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

by Patience Essah

Overview

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 here examines the introduction, evolution, demise, and final abolition of slavery in Delaware. In deomnstrating the persistence of slavery in Delaware, she raises important questions about postslavery race relations.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780813916811
Publisher:	University of Virginia Press
Publication date:	10/29/1996
Series:	Carter G. Woodson Institute Series
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	236
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.25(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Patience Essah is Associate Professor of History at Auburn University.

Editorial Reviews

During the Civil War and Reconstruction eras, border states such as Delaware were the site of interesting, often confounding, social paradoxes. Although staunchly Unionist, Delaware had its share of slaveowners, and while Delaware slaveowners voluntarily freed over 90% of their slaves in the 1860s, the State did not ratify the Thirteenth Amendment outlawing slavery until 1901. Essah (history, Auburn U.) addresses these seemingly irreconcilable attitudes and events and provides a portrait of Delaware's tangled relationship with slavery. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

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