traders in Maryland.
It was a very Racist State when it came to politics and legalities, but that was also under strong Democrat Party Rule.
It had a great deal of early history that was very liberal minded when it came to slavery and was one of the earliest to ban importation of slaves along with other measures to limit it going back to the mid 1700’s So it is a very mixed and split history when it comes to Delaware and Slavery. So on the books, they were the last State to repeal it, but in practice there was very low participation in it compared to most if not all of the other Slave States.
Delaware is an interesting case study on many aspects of colonization, statehood, etc. If Biden hadn’t moved there and dug in, I would bet there might be derision on the board here and maybe a more open mindset to its history.
Although I was born there, my families history is much more ingrained in Bucks County PA going back to the mid 1700’s
The post I responded to was very creative in trying to counter the fact that Delaware was a slave state, and the last one to give it up.
This was in grade school in Delaware but we were taught the northern part of the state was Union and the Southern part was Confederate, hence the title “The Diamond State.”
I don’t remember the woman’s name but a show on the History Channel had a story about a wealthy black woman slave trader who was the toast of Charleston society all through the Civil War. She even had a letter of introduction from the Governor of Georgia, a big deal in those days.
Here’s a horrible story from Delaware history.
https://allthatsinteresting.com/patty-cannon
Patty Cannon’s house was built on the Delaware/Maryland border. She was able to get away with her crimes for so long because when the Delaware authorities would come to arrest her, she would get over to the Maryland side and vice versa for the Maryland cops. Both states law enforcement eventually decided to coordinate their efforts and hit her place at the same time. They got her. In all of the accounts of this story I can’t find the part of the border ruse mentioned even though I think it’s a large part of the story. We were taught all of this story in Delaware history.