A House Divided: Slavery and Emancipation in Delaware, 1638-1865

Delaware stood outside the primary streams of New World emancipation. Despite slavery's virtual demise in that state during the antebellum years and Delaware's staunch Unionism during the Civil War itself, the state failed to ratify the Thirteenth Amendment, which prohibits slavery, until 1901. Patience Essah takes the reader of A House Divided through the introduction, evolution, demise, and final abolition of slavery in Delaware. In unraveling the enigma of how and why tiny Delaware abstained from the abolition mandated in northern states after the American Revolution, resisted the movement toward abolition in border states during the Civil War, and stubbornly opposed ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment, she offers fresh insight into the history of slavery, race, and racialism in America. The citizens of Delaware voluntarily freed over 90 percent of their slaves, yet they declined Lincoln's 1862 offer of compensation for emancipation, and the legislature persistently foiled all attempts to mandate emancipation. Those arguing against emancipation expressed fears that it inadvertently would alter the delicate balance of political power in the state. What Essah has found at the base of the Delaware paradox is a political discourse stalemated by instrumental appeals to racialism. In showing the persistence of slavery in Delaware, she raises questions about postslavery race relations. Her analysis is vital to an understanding of the African-American experience.