Is Delaware part of the North or the South? (Wilmington: houses, buyers)

[doctorjef]

Northern New Castle County has always been different to the rest of Delaware, and this dates back to colonial times. The large Quaker population living in northern DE originally meant that the culture up here was different to the more evangelical (early Methodists) and Church of England rest of the Three Counties Upon Delaware. By the beginning of the 19th Century, northern New Castle County was becoming heavily industrialized, with the Du Pont family beginning their gunpowder operations here. They brought in large numbers of Irish workers, beginning a distinctly Roman Catholic presence in the upper portion of the state. Agriculture was so relatively unimportant by the middle of the 19th Century in New Castle County as a whole that there were no enslaved persons living in New Castle County by the time the Civil War started, in contrast to continuing - if relatively small scale - slavery in Kent and Sussex. The point is that the two lower counties have always been heavily agricultural, in contrast to New Castle Co. (this is not to say that there wasn't and isn't still agriculture in New Castle, but it's been a much smaller part of the economy). So, New Castle County has tended from colonial times to be more in sync with PA - more Northern - whilst the other two counties have been culturally and economically closer to the Eastern Shore of Maryland, hence more Southern.

Delaware is geographically at the top of the Southern region of the US, as is Maryland, but Southern culture has been eroded in both states (Baltimore was once considered very much a culturally Southern city), and obviously was never like that of the Deep South, nor even like that of Virginia.

[southbound_295]

Originally Posted by doctorjef

Northern New Castle County has always been different to the rest of Delaware, and this dates back to colonial times. The large Quaker population living in northern DE originally meant that the culture up here was different to the more evangelical (early Methodists) and Church of England rest of the Three Counties Upon Delaware. By the beginning of the 19th Century, northern New Castle County was becoming heavily industrialized, with the Du Pont family beginning their gunpowder operations here. They brought in large numbers of Irish workers, beginning a distinctly Roman Catholic presence in the upper portion of the state. Agriculture was so relatively unimportant by the middle of the 19th Century in New Castle County as a whole that there were no enslaved persons living in New Castle County by the time the Civil War started, in contrast to continuing - if relatively small scale - slavery in Kent and Sussex. The point is that the two lower counties have always been heavily agricultural, in contrast to New Castle Co. (this is not to say that there wasn't and isn't still agriculture in New Castle, but it's been a much smaller part of the economy). So, New Castle County has tended from colonial times to be more in sync with PA - more Northern - whilst the other two counties have been culturally and economically closer to the Eastern Shore of Maryland, hence more Southern.

Delaware is geographically at the top of the Southern region of the US, as is Maryland, but Southern culture has been eroded in both states (Baltimore was once considered very much a culturally Southern city), and obviously was never like that of the Deep South, nor even like that of Virginia.

Delaware, South Jersey, & the Philadelphia area of Pennsylvania were once called New Sweden. Before being set off as Delaware it was part of Pennsylvania & was called the lower counties. Before the Mason Dixon line, the Penns & Calverts were selling land willy-nilly.

[doctorjef]

Delaware wasn't exactly "set off" as a separate entity. Pennsylvania was a proprietary colony run by the Penn family. As most of the three lower counties on the Delaware River and Bay were quite different culturally and economically to the rest of the Penn colony, the Penns granted the three lower counties their own legislature in the first few years of the 18th Century, though they kept executive authority over the three lower counties. In the turmoil leading up to the Declaration of Independence, these three lower counties voted to separate themselves from Pennsylvania not quite three weeks before the Declaration of Independence. The three lower counties set themselves apart from both Pennsylvania and the British Crown on June 15, 1776.

In point of fact, the Penns were not very interested in the three lower counties, but the Delaware Bay and River provided the necessary route up to where William Penn actually wanted to be, and the necessary route for the Penn colony to engage in commerce with Britain and the more southerly American colonies.

By the time William Penn got his land grant from the Duke of York, later the ill-fated James II, Swedish jurisdiction in the area was over, succeeded by Dutch rule, which gave way to English rule.

[southbound_295]

Originally Posted by doctorjef

Delaware wasn't exactly "set off" as a separate entity. Pennsylvania was a proprietary colony run by the Penn family. As most of the three lower counties on the Delaware River and Bay were quite different culturally and economically to the rest of the Penn colony, the Penns granted the three lower counties their own legislature in the first few years of the 18th Century, though they kept executive authority over the three lower counties. In the turmoil leading up to the Declaration of Independence, these three lower counties voted to separate themselves from Pennsylvania not quite three weeks before the Declaration of Independence. The three lower counties set themselves apart from both Pennsylvania and the British Crown on June 15, 1776.

In point of fact, the Penns were not very interested in the three lower counties, but the Delaware Bay and River provided the necessary route up to where William Penn actually wanted to be, and the necessary route for the Penn colony to engage in commerce with Britain and the more southerly American colonies.

By the time William Penn got his land grant from the Duke of York, later the ill-fated James II, Swedish jurisdiction in the area was over, succeeded by Dutch rule, which gave way to English rule.

I was trying to give a dumbed-down illustration of why history is regional, not north/south.

Many of the Scotch-Irish disembarked in Delaware & headed west of Philadelphia. Some of the Quaker families in northern Delaware floated back & forth across the now border with Pennsylvania. Branches of those families went south & other branches later went west.

[boxNcode]

Originally Posted by rdlr

But, I had planned to enter a corn hole contest on Saturday, and then watch the 3 wheelers mud-race on the Johnson farm. Saturday night we planned to see the Amish Rednecks, playing at the Moose Club. Now, I don't know what to do with the 2 lbs. of scrapple I was going to fry up for Easter Sunday breakfast. Next Tuesday, I planned to teach my neighbor how to skin a possum on a tree stump.
????????
You mean, after 74 years, I've been living a southern life in a northern state? That's a bummer.

what about ppl from Lancaster, PA?

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by gwillyfromphilly

It's a northern state. Debate over, now close the thread.

It could be easily settled by checking to see whose side they were on in the war, but it turns out, the answer isn't so cut-and-dried.

Delaware was a border state; a slave state that remained in the Union but bordered the Confederacy

A Union slave state. I wonder how controversial that was to the Union.

[grega94]

if we go by the population center of the country as the dividing line between "North" and "South" we can see that when the country was founded the center of population was in Kent County, Maryland meaning that most of Deleware would've been in the "South". By the time the Civil war was about to hit in 1860, the center of US population was in Pike County, Ohio, meaning that southern Delaware would've still been perceived as southern, but by now in 2020 the US population center is in Wright County, Missouri meaning that Delaware is safely a northern state.

[brandono24]

Delaware had slavery, Delaware had Jim Crow. That sounds southern to me, anyone who disagrees needs to read a history book.

[AshbyQuin]

DE really doesn't feel stereotypically Southern until Smyrna. Even then it's iffy. I'd say Below Dover is when it really kicks in.

[markg91359]

I'd call Delaware neither. Its a border state or a mid-Atlantic state. The people there had slaves, but were unwilling to secede from the United States over that issue. In fact, slavery was ended in Delaware by a program where slave owners were paid by the government to free their slaves.