WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.040 So I want you to imagine drawing the borders 00:00:04.040 --> 00:00:06.900 of a brand new state by just like taking a map, 00:00:07.259 --> 00:00:08.960 stabbing a geometer's compass right into the 00:00:08.960 --> 00:00:11.259 center of a small colonial town and just sweeping 00:00:11.259 --> 00:00:13.939 this giant arbitrary circle across the landscape. 00:00:13.939 --> 00:00:16.600 Right. Just completely ignoring the actual geography. 00:00:16.640 --> 00:00:20.339 Exactly. Now imagine that that single crude geometric 00:00:20.339 --> 00:00:23.600 doodle triggers a literal hundred year legal 00:00:23.600 --> 00:00:26.920 battle and it creates this bizarre border dispute 00:00:26.920 --> 00:00:29.339 that isn't fully resolved until you know, the 00:00:29.339 --> 00:00:31.879 1920s. It's wild because when we think about 00:00:31.879 --> 00:00:34.539 how the map of the United States was drawn we 00:00:34.539 --> 00:00:37.039 tend to expect some sort of I don't know, grand 00:00:37.039 --> 00:00:39.439 design. Yeah, we picture founding fathers pointing 00:00:39.439 --> 00:00:42.299 at majestic rivers, making these sweeping, destined 00:00:42.299 --> 00:00:44.240 declarations. But then you look closely at the 00:00:44.240 --> 00:00:46.640 actual history and suddenly that majestic blueprint 00:00:46.640 --> 00:00:49.240 looks more like, well, a messy sketch on a tavern 00:00:49.240 --> 00:00:51.979 napkin. It really does. Welcome to this deep 00:00:51.979 --> 00:00:55.820 dive. Today, we are opening up a really comprehensive 00:00:55.820 --> 00:00:59.240 historical overview of Delaware. Yes, the second 00:00:59.240 --> 00:01:01.659 smallest state. Right. And our mission for you 00:01:01.659 --> 00:01:04.959 today is to uncover how this tiny state became 00:01:04.959 --> 00:01:07.780 this highly contested focal point of European 00:01:07.780 --> 00:01:11.359 empires. a literal paradox during the Civil War 00:01:11.359 --> 00:01:14.299 and eventually a primary battleground for civil 00:01:14.299 --> 00:01:17.239 rights. So, OK, let's unpack this because I promise 00:01:17.239 --> 00:01:19.799 you this is not your standard dry history lesson. 00:01:20.000 --> 00:01:22.799 Definitely not. This is a story of petty rivalries, 00:01:23.260 --> 00:01:25.879 physical exhaustion and intense cultural divides 00:01:25.879 --> 00:01:28.459 that explain how the American landscape was actually 00:01:28.459 --> 00:01:31.439 built. Yeah. And to truly grasp the chaos of 00:01:31.439 --> 00:01:34.120 Delaware, you have to realize that for a significant 00:01:34.120 --> 00:01:36.980 part of its early history. The people living 00:01:36.980 --> 00:01:39.680 in this region didn't even identify as Delawareans. 00:01:39.799 --> 00:01:41.560 Wait, really? What did they identify as? They 00:01:41.560 --> 00:01:43.540 identified strictly with their specific county. 00:01:43.980 --> 00:01:46.799 So, you know, Newcastle, Kent or Sussex. The 00:01:46.799 --> 00:01:49.659 concept of a unified state identity was incredibly 00:01:49.659 --> 00:01:51.819 fragmented because the land itself was treated 00:01:51.819 --> 00:01:54.659 like, well, a giant bargaining chip. Which makes 00:01:54.659 --> 00:01:56.760 total sense when you look at how chaotic the 00:01:56.760 --> 00:01:58.719 initial tug of war for this coastline really 00:01:58.719 --> 00:02:01.060 was. I mean, long before anyone was arguing about 00:02:01.060 --> 00:02:04.319 state identity, this area was a literal battleground 00:02:04.319 --> 00:02:06.469 for European corporate interests. Absolutely. 00:02:06.950 --> 00:02:09.469 But I do want to start with the people who are 00:02:09.469 --> 00:02:12.370 already there, because before any European ship 00:02:12.370 --> 00:02:14.830 dropped anchor, this land was home to the Lenni 00:02:14.830 --> 00:02:17.729 Lenape, the Susquehanna, the Nanticoke, and other 00:02:17.729 --> 00:02:19.990 Native American tribes. Right, and it's important 00:02:19.990 --> 00:02:22.169 to note they didn't just immediately lose their 00:02:22.169 --> 00:02:25.409 land. They actually engaged in complex trade 00:02:25.409 --> 00:02:28.229 with European settlers for about half a century 00:02:28.229 --> 00:02:31.490 before the major escalations really began. Yeah, 00:02:31.550 --> 00:02:33.250 the European powers were initially just sort 00:02:33.250 --> 00:02:35.810 of testing the waters. I mean, the region eventually 00:02:35.810 --> 00:02:39.229 gets its English name from Thomas West, the third 00:02:39.229 --> 00:02:42.789 Baron de la War, who was the English governor 00:02:42.789 --> 00:02:44.830 of the Virginia colony at the time. Right. The 00:02:44.830 --> 00:02:47.110 English claimed the entire watershed based on 00:02:47.110 --> 00:02:49.669 early explorations, but it was the Dutch West 00:02:49.669 --> 00:02:51.909 India Company that actually put boots on the 00:02:51.909 --> 00:02:55.210 ground first. In 1631, they established a trading 00:02:55.210 --> 00:02:58.310 post at Zwanendale, which is present -day Lewis, 00:02:58.550 --> 00:03:00.449 Delaware. But that first attempt was a complete 00:03:00.449 --> 00:03:03.060 disaster. Total disaster. The settlement was 00:03:03.060 --> 00:03:05.639 destroyed in a conflict with local Native American 00:03:05.639 --> 00:03:08.740 tribes almost immediately. But the Dutch just, 00:03:08.759 --> 00:03:11.099 they refused to give up their claim to the real 00:03:11.099 --> 00:03:13.900 estate. And this brings us to one of my favorite 00:03:13.900 --> 00:03:16.319 historical figures, Peter Minuet. Oh yes, Minuet. 00:03:16.539 --> 00:03:18.520 He was the Dutch Director General of New Netherland, 00:03:18.939 --> 00:03:22.860 but he ends up having this massive... irreconcilable 00:03:22.860 --> 00:03:25.340 disagreement with the directors of the Dutch 00:03:25.340 --> 00:03:27.860 West India Company. And they essentially fire 00:03:27.860 --> 00:03:30.159 him. Right. They recall him back to Europe. They 00:03:30.159 --> 00:03:33.020 strip him of his title. And his response to that 00:03:33.020 --> 00:03:36.580 termination changes the entire geopolitical trajectory 00:03:36.580 --> 00:03:39.520 of the Mid -Atlantic. It is the ultimate revenge 00:03:39.520 --> 00:03:42.479 plot. Yeah. He behaves exactly like, you know, 00:03:42.680 --> 00:03:45.180 a bitter tech CEO today who gets ousted from 00:03:45.180 --> 00:03:47.379 his own company. Yes. He takes his intellectual 00:03:47.379 --> 00:03:49.699 property, which in this case is his intimate 00:03:49.699 --> 00:03:52.280 knowledge of the Delaware River, and immediately 00:03:52.280 --> 00:03:54.659 goes to pitch a rival startup. He goes to the 00:03:54.659 --> 00:03:57.259 Swedes. He gets them to fund an expedition in 00:03:57.259 --> 00:04:00.180 1638 and sails right back to the Delaware River. 00:04:00.479 --> 00:04:02.560 And builds Fort Christina right where modern 00:04:02.560 --> 00:04:04.960 -day Wilmington is, basically setting up a competing 00:04:04.960 --> 00:04:06.780 headquarters directly across the street from 00:04:06.780 --> 00:04:10.120 his old bosses. purely out of spite. What's fascinating 00:04:10.120 --> 00:04:12.759 here is that that analogy actually holds up perfectly 00:04:12.759 --> 00:04:15.460 because early colonies weren't just flags planted 00:04:15.460 --> 00:04:18.579 for a king. They were literal corporate startups 00:04:18.579 --> 00:04:20.939 funded by venture capital. Right. The Dutch West 00:04:20.939 --> 00:04:23.199 India Company was a corporation. Exactly. So 00:04:23.199 --> 00:04:26.160 when Minuit went to the Swedes, he was just securing 00:04:26.160 --> 00:04:29.060 new investors. And what makes this move so impactful 00:04:29.060 --> 00:04:31.480 is that the Swedes, unlike the Dutch who just 00:04:31.480 --> 00:04:34.040 wanted a trading post, actually intended to bring 00:04:34.040 --> 00:04:36.699 families and start a permanent self -sustaining 00:04:36.699 --> 00:04:40.000 colony. colony. Now, Minuit didn't live to see 00:04:40.000 --> 00:04:42.060 it. He actually drowned in a hurricane in the 00:04:42.060 --> 00:04:44.079 Caribbean on his way back to Europe that very 00:04:44.079 --> 00:04:47.379 same year. But his spiteful little startup took 00:04:47.379 --> 00:04:50.139 root. The Swedish and Finnish settlements really 00:04:50.139 --> 00:04:52.420 started to grow. I can only imagine how furious 00:04:52.420 --> 00:04:54.839 the Dutch were watching this happen. Oh, infuriated 00:04:54.839 --> 00:04:57.740 enough to escalate it militarily. The new Dutch 00:04:57.740 --> 00:05:00.360 director general, Peter Stuyvesant, marches down 00:05:00.360 --> 00:05:03.240 and builds Fort Casimir, which is now Newcastle, 00:05:03.399 --> 00:05:05.399 specifically to threaten the Swedes. And the 00:05:05.399 --> 00:05:07.899 Swedish governor of the Johann Reising decides 00:05:07.899 --> 00:05:10.519 to strike first and captures the Dutch fort. 00:05:10.839 --> 00:05:13.160 Which was a fatal miscalculation for New Sweden. 00:05:13.839 --> 00:05:17.860 A year later in 1655 an enraged Stuyvesant returns 00:05:17.860 --> 00:05:20.829 with an overwhelming military expedition. He 00:05:20.829 --> 00:05:23.009 doesn't just take his fort back, he completely 00:05:23.009 --> 00:05:25.389 wipes out the new Sweden colony, absorbing the 00:05:25.389 --> 00:05:28.550 entire territory back into the Dutch New Netherland 00:05:28.550 --> 00:05:31.449 corporate portfolio. It's just wild. But all 00:05:31.449 --> 00:05:34.769 of this intense Dutch -Swedish rivalry, all the 00:05:34.769 --> 00:05:36.910 fort -building and absorbing, it ends up being 00:05:36.910 --> 00:05:40.110 completely moot. Because a decade later, in 1664, 00:05:40.209 --> 00:05:42.529 the English sweep in. Right. James, the Duke 00:05:42.529 --> 00:05:45.149 of York, easily ousts the Dutch from the area. 00:05:45.410 --> 00:05:48.790 So the military conquest phase wraps up relatively 00:05:48.790 --> 00:05:50.889 quickly, but that just shifts the chaos from 00:05:50.889 --> 00:05:53.009 the battlefield to the courtroom. Exactly. Because 00:05:53.009 --> 00:05:55.569 once the English have the land, the bureaucratic 00:05:55.569 --> 00:05:57.629 nightmare begins. The Duke of York controls the 00:05:57.629 --> 00:06:00.149 territory. Meanwhile, William Penn comes into 00:06:00.149 --> 00:06:02.629 the picture. He secures this massive land grant 00:06:02.629 --> 00:06:04.949 for Pennsylvania from the King. But Penn looks 00:06:04.949 --> 00:06:07.470 at a map and realizes his massive new colony 00:06:07.470 --> 00:06:10.269 is completely landlocked. Right. He has no guaranteed 00:06:10.269 --> 00:06:12.670 outlet to the sea for trade. And I'm trying to 00:06:12.670 --> 00:06:14.389 wrap my head around how you even saw that in 00:06:14.389 --> 00:06:18.029 the 1600s. The historical record says Penn persuades 00:06:18.029 --> 00:06:20.569 the Duke of York to lease him the western shore 00:06:20.569 --> 00:06:22.689 of the Delaware Bay, what they call the lower 00:06:22.689 --> 00:06:25.310 counties on the Delaware. Wait, how do you just 00:06:25.310 --> 00:06:27.370 lease an entire colony? Like, were they paying 00:06:27.370 --> 00:06:30.910 monthly rent on a state? In a way, yeah. Penn's 00:06:30.910 --> 00:06:33.149 original charter for Pennsylvania specifically 00:06:33.149 --> 00:06:36.230 excluded Newcastle and the land around it. So 00:06:36.230 --> 00:06:38.589 he negotiates a proprietary lease from the Duke 00:06:38.589 --> 00:06:41.449 of York for the lower counties. It gave Penn 00:06:41.449 --> 00:06:43.990 the administrative control and the vital water 00:06:43.990 --> 00:06:46.170 access he really needed to make Philadelphia 00:06:46.170 --> 00:06:48.930 a functional port city. But there's always a 00:06:48.930 --> 00:06:52.110 catch. Another English noble, Cecil Calvert, 00:06:52.240 --> 00:06:54.399 The second Baron Baltimore who runs Maryland 00:06:54.399 --> 00:06:56.160 looks at his own chart and says, wait a minute, 00:06:56.500 --> 00:06:58.319 the key already gave me this exact same land. 00:06:58.500 --> 00:07:00.939 Which kicks off a massive lawsuit between the 00:07:00.939 --> 00:07:03.399 Penn family and the Baltimore family. And this 00:07:03.399 --> 00:07:06.879 isn't just like a quick mediation. This lawsuit 00:07:06.879 --> 00:07:08.680 goes to the High Court of Chancery in London 00:07:08.680 --> 00:07:11.660 and lasts for almost 100 years. Yeah, the Court 00:07:11.660 --> 00:07:14.220 of Chancery was notoriously slow. They dealt 00:07:14.220 --> 00:07:16.699 with equity and complex contracts rather than 00:07:16.699 --> 00:07:19.339 simple criminal law. When you have two incredibly 00:07:19.339 --> 00:07:22.759 wealthy, powerful families arguing over overlapping 00:07:22.759 --> 00:07:24.980 royal charters drawn up by kings who had never 00:07:24.980 --> 00:07:28.480 even seen a map of North America, the legal unspooling 00:07:28.480 --> 00:07:32.379 takes generations. It wasn't until the 1760s 00:07:32.379 --> 00:07:34.819 that this battle was finally resolved. And the 00:07:34.819 --> 00:07:37.360 resolution of that lawsuit is what finally led 00:07:37.360 --> 00:07:39.879 to the hiring of two surveyors named Charles 00:07:39.879 --> 00:07:42.899 Mason and Jeremiah Dixon. Right, the famous Mason 00:07:42.899 --> 00:07:45.139 -Dixon line. Yeah. They come over to survey the 00:07:45.139 --> 00:07:49.100 line between 1763 and 1767 to finally put a physical 00:07:49.100 --> 00:07:52.040 border to this century -old legal argument. But 00:07:52.040 --> 00:07:54.240 the borders they were forced to draw were absolutely 00:07:54.240 --> 00:07:57.060 absurd. To separate Delaware from Pennsylvania, 00:07:57.319 --> 00:08:00.300 the court dictated an arc, a literal 12 -mile 00:08:00.300 --> 00:08:02.519 circle centered on the cupola of the courthouse 00:08:02.519 --> 00:08:04.829 in Newcastle. You have to consider the mechanics 00:08:04.829 --> 00:08:06.750 of what they were asking these surveyors to do. 00:08:07.029 --> 00:08:09.550 Drawing a perfect 12 -mile radius circle with 00:08:09.550 --> 00:08:12.050 17th and 18th century surveying equipment through 00:08:12.050 --> 00:08:14.730 dense forests, swamps, and uneven terrain is 00:08:14.730 --> 00:08:17.670 practically impossible. And because it was so 00:08:17.670 --> 00:08:20.350 difficult, it created a cartographical glitch. 00:08:20.810 --> 00:08:23.589 It left this weird, unmapped fragment of land 00:08:23.589 --> 00:08:26.410 where the 12 -mile circle failed to neatly connect 00:08:26.410 --> 00:08:28.550 with the Maryland border. They called it the 00:08:28.550 --> 00:08:32.019 wedge. The wedge. It was a piece of no man's 00:08:32.019 --> 00:08:34.159 land that Pennsylvania and Delaware aggressively 00:08:34.159 --> 00:08:37.600 argued over until 1921. You had people living 00:08:37.600 --> 00:08:40.039 in this wedge who genuinely didn't know which 00:08:40.039 --> 00:08:42.460 state they were supposed to pay taxes to for 00:08:42.460 --> 00:08:45.240 centuries. It perfectly illustrates how physical 00:08:45.240 --> 00:08:49.759 geography is molded by human error and stubbornness. 00:08:50.039 --> 00:08:52.860 I mean, a poorly worded royal charter leads to 00:08:52.860 --> 00:08:55.460 a hundred year lawsuit, which leads to an impossible 00:08:55.460 --> 00:08:57.679 geometric border, which creates a jurisdictional 00:08:57.679 --> 00:08:59.860 blind spot that lasts into the 20th century. 00:09:00.200 --> 00:09:02.360 So the external borders are a total mess, but 00:09:02.360 --> 00:09:04.740 the internal divisions are just as wild. William 00:09:04.740 --> 00:09:06.840 Ben had originally set up a combined legislative 00:09:06.840 --> 00:09:09.500 assembly for both Pennsylvania and these lower 00:09:09.500 --> 00:09:11.519 counties. They're supposed to alternate their 00:09:11.519 --> 00:09:14.159 meeting locations between Philadelphia and Newcastle 00:09:14.159 --> 00:09:16.580 to keep things fair. But as Philadelphia grew 00:09:16.580 --> 00:09:19.179 into this major metropolis, its leaders started 00:09:19.179 --> 00:09:22.879 complaining about the travel. In 1704, the lower 00:09:22.879 --> 00:09:24.820 counties started meeting entirely separately. 00:09:25.779 --> 00:09:28.429 I have to ask. Did they really divide a colony 00:09:28.429 --> 00:09:30.809 just because the politicians in Philly couldn't 00:09:30.809 --> 00:09:33.690 stand a bad commute? That is precisely what happened. 00:09:34.029 --> 00:09:37.129 In the early 1700s, traveling from Philadelphia 00:09:37.129 --> 00:09:40.889 to Newcastle meant a grueling multi -day journey 00:09:40.889 --> 00:09:44.429 over terrible muddy roads or relying on unpredictable 00:09:44.429 --> 00:09:47.750 river transport. The Philadelphia Assemblymen 00:09:47.750 --> 00:09:50.009 deeply resented wasting their time traveling 00:09:50.009 --> 00:09:53.129 to the sparsely populated lower counties. So 00:09:53.129 --> 00:09:55.289 they mutually agreed to separate their legislative 00:09:55.289 --> 00:09:57.389 bodies. They still shared the same governor, 00:09:57.590 --> 00:10:00.110 but they passed their own laws entirely independently 00:10:00.110 --> 00:10:02.350 from that point forward. So sheer physical exhaustion 00:10:02.350 --> 00:10:04.610 and annoyance birthed Delaware's independent 00:10:04.610 --> 00:10:07.129 political infrastructure. And that independent 00:10:07.129 --> 00:10:09.470 streak really hardens over the next few decades. 00:10:09.690 --> 00:10:11.490 By the time the American Revolution kicks off 00:10:11.490 --> 00:10:14.360 in 1776, Those three lower counties completely 00:10:14.360 --> 00:10:16.399 severed ties with Pennsylvania and the British 00:10:16.399 --> 00:10:19.039 crown, declaring themselves the Delaware state. 00:10:19.399 --> 00:10:22.080 They were so intensely proud of this newfound 00:10:22.080 --> 00:10:24.659 total autonomy that their early state governors 00:10:24.659 --> 00:10:26.620 actually went by the title of president. And 00:10:26.620 --> 00:10:28.379 they backed up that pride on the battlefield, 00:10:28.740 --> 00:10:31.179 too. Delaware saw its share of the brutal reality 00:10:31.179 --> 00:10:34.110 of the Revolutionary War. The most significant 00:10:34.110 --> 00:10:36.509 engagement on their soil was the Battle of Cooch's 00:10:36.509 --> 00:10:39.950 Bridge in 1777. Right, this is where roughly 00:10:39.950 --> 00:10:42.629 700 American troops under General William Maxwell 00:10:42.629 --> 00:10:45.210 try to lay an ambush for the advancing British 00:10:45.210 --> 00:10:48.470 army. But the mechanics of early warfare catch 00:10:48.470 --> 00:10:51.789 up to them. They are massively outmanned. They 00:10:51.789 --> 00:10:54.090 manage to repel a few initial British charges, 00:10:54.450 --> 00:10:56.860 but they simply run out of ammunition. Wow. Yeah, 00:10:57.000 --> 00:10:59.340 they're forced to retreat, suffering around 30 00:10:59.340 --> 00:11:02.259 casualties. And to add insult to injury, the 00:11:02.259 --> 00:11:05.100 British general Cornwallis commandeers the Cooch 00:11:05.100 --> 00:11:07.899 family house and uses it as his operational headquarters 00:11:07.899 --> 00:11:10.779 for the next week. Despite the military setbacks, 00:11:10.960 --> 00:11:12.720 though, their political momentum didn't slow 00:11:12.720 --> 00:11:16.120 down at all. Following the war, Delaware is incredibly 00:11:16.120 --> 00:11:18.340 quick to solidify its identity on the national 00:11:18.340 --> 00:11:21.039 stage. As most people know, they become the very 00:11:21.039 --> 00:11:23.759 first state to ratify the United States Constitution. 00:11:31.629 --> 00:11:35.549 named Irutey Rene Dupont arrives and recognizes 00:11:35.549 --> 00:11:37.649 the hydraulic power potential of the Brandywine 00:11:37.649 --> 00:11:40.269 River. Ah yes, the Duponts. He builds a massive 00:11:40.269 --> 00:11:42.590 gunpowder manufacturing operation there, which 00:11:42.590 --> 00:11:44.970 rapidly scales up to become the U .S. military's 00:11:44.970 --> 00:11:47.009 largest supplier of gunpowder. But you know, 00:11:47.090 --> 00:11:50.090 that industrial success really masked a deeply 00:11:50.090 --> 00:11:53.450 fractured society. As we move into the 19th century, 00:11:53.710 --> 00:11:56.169 the narrative of Delaware becomes defined by 00:11:56.169 --> 00:11:59.590 profound cognitive dissonance. The social paradox 00:11:59.590 --> 00:12:01.850 here is staggering. On one side of the ledger, 00:12:01.990 --> 00:12:04.090 you have this intense Quaker influence spilling 00:12:04.090 --> 00:12:06.850 over from Pennsylvania, heavily pushing for abolition. 00:12:07.389 --> 00:12:10.470 Because of this, by 1860, more than 90 % of Delaware's 00:12:10.470 --> 00:12:12.909 black population was already legally free. Right. 00:12:13.070 --> 00:12:15.309 You have incredible milestones of freedom happening 00:12:15.309 --> 00:12:18.409 here. In 1813, a former slave named Peter Spencer 00:12:18.409 --> 00:12:20.350 charters the oldest independent black church 00:12:20.350 --> 00:12:22.710 in the country right in Delaware, the A -U -M 00:12:22.710 --> 00:12:25.590 -P Church. A year later, they start the big August 00:12:25.590 --> 00:12:28.230 Quarterly, which remains the oldest African -American 00:12:28.230 --> 00:12:30.240 cultural festival of its kind. in the nation. 00:12:30.440 --> 00:12:33.000 But on the other side of that exact same ledger, 00:12:33.299 --> 00:12:35.919 Delaware was legally and constitutionally a slave 00:12:35.919 --> 00:12:38.980 state. The state legislature, dominated by pro 00:12:38.980 --> 00:12:41.539 -slavery factions, was actively passing laws 00:12:41.539 --> 00:12:43.659 restricting the movement and organization of 00:12:43.659 --> 00:12:46.679 free black citizens. The local constabularies, 00:12:46.840 --> 00:12:49.200 particularly around Wilmington, were notorious 00:12:49.200 --> 00:12:51.580 for their brutal enforcement of runaway slave 00:12:51.580 --> 00:12:53.960 laws. And this is what I struggle to comprehend. 00:12:54.360 --> 00:12:57.419 How do you reconcile a place that is pioneering 00:12:57.419 --> 00:13:00.919 black religious freedom on one hand while simultaneously 00:13:00.919 --> 00:13:03.779 allowing its police force to aggressively hunt 00:13:03.779 --> 00:13:06.759 runaway slaves and deliberately turning a blind 00:13:06.759 --> 00:13:10.039 eye, while criminal gangs actively kidnap free 00:13:10.039 --> 00:13:12.600 black citizens to illegally sell them to plantations 00:13:12.600 --> 00:13:15.090 further south. It's hard to grasp. But you can 00:13:15.090 --> 00:13:16.909 only really understand it through the lens of 00:13:16.909 --> 00:13:19.669 a border state mentality. Geography dictates 00:13:19.669 --> 00:13:22.330 morality in a very uncomfortable way here. Delaware 00:13:22.330 --> 00:13:24.570 was physically, economically, and ideologically 00:13:24.570 --> 00:13:27.409 trapped. They shared a border with the fervent 00:13:27.409 --> 00:13:29.929 Quaker abolitionism of Pennsylvania to the north. 00:13:30.470 --> 00:13:32.789 But their agricultural roots and cultural ties 00:13:32.789 --> 00:13:34.950 pulled them toward the plantation economy of 00:13:34.950 --> 00:13:38.259 the South. It was a society desperately attempting 00:13:38.259 --> 00:13:41.559 to exist in two entirely incompatible realities 00:13:41.559 --> 00:13:44.340 at the exact same time. And that pressure cooker 00:13:44.340 --> 00:13:47.000 reaches a terrifying climax when the Civil War 00:13:47.000 --> 00:13:51.100 finally breaks out. On January 3rd, 1861, the 00:13:51.100 --> 00:13:54.559 Delaware legislature votes not to secede. So 00:13:54.559 --> 00:13:56.899 they remain loyal to the Union, but they remain 00:13:56.899 --> 00:13:59.879 a Union slave state. The internal division was 00:13:59.879 --> 00:14:02.830 severe. Confederate sympathies ran incredibly 00:14:02.830 --> 00:14:04.870 high throughout the state. While they stayed 00:14:04.870 --> 00:14:07.049 in the Union, many Delaware citizens crossed 00:14:07.049 --> 00:14:09.370 state lines to fight for the South in Maryland 00:14:09.370 --> 00:14:12.250 and Virginia regiments. Although it is a telling 00:14:12.250 --> 00:14:14.549 metric that Delaware was the only slave state 00:14:14.549 --> 00:14:16.409 from which the Confederacy could not manage to 00:14:16.409 --> 00:14:19.070 recruit a full official regiment. Now, here's 00:14:19.070 --> 00:14:23.169 where it gets really interesting and dark. This 00:14:23.169 --> 00:14:25.169 brings us to one of the most harrowing chapters 00:14:25.169 --> 00:14:28.419 in the state's history. Delaware physically traps 00:14:28.419 --> 00:14:31.000 the entire ideological conflict of the American 00:14:31.000 --> 00:14:35.000 Civil War onto a tiny, inescapable island. By 00:14:35.000 --> 00:14:37.659 1862, the federal government takes Fort Delaware, 00:14:38.200 --> 00:14:40.120 which was originally just a harbor defense facility 00:14:40.120 --> 00:14:42.039 built on Pea Patch Island in the middle of the 00:14:42.039 --> 00:14:44.559 Delaware River, and presses it into service as 00:14:44.559 --> 00:14:47.480 a massive prisoner of war camp. It essentially 00:14:47.480 --> 00:14:49.600 becomes the tragic microcosm of the fractured 00:14:49.600 --> 00:14:52.059 country. You have union guards from the north, 00:14:52.440 --> 00:14:55.320 confederate POWs from the south, federal convicts 00:14:55.320 --> 00:14:57.740 and local political prisoners all crammed together 00:14:57.740 --> 00:14:59.860 on this swampy piece of land. And the day -to 00:14:59.860 --> 00:15:02.909 -day reality of this place is horrifying. Initially, 00:15:03.049 --> 00:15:05.289 the conditions were considered somewhat tolerable, 00:15:05.529 --> 00:15:07.470 but after the massive battles of Vicksburg and 00:15:07.470 --> 00:15:10.429 Gettysburg in the summer of 1863, the population 00:15:10.429 --> 00:15:12.870 of Fort Delaware completely explodes. It swells 00:15:12.870 --> 00:15:16.210 to over 12 ,000 people. They had to frantically 00:15:16.210 --> 00:15:18.009 build these crude wooden barracks that became 00:15:18.009 --> 00:15:21.029 known as the bullpen. And when you cram 12 ,000 00:15:21.029 --> 00:15:23.669 traumatized, malnourished men onto a tiny river 00:15:23.669 --> 00:15:26.909 island, disease absolutely ravages them. The 00:15:26.909 --> 00:15:29.529 mortality rates skyrocketed. By the time the 00:15:29.529 --> 00:15:32.929 war ended, the fort had processed almost 33 ,000 00:15:32.929 --> 00:15:36.129 prisoners and roughly 2 ,500 of them died right 00:15:36.129 --> 00:15:39.190 there. That is awful. About half of those deaths 00:15:39.190 --> 00:15:41.850 were the result of a devastating smallpox outbreak. 00:15:42.450 --> 00:15:45.570 The rest succumbed to scurvy, dysentery, and 00:15:45.570 --> 00:15:48.450 typhoid fever, driven by the contaminated water 00:15:48.450 --> 00:15:51.509 and horrific sanitation. And it wasn't just enemy 00:15:51.509 --> 00:15:53.740 combatants suffering there. Because the federal 00:15:53.740 --> 00:15:56.399 government had suspended the writ of Habeas Corpus, 00:15:56.679 --> 00:15:58.740 political dissidents were swept up and held on 00:15:58.740 --> 00:16:01.120 Pea Patch Island without any trial whatsoever. 00:16:01.659 --> 00:16:04.379 A prime example is Reverend Isaac W .K. Handy. 00:16:04.620 --> 00:16:06.940 Oh, the dinner party story. Yes. He was at a 00:16:06.940 --> 00:16:09.539 private dinner party in 1863 and made an offhand 00:16:09.539 --> 00:16:11.299 comment that the Civil War had tarnished the 00:16:11.299 --> 00:16:13.779 American flag. Yeah. Someone reported him. And 00:16:13.779 --> 00:16:15.740 for that single dinner conversation, he was locked 00:16:15.740 --> 00:16:18.879 up at Fort Delaware for 15 months. 15 months 00:16:18.879 --> 00:16:22.019 for a dinner comment? And that level of ideological 00:16:21.960 --> 00:16:25.019 stubbornness and division didn't magically evaporate 00:16:25.019 --> 00:16:27.740 at Appomattox when the war ended. In February 00:16:27.740 --> 00:16:30.759 1865, just two months before the Confederacy 00:16:30.759 --> 00:16:33.639 surrendered, the Delaware legislature formally 00:16:33.639 --> 00:16:36.700 voted to reject the 13th Amendment. They explicitly 00:16:36.700 --> 00:16:38.799 voted to continue the institution of slavery. 00:16:39.059 --> 00:16:41.679 They held onto it until the bitter absolute end. 00:16:42.059 --> 00:16:44.620 Slavery only ended in Delaware because the national 00:16:44.620 --> 00:16:46.659 ratification of the amendment legally forced 00:16:46.659 --> 00:16:50.100 their hand in December of 1865. And their resistance 00:16:50.100 --> 00:16:52.480 didn't stop there. Delaware outright rejected 00:16:52.480 --> 00:16:54.840 the 14th and 15th Amendments during Reconstruction 00:16:54.840 --> 00:16:57.379 as well. They didn't even get around to symbolically 00:16:57.379 --> 00:17:00.139 ratifying the 13th Amendment until 1901. Wow, 00:17:00.440 --> 00:17:03.620 1901. 35 years after it became the law of the 00:17:03.620 --> 00:17:06.519 land. That deep -seated legislative refusal was 00:17:06.519 --> 00:17:08.599 a massive warning sign for the racial friction 00:17:08.599 --> 00:17:10.779 that would dominate the state's trajectory for 00:17:10.779 --> 00:17:13.279 the next century. Which brings us to a deeply 00:17:13.279 --> 00:17:16.019 painful era of this history. Now before we dive 00:17:16.019 --> 00:17:18.079 into this, I want to be incredibly clear to you 00:17:18.079 --> 00:17:21.660 listening. We are impartially reporting the historical 00:17:21.660 --> 00:17:24.619 facts of these politically charged, racially 00:17:24.619 --> 00:17:27.700 intense events exactly as they are laid out in 00:17:27.700 --> 00:17:29.819 the source material we are using. Right, absolutely. 00:17:29.940 --> 00:17:32.640 We are just neutrally outlining the actions of 00:17:32.640 --> 00:17:35.259 the legislature, the figures involved, and the 00:17:35.259 --> 00:17:37.720 historical record of this era as provided in 00:17:37.720 --> 00:17:40.980 the text. taking sides or endorsing viewpoints. 00:17:41.559 --> 00:17:43.579 Exactly. So looking at that historical record 00:17:43.579 --> 00:17:45.900 following the Civil War, the Democratic controlled 00:17:45.900 --> 00:17:48.500 government in Delaware aggressively imposed a 00:17:48.500 --> 00:17:50.960 white supremacist regime very much mirroring 00:17:50.960 --> 00:17:53.000 the actions of the former Confederate states 00:17:53.000 --> 00:17:57.220 further south. In 1866, the Delaware legislature 00:17:57.220 --> 00:17:59.619 officially declared black residents to be second 00:17:59.619 --> 00:18:01.880 class citizens and severely restricted their 00:18:01.880 --> 00:18:04.420 voting rights. The legislative pushback against 00:18:04.420 --> 00:18:06.700 federal civil rights efforts was systematic. 00:18:07.119 --> 00:18:10.019 When Congress passed the 1875 Civil Rights Act, 00:18:10.380 --> 00:18:12.779 Delaware lawmakers feared it might force social 00:18:12.779 --> 00:18:15.940 equality. In response, they passed aggressive 00:18:15.940 --> 00:18:19.000 Jim Crow laws that mandated strict racial segregation 00:18:19.000 --> 00:18:21.440 across public facilities. They went as far as 00:18:21.440 --> 00:18:23.859 writing the segregation of the educational system 00:18:23.859 --> 00:18:26.960 directly into the state constitution, explicitly 00:18:26.960 --> 00:18:29.500 demanding that separate schools for white and 00:18:29.500 --> 00:18:31.980 colored children shall be maintained. And that 00:18:31.980 --> 00:18:34.440 constitutional mandate, locking in segregated 00:18:34.440 --> 00:18:37.400 schools, stayed in place for nearly 80 years. 00:18:37.920 --> 00:18:41.160 It wasn't until 1952 that a massive legal challenge 00:18:41.160 --> 00:18:43.740 finally broke through. A case called Gephart 00:18:43.740 --> 00:18:46.240 v. Belton was brought before the Delaware Court 00:18:46.240 --> 00:18:48.579 of Chancery. The court actually ruled that the 00:18:48.579 --> 00:18:51.240 segregated schools were unconstitutional because 00:18:51.240 --> 00:18:53.380 the facilities provided to black students were 00:18:53.380 --> 00:18:55.539 profoundly unequal. And that Delaware ruling 00:18:55.539 --> 00:18:58.200 was monumental because Gebhardt v. Belton became 00:18:58.200 --> 00:19:00.619 one of the five foundational cases that were 00:19:00.619 --> 00:19:02.940 combined and presented to the United States Supreme 00:19:02.940 --> 00:19:06.220 Court, culminating in the landmark 1954 Brown 00:19:06.220 --> 00:19:08.359 v. Board of Education decision, which struck 00:19:08.359 --> 00:19:11.119 down public school segregation nationwide. But 00:19:11.119 --> 00:19:13.940 as we know, declaring segregation over on paper 00:19:13.940 --> 00:19:17.200 in Washington, D .C. is very different from enforcing 00:19:17.200 --> 00:19:20.220 it on the ground. The backlash in Delaware was 00:19:20.220 --> 00:19:23.140 severe and incredibly disruptive. A man named 00:19:23.140 --> 00:19:25.599 Bryant Bowles founded a group called the National 00:19:25.599 --> 00:19:27.720 Association for the Advancement of White People, 00:19:27.900 --> 00:19:31.000 the NWWAP, specifically to fight the integration 00:19:31.000 --> 00:19:33.680 of Delaware schools. Right. When Milford High 00:19:33.680 --> 00:19:36.099 School attempted to enroll 11 black students 00:19:36.099 --> 00:19:38.900 into their previously all -white school, Bowles 00:19:38.900 --> 00:19:41.079 capitalized on the local anger and organized 00:19:41.079 --> 00:19:43.940 a massive boycott. The scale of the resistance 00:19:43.940 --> 00:19:47.289 was staggering. In October 1954, a mass meeting 00:19:47.289 --> 00:19:50.490 in Milford drew 3 ,000 people. The boycott essentially 00:19:50.490 --> 00:19:54.190 shut the education system down. Out of 1 ,562 00:19:54.190 --> 00:19:57.589 students, only 456 showed up for classes at Milford 00:19:57.589 --> 00:20:00.069 High the following day. Wow. The resistance movement 00:20:00.069 --> 00:20:01.690 even spread to neighboring towns like Lincoln, 00:20:01.769 --> 00:20:03.650 where elementary school pupils started boycotting 00:20:03.650 --> 00:20:05.990 in solidarity. And the pressure campaign worked. 00:20:06.710 --> 00:20:09.349 Facing mass protests, cross -burnings, and intense 00:20:09.349 --> 00:20:12.069 rallies, the local school board ultimately caved 00:20:12.069 --> 00:20:14.509 to the mob and expelled the 11 Black students. 00:20:14.799 --> 00:20:17.420 Now, Bowles was eventually arrested for conspiring 00:20:17.420 --> 00:20:20.299 to violate state education laws, and the attorney 00:20:20.299 --> 00:20:22.400 general revoked his organization's charter the 00:20:22.400 --> 00:20:24.839 next year. But the damage to the integration 00:20:24.839 --> 00:20:28.720 timeline was done. That localized friction effectively 00:20:28.720 --> 00:20:31.119 delayed the desegregation of schools in most 00:20:31.119 --> 00:20:32.940 of southern Delaware for more than a decade. 00:20:33.599 --> 00:20:35.700 The schools there weren't fully integrated until 00:20:35.700 --> 00:20:39.210 1967. This raises an important question really. 00:20:39.269 --> 00:20:41.490 It's a stark lesson in the mechanics of societal 00:20:41.490 --> 00:20:43.970 change. You have federal mandates handed down 00:20:43.970 --> 00:20:45.670 from the highest court in the land, crashing 00:20:45.670 --> 00:20:48.329 headfirst into deeply entrenched local resistance. 00:20:48.950 --> 00:20:51.250 It proves that a victory achieved on paper often 00:20:51.250 --> 00:20:54.410 requires decades of painful localized human struggle 00:20:54.410 --> 00:20:57.589 before it manifests as reality. Absolutely. So 00:20:57.589 --> 00:21:00.569 stepping back, look at the incredible chaotic 00:21:00.569 --> 00:21:03.180 journey we've mapped out today. We started with 00:21:03.180 --> 00:21:05.579 Peter Minuet building a spiteful corporate fort 00:21:05.579 --> 00:21:08.619 just to stick it to his old bosses. We watched 00:21:08.619 --> 00:21:12.539 a sluggish 100 -year lawsuit force surveyors 00:21:12.539 --> 00:21:15.460 to draw an arbitrary 12 -mile circle that defined 00:21:15.460 --> 00:21:18.259 a disputed border until the 1920s. Yeah, the 00:21:18.259 --> 00:21:20.740 wedge. We saw the horrors of a fractured nation 00:21:20.740 --> 00:21:23.980 crammed onto the swampy Pea Patch Island POW 00:21:23.980 --> 00:21:27.200 camp and we witnessed Delaware become the reluctant 00:21:27.200 --> 00:21:29.740 volatile crucible for American school integration. 00:21:30.000 --> 00:21:32.180 The overarching narrative here is that geography 00:21:32.180 --> 00:21:34.819 and culture are never just given. They are negotiated, 00:21:35.079 --> 00:21:37.779 fought over, and shaped by incredibly human flaws, 00:21:38.420 --> 00:21:40.680 spite, convenience, exhaustion, stubbornness, 00:21:40.839 --> 00:21:43.339 and eventually the painful, agonizing push toward 00:21:43.339 --> 00:21:45.140 progress. I want you to think about your own 00:21:45.140 --> 00:21:47.960 state or your own country. How much of your local 00:21:47.960 --> 00:21:50.480 culture, your borders, or your political identity 00:21:50.480 --> 00:21:53.720 is truly the result of some grand, destined design? 00:21:53.849 --> 00:21:55.930 And how much of it is just because a politician 00:21:55.930 --> 00:21:58.309 300 years ago hated a long commute and decided 00:21:58.309 --> 00:22:00.529 to draw a line in the mud? It completely reframes 00:22:00.529 --> 00:22:02.190 how we view the permanence of the world around 00:22:02.190 --> 00:22:05.369 us. Exactly. Which leaves me with this one final 00:22:05.369 --> 00:22:08.410 thought for you to explore on your own. If the 00:22:08.410 --> 00:22:10.509 very borders of a state can be drawn with an 00:22:10.509 --> 00:22:12.589 arbitrary compass to create a cartographical 00:22:12.589 --> 00:22:15.910 glitch like the wedge, and its entire civil rights 00:22:15.910 --> 00:22:18.630 trajectory can be altered by a handful of stubborn 00:22:18.630 --> 00:22:22.000 actors and historical accidents, How permanent 00:22:22.000 --> 00:22:24.140 are the political and geographic identities we 00:22:24.140 --> 00:22:27.220 cling to so fiercely today? Might the maps and 00:22:27.220 --> 00:22:29.420 cultural lines we consider absolutely fixed right 00:22:29.420 --> 00:22:32.059 now look entirely different a century from now, 00:22:32.279 --> 00:22:33.940 just waiting for someone else to unpack them?