Delaware, state (2,489 sq mi/6,447 sq km; 1995 est. pop. 717,197), E U.S., one of the Middle Atlantic states and one of the 13 original U.S. states; Dover. The only sizeable city is Wilmington in N (Philadelphia, Pa., to NE). Together with E Md. and the E shore of Va., the state occupies the Delmarva peninsula bet. Chesapeake Bay and Delaware Bay. The Chesapeake and Delaware Canal connect the 2 bays (crosses base of peninsula) S of Wilmington (part of Intracoastal Waterway). Delaware is situated on the NE portion of the peninsula, facing the Delaware R., which broadens into Delaware Bay; the bay, in turn, joins the Atlantic Ocean at Cape Henlopen, opposite Cape May, N.J. Del. Bay and R. forms N.J.–Delaware state line. Elsewhere, Del. is bounded N by Pa. and W and S by Md., E by Atlantic Ocean (in SE). Its 38 mi/61 km beach-lined coastal strip includes Rehoboth, Dewey, and Bethany beaches; has 3 large back bays, Rehoboth, Indian R., and part of Assawoman bays. The second smallest inland area of all U.S. states after R.I., Del. is sometimes called the Diamond State, in reference to its small size but significant value to the nation. Many small rivers flow across the state, including Christina, Murderkill, St. Jones, and Broadkill (flow E) and Nanticoke, Choptank (flow SW). In the N the Christina and Brandywine rivers flow into the Delaware; in the S the Nanticoke R. flows SW to Chesapeake Bay. The land is low-lying, none of it far from saltwater, from the sand dunes in the S to the pleasant little hills on the border of Pa. in the N; the average elev. is c.60 ft/18 m, and the highest point (unnamed), at Centerville (NW of Wilmington and almost on the Pa. border) is only 442 ft/135 m high. Del. is chiefly an industrial state, although agr. is still important. Industry is heavily concentrated in the N, while farming is carried on throughout the state. Chief agr. prods. are broilers, soybeans, corn, and dairy prods. Potatoes and other vegetables are also grown. Much of the state’s wealth comes from industries around Wilmington, especially the chemicals industry that was founded by the Du Pont family in the 19th cent. and that continues to be one of the largest chemical companies in the world. In addition to chemicals, mfg. includes food, rubber and plastic prods., and transportation equip. Because of Del.’s lenient laws governing business taxation, some of the nation’s largest corporations, and other companies, have their home offices in the Wilmington area, while actual mfg. is done elsewhere. The banking and finance industries have especially profitted. Del. has a small fishing industry and the principal species caught are menhaden, oysters, clams, and lobsters. Regional tourism, especially from cities of Baltimore and Wash., also contributes to the economy. Long before Europeans explored the Del. area, it was inhabited by several Native Amer. groups, notably the Nanticoke in the S and the Minqua in the N. In 1609, Henry Hudson, in the service of the Du. East India Co., sailed into Delaware Bay. A year later the Br. captain Sir Samuel Argall, bound for the colony of Va., also sailed into the bay. Argall named one of the capes Cape La Warre after the governor of Va., Thomas West, Baron De la Warr. From the time of its discovery, the region was contested by the Du. and English. The first settlement was established by Du. patroons, or proprietors, in partnership with the Dutch navigator David Pietersen de Vries; it was called Swanendael and was est. (1631) on the site of the town of Lewes. However, within a year it was destroyed by a Native Amer. attack. This attack notwithstanding, the Native Americans were generally friendly and willing to trade with the newcomers. The Du. West India Co., organized in 1623, was more interested in trade on the South R., as the Delaware R. was called at that time, than in settlement (the North R. was the Hudson, in the Du. colony of New Netherland). Several Dutchmen, interested in settling the area, put their services at the disposal of Sweden and colonized the area for that country. The best known of these was Peter Minuit, who had been governor of New Amsterdam. In 1637–1638 Minuit directed the colonizing expedition for the Swedes that organized New Sweden. Fort Christina was founded in 1638 on the site of Wilmington and was named in honor of the queen of Sweden. The colony grew with the arrival of Swed., Finn., and Du. settlers. Eng. colonists from Conn. tried to establish trading posts in the Delaware R. region and failed, but Dutch interests in the area were not disposed of as easily. Peter Stuyvesant, governor of New Netherland, sailed to the Del. region in 1651 and established Fort Casimir on the Del. shore at the site of present-day New Castle. The Swedes captured the fort by surprise in 1654, but their triumph was brief; Stuyvesant returned with an expedition in 1655 and conquered all New Sweden. The Du. West India Co. sold part of New Sweden to the Du. city of Amsterdam in 1656 and the rest in 1663. In 1664 the English seized the Dutch holdings on the Del. The Dutch recaptured the colony in 1673 and although they held Del. only briefly, they set up 3 district courts that marked the beginning of Del.’s division into 3 cos. The colony was returned to the English in 1674 and remained in their hands until the Amer. Revolution. The English Duke of York (later James II) annexed the region to N.Y., land granted him earlier by Charles II. In 1682 the Duke transferred the claim to William Penn, who wanted to secure a navigable water route from his new colony of Pa. to the ocean. The 3 cos. of Del. thus became the 3 Lower Counties (or Territories, as Penn called them) of Pa. The individual cos. were called New Castle, Kent (formerly St. Jones), and Sussex (formerly Hoornkill, also known as Whorekill, and Deale). The English proprietors of Md. contested Penn’s claim to Del., and the boundary dispute was not fully settled until 1750. The inhabitants of the Del. cos. were at first unwilling to be joined to the “radical” Quaker colony of Pa. or to have their affairs settled in Philadelphia. They finally accepted the Penn charter of 1701 after provisions were added giving the 3 Lower Counties the right to a separate assembly, which first met in 1704. Del. maintained quasi-autonomy until the Amer. Revolution. The 2 colonies maintained strong ties, however, and 2 of Del.’s leading statesmen during the Revolution—Thomas McKean and John Dickinson—were also prominent in Pa. affairs. Although there were many Loyalists in Del. just prior to the Amer. Revolution, Del. supported independence, with 2 of its 3 delegates to the Continental Congress—Caesar Rodney and Thomas McKean—voting for independence. George Read, the 3d Del. delegate, voted against independence, fearing that Loyalist sentiment was too strong in the colonies. However, Read subsequently signed the Declaration of Independence. In 1776 the colony of Del. became a state, with a president as its chief executive. Regiments from the state rendered valiant service to the patriot cause, especially the Del. 1st Regiment, which was nicknamed the Blue Hen’s Chickens—originally because they carried with them gamecocks bred by a famous hen of Kent and later because they themselves showed the fighting quality of gamecocks. Del. was a leader in the movement for revision of the form of govt. under the Articles of Confederation and in 1787 became the first state to ratify the new Constitution of the U.S. The late 18th cent. also marked the beginning of industry in Del. with the establishment of gristmills on the Brandywine and Christina rivers. Wilmington became a center for the manufacture of cloth, paper, and flour prods. that helped to build the industrial economy of N Del. that flourished in the 19th cent. Shortly thereafter, in 1802, Eleuthère Irénée Du Pont established a gunpowder mill on the Brandywine R. The state constitution of 1776 was superseded by a new constitution in 1792, which provided that the chief executive be a governor rather than a president. Prior to the Civil War, Del. was a slave state, but in the early 19th cent. the number of slaves in the state declined, while the number of free blacks increased. Many citizens of Del. favored manumission of slaves and belonged to the American Colonization Society, but there were few who sympathized with the growing abolitionist movement and there was strong sentiment for separation of whites and blacks. In the Civil War, Del. remained loyal to the Union, but pro-Southern feeling increased rather than diminished during the course of the war. Del. refused to accept an emancipation proposal made by Lincoln in 1861 and did not ratify the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth amendments to the U.S. Constitution until 1901. Del. Democrats subsequently became divided, and the Republican Party emerged in 1905 to assume a leading political role for some years. A new state constitution in 1897 reflected the political strength as well as conservatism of Delaware’s farmers through provisions that kept the political strength of Wilmington at a min. and that of rural areas at a max. Many European immigrants came to the state in the late 19th and early 20th cent., settling in the Wilmington area. The pop. of S Del. continued to be made up largely of blacks and persons of Eng. origin. Industries flourished during the 19th cent. as transportation facilities improved. Industry continued to expand in the 20th cent., especially during World Wars I and II. The chemical industry built by the Du Pont family was broken up by a Federal antitrust suit in 1912, but became large enough to buy control of General Motors corporation in the 1920s and hold it for many years. Racial tensions appeared in the state in the 1950s and 1960s as Del.’s schools became racially integrated, and after the assassination of Martin Luther King in 1968, rioting erupted in Wilmington. In the 1980s, Gov. Pierre S. Du Pont fought to liberalize the state’s usury laws and won. As a result, many large N.Y. banks set up subsidiaries in Del. (especially the Wilmington area), and thousands of jobs were created. Under the provisions of the 1897 constitution, the governor is elected to a 4-year term. The state legislature, called the general assembly, is made up of a senate of 21 members elected to serve for 4 years and a house of representatives with 41 members elected for 2 years. In the 1960s the general assembly was reapportioned on the basis of pop., thus giving a greater influence to urban areas and reducing the rural influence. Del. is represented in the U.S. Congress by 2 Senators and 1 Representative and has 3 electoral votes. Pierre S. Du Pont, a Republican, was elected governor in 1976 and reelected in 1980. He was succeeded by Michael Castle, also a Republican, in 1984. Castle was reelected in 1988. Democrat Tom Carper was elected in 1992. The leading institutions of higher education are the Univ. of Del., at Newark, and Del. State Univ. Del. has several state parks and state forests, some of them coastal; also important are Bombay Hook and Prime Hook Natl. wildlife refuges, both on Del. Bay. Del. has 3 cos.: Kent, New Castle, Sussex.
Capital city or county seat is shown by the symbol
Dover. The only sizeable city is Wilmington in N (Philadelphia, Pa., to NE). Together with E Md. and the E shore of Va., the state occupies the Delmarva peninsula bet. Chesapeake Bay and Delaware Bay. The Chesapeake and Delaware Canal connect the 2 bays (crosses base of peninsula) S of Wilmington (part of Intracoastal Waterway). Delaware is situated on the NE portion of the peninsula, facing the Delaware R., which broadens into Delaware Bay; the bay, in turn, joins the Atlantic Ocean at Cape Henlopen, opposite Cape May, N.J. Del. Bay and R. forms N.J.–Delaware state line. Elsewhere, Del. is bounded N by Pa. and W and S by Md., E by Atlantic Ocean (in SE). Its 38 mi/61 km beach-lined coastal strip includes Rehoboth, Dewey, and Bethany beaches; has 3 large back bays, Rehoboth, Indian R., and part of Assawoman bays. The second smallest inland area of all U.S. states after R.I., Del. is sometimes called the Diamond State, in reference to its small size but significant value to the nation. Many small rivers flow across the state, including Christina, Murderkill, St. Jones, and Broadkill (flow E) and Nanticoke, Choptank (flow SW). In the N the Christina and Brandywine rivers flow into the Delaware; in the S the Nanticoke R. flows SW to Chesapeake Bay. The land is low-lying, none of it far from saltwater, from the sand dunes in the S to the pleasant little hills on the border of Pa. in the N; the average elev. is c.60 ft/18 m, and the highest point (unnamed), at Centerville (NW of Wilmington and almost on the Pa. border) is only 442 ft/135 m high. Del. is chiefly an industrial state, although agr. is still important. Industry is heavily concentrated in the N, while farming is carried on throughout the state. Chief agr. prods. are broilers, soybeans, corn, and dairy prods. Potatoes and other vegetables are also grown. Much of the state’s wealth comes from industries around Wilmington, especially the chemicals industry that was founded by the Du Pont family in the 19th cent. and that continues to be one of the largest chemical companies in the world. In addition to chemicals, mfg. includes food, rubber and plastic prods., and transportation equip. Because of Del.’s lenient laws governing business taxation, some of the nation’s largest corporations, and other companies, have their home offices in the Wilmington area, while actual mfg. is done elsewhere. The banking and finance industries have especially profitted. Del. has a small fishing industry and the principal species caught are menhaden, oysters, clams, and lobsters. Regional tourism, especially from cities of Baltimore and Wash., also contributes to the economy. Long before Europeans explored the Del. area, it was inhabited by several Native Amer. groups, notably the Nanticoke in the S and the Minqua in the N. In 1609, Henry Hudson, in the service of the Du. East India Co., sailed into Delaware Bay. A year later the Br. captain Sir Samuel Argall, bound for the colony of Va., also sailed into the bay. Argall named one of the capes Cape La Warre after the governor of Va., Thomas West, Baron De la Warr. From the time of its discovery, the region was contested by the Du. and English. The first settlement was established by Du. patroons, or proprietors, in partnership with the Dutch navigator David Pietersen de Vries; it was called Swanendael and was est. (1631) on the site of the town of Lewes. However, within a year it was destroyed by a Native Amer. attack. This attack notwithstanding, the Native Americans were generally friendly and willing to trade with the newcomers. The Du. West India Co., organized in 1623, was more interested in trade on the South R., as the Delaware R. was called at that time, than in settlement (the North R. was the Hudson, in the Du. colony of New Netherland). Several Dutchmen, interested in settling the area, put their services at the disposal of Sweden and colonized the area for that country. The best known of these was Peter Minuit, who had been governor of New Amsterdam. In 1637–1638 Minuit directed the colonizing expedition for the Swedes that organized New Sweden. Fort Christina was founded in 1638 on the site of Wilmington and was named in honor of the queen of Sweden. The colony grew with the arrival of Swed., Finn., and Du. settlers. Eng. colonists from Conn. tried to establish trading posts in the Delaware R. region and failed, but Dutch interests in the area were not disposed of as easily. Peter Stuyvesant, governor of New Netherland, sailed to the Del. region in 1651 and established Fort Casimir on the Del. shore at the site of present-day New Castle. The Swedes captured the fort by surprise in 1654, but their triumph was brief; Stuyvesant returned with an expedition in 1655 and conquered all New Sweden. The Du. West India Co. sold part of New Sweden to the Du. city of Amsterdam in 1656 and the rest in 1663. In 1664 the English seized the Dutch holdings on the Del. The Dutch recaptured the colony in 1673 and although they held Del. only briefly, they set up 3 district courts that marked the beginning of Del.’s division into 3 cos. The colony was returned to the English in 1674 and remained in their hands until the Amer. Revolution. The English Duke of York (later James II) annexed the region to N.Y., land granted him earlier by Charles II. In 1682 the Duke transferred the claim to William Penn, who wanted to secure a navigable water route from his new colony of Pa. to the ocean. The 3 cos. of Del. thus became the 3 Lower Counties (or Territories, as Penn called them) of Pa. The individual cos. were called New Castle, Kent (formerly St. Jones), and Sussex (formerly Hoornkill, also known as Whorekill, and Deale). The English proprietors of Md. contested Penn’s claim to Del., and the boundary dispute was not fully settled until 1750. The inhabitants of the Del. cos. were at first unwilling to be joined to the “radical” Quaker colony of Pa. or to have their affairs settled in Philadelphia. They finally accepted the Penn charter of 1701 after provisions were added giving the 3 Lower Counties the right to a separate assembly, which first met in 1704. Del. maintained quasi-autonomy until the Amer. Revolution. The 2 colonies maintained strong ties, however, and 2 of Del.’s leading statesmen during the Revolution—Thomas McKean and John Dickinson—were also prominent in Pa. affairs. Although there were many Loyalists in Del. just prior to the Amer. Revolution, Del. supported independence, with 2 of its 3 delegates to the Continental Congress—Caesar Rodney and Thomas McKean—voting for independence. George Read, the 3d Del. delegate, voted against independence, fearing that Loyalist sentiment was too strong in the colonies. However, Read subsequently signed the Declaration of Independence. In 1776 the colony of Del. became a state, with a president as its chief executive. Regiments from the state rendered valiant service to the patriot cause, especially the Del. 1st Regiment, which was nicknamed the Blue Hen’s Chickens—originally because they carried with them gamecocks bred by a famous hen of Kent and later because they themselves showed the fighting quality of gamecocks. Del. was a leader in the movement for revision of the form of govt. under the Articles of Confederation and in 1787 became the first state to ratify the new Constitution of the U.S. The late 18th cent. also marked the beginning of industry in Del. with the establishment of gristmills on the Brandywine and Christina rivers. Wilmington became a center for the manufacture of cloth, paper, and flour prods. that helped to build the industrial economy of N Del. that flourished in the 19th cent. Shortly thereafter, in 1802, Eleuthère Irénée Du Pont established a gunpowder mill on the Brandywine R. The state constitution of 1776 was superseded by a new constitution in 1792, which provided that the chief executive be a governor rather than a president. Prior to the Civil War, Del. was a slave state, but in the early 19th cent. the number of slaves in the state declined, while the number of free blacks increased. Many citizens of Del. favored manumission of slaves and belonged to the American Colonization Society, but there were few who sympathized with the growing abolitionist movement and there was strong sentiment for separation of whites and blacks. In the Civil War, Del. remained loyal to the Union, but pro-Southern feeling increased rather than diminished during the course of the war. Del. refused to accept an emancipation proposal made by Lincoln in 1861 and did not ratify the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth amendments to the U.S. Constitution until 1901. Del. Democrats subsequently became divided, and the Republican Party emerged in 1905 to assume a leading political role for some years. A new state constitution in 1897 reflected the political strength as well as conservatism of Delaware’s farmers through provisions that kept the political strength of Wilmington at a min. and that of rural areas at a max. Many European immigrants came to the state in the late 19th and early 20th cent., settling in the Wilmington area. The pop. of S Del. continued to be made up largely of blacks and persons of Eng. origin. Industries flourished during the 19th cent. as transportation facilities improved. Industry continued to expand in the 20th cent., especially during World Wars I and II. The chemical industry built by the Du Pont family was broken up by a Federal antitrust suit in 1912, but became large enough to buy control of General Motors corporation in the 1920s and hold it for many years. Racial tensions appeared in the state in the 1950s and 1960s as Del.’s schools became racially integrated, and after the assassination of Martin Luther King in 1968, rioting erupted in Wilmington. In the 1980s, Gov. Pierre S. Du Pont fought to liberalize the state’s usury laws and won. As a result, many large N.Y. banks set up subsidiaries in Del. (especially the Wilmington area), and thousands of jobs were created. Under the provisions of the 1897 constitution, the governor is elected to a 4-year term. The state legislature, called the general assembly, is made up of a senate of 21 members elected to serve for 4 years and a house of representatives with 41 members elected for 2 years. In the 1960s the general assembly was reapportioned on the basis of pop., thus giving a greater influence to urban areas and reducing the rural influence. Del. is represented in the U.S. Congress by 2 Senators and 1 Representative and has 3 electoral votes. Pierre S. Du Pont, a Republican, was elected governor in 1976 and reelected in 1980. He was succeeded by Michael Castle, also a Republican, in 1984. Castle was reelected in 1988. Democrat Tom Carper was elected in 1992. The leading institutions of higher education are the Univ. of Del., at Newark, and Del. State Univ. Del. has several state parks and state forests, some of them coastal; also important are Bombay Hook and Prime Hook Natl. wildlife refuges, both on Del. Bay. Del. has 3 cos.: Kent, New Castle, Sussex.
