Is Delaware a Northeastern State?

[rdlr]

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attracti..._Delaware.html

The Mason-Dixon Line, in Marydel, (Kent County) Delaware and Marydel (Caroline County) Maryland

[twinkletwinkle22]

I am a native Delawarean and my husband is too. My fathers side has been in Sussex County Delaware (southernmost of the three counties) since arriving on the Jamestown boat. Husbands side came over from Maryland in the 1600's to Kent County Delaware and a few are from Sussex County DE.

Northern Delaware is very different from the southern parts but southern Delaware is neither "south" or "north." Food cooked by grandmother was probably more rural English than anything else. Southern Delaware had farms and some slavery, northern Delaware had manufacturing and little slavery so in Civil War men went to the side that their money favored. My southern Delaware ancestors sided with the north as did husbands family. He had an ancestor that President Lincoln asked to get Delaware to agree to gradual phasing out of slavery by paying slave owners to free slaves. That attempt lost by one vote in Delaware legislature and the Civil War happened.

The accent is not "southern" in southern Delaware and nowadays can only be heard by going to the MD/DE line into small stores. I have many relatives buried in Burrsville on the state line. I'd call the accent "Tidewater."

Most of the new people in Delaware come from the north to save on taxes so it's becoming more of a northern state over time. We don't live in DE now but am glad to be called a Delawarean.

[rdlr]

^ Great Post!
I'm a native of Delaware, also. In our town (Kent County), we have homes having the original Underground Railroads for the Slaves to travel to freedom.

[twinkletwinkle22]

Here's an interesting thing about southern Delaware, comparing it to Maryland side-by-side in that area:

The plantation that Frederick Douglass was born on and ran away from was less than 20 miles from my Delaware ancestors small farms. That part of Maryland had several slave plantations and was definitely southern-minded in the Civil War. Delaware was not pro-South in that same area, much more an individual decision.

[Outer_Bluegrass]

During a recent trip to Delaware, I observed that there are relatively few churches in the state compared to other Southern states. Furthermore, the churches I did observe in Delaware were certainly not Baptist or Pentacostal by affiliation/orientation. However, religion is not the only barometer of culture.

Generally, people in Delaware drive, speak and walk more slowly than people in other Northeastern states.

Additionally, hunting and recreational shooting seem significantly more popular in Delaware compared to other coastal states further north, such as Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Jersey, for example.

I did occasionally hear locals use the term "y'all," and there is a Harris Teeter store in or near Selbyville.

From an ecological standpoint, the foliage of southern Delaware is surprisingly reminiscent of the Southern United States, complete with loblolly pine and bald cypress trees.

However, Delaware is firmly located in the northeastern quadrant of the United States, from a geographical standpoint. Therefore, I was compelled to vote that Delaware *IS* a Northeastern state.