Delaware ( ) is a U.S. state located on the Atlantic Coast in the
Mid-Atlantic region of the
United
States
. The state takes its name from Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La
Warr, a British nobleman and Virginia
's first
colonial governor, after whom (what is now called) Cape Henlopen
was originally named.
Delaware
is located in the northeastern portion of the Delmarva
Peninsula
and is the second smallest state in area (after
Rhode
Island
). Estimates in 2007 rank the population of
Delaware as 45th in the nation, but 6th in population density, with
more than 60% of the population in New Castle County
. Delaware is divided into three counties.
From north
to south, these three counties are New Castle, Kent
, and Sussex
. While the southern two counties have
historically been predominantly agricultural, the New Castle County
has been more industrialized. The state ranks second in civilian
scientists and engineers as a percentage of the workforce and
number of patents issued to companies or individuals per 1,000
workers. The history of the state's economic and industrial
development is closely tied to the impact of the
Du Pont family, founders and scions of
E. I. du Pont de Nemours
and Company, one of the world’s largest chemical
companies.
Before its coastline was first explored by Europeans in the 16th
century, Delaware was inhabited by several groups of
Native Americans,
including the
Lenape in the north and
Nanticoke in the south.
It was
initially colonized by Dutch traders at
Zwaanendael, located near the present
town of Lewes
, in
1631. Delaware was one of the thirteen original states
participating in the
American
Revolution and on December 7, 1787, became the first to ratify
the
Constitution of
the United States.
Geography
Map of Delaware
The Twelve-Mile Circle
Delaware
is long and ranges from to across, totaling , making it the
second-smallest state in the United States after Rhode Island. Delaware is bounded to the north by Pennsylvania
; to the east by the Delaware River, Delaware Bay,
New
Jersey
and the Atlantic Ocean; and to the west and south
by Maryland
. Small portions of Delaware are also
situated on the eastern side of the Delaware River sharing land
boundaries with New Jersey.
The state of Delaware, together with the
Eastern Shore counties of Maryland and
two counties of Virginia, form the
Delmarva Peninsula, which stretches down the Mid-Atlantic
Coast.
The definition of the northern boundary of the state is highly
unusual.
Most of the boundary between Delaware and
Pennsylvania was originally defined by an arc extending from the
cupola of the courthouse in New
Castle
. This boundary is often referred to as the
Twelve-Mile Circle. This is the
only nominally circular state boundary in the United States. This
border extends all the way east to the low-tide mark on the New
Jersey shore, then continues south along the shoreline until it
again reaches the twelve-mile arc in the south; then the boundary
continues in a more conventional way in the middle of the main
channel (
thalweg) of the Delaware River. To
the west, a portion of the arc extends past the easternmost edge of
Maryland.
The remaining western border runs slightly
east of due south from its intersection with the arc. The
Wedge
of land between the northwest part of the arc and
the Maryland border was claimed by both Delaware and Pennsylvania
until 1921, when Delaware's claim was confirmed.
Delaware
is subdivided into three
counties; from north to south they are New
Castle
, Kent County and Sussex.
- Main articles: Twelve-Mile Circle, The
Wedge
, Mason-Dixon line
, Transpeninsular
Line
Topography
Delaware is on a level plain, with the lowest mean elevation of any
state in the nation.
Its highest elevation, located at Ebright
Azimuth
, near Concord High School
, does not rise fully above sea level. The
northernmost part of the state is part of the Appalachian Piedmont
with hills and rolling surfaces. The
fall
line approximately follows the
Robert Kirkwood Highway between Newark and
Wilmington; south of this road is the
Atlantic Coastal Plain with flat,
sandy, and, in some parts, swampy ground. A ridge about in
elevation extends along the western boundary of the state and
separates between the
watersheds that feed
Delaware River and Bay to the east and the Chesapeake Bay to the
west.
Climate
Since almost all of Delaware is a part of the Atlantic Coastal
Plain, the climate is moderated by the effects of the ocean. The
state is somewhat of a transitional zone between a
humid subtropical climate and a
continental climate. Despite its
small size (roughly from its northernmost to southernmost points),
there is significant variation in mean temperature and amount of
snowfall between Sussex County and New Castle County. The southern
portion of the state has a somewhat milder climate and a longer
growing season than the northern portion of the state. The
transitional climate of Delaware supports a wide variety of
vegetation.
At Trap Pond State Park
in Sussex County, bald cypress grow in what is
thought to be the northernmost stand of such trees. The
vegetation in New Castle County, on the other hand, is more typical
of that of the northeastern United States. All of Delaware has
relatively hot, humid summers. While Sussex and Kent Counties are
considered to fall in the humid subtropical climate zone, there is
some debate about whether northern New Castle County falls in the
humid subtropical climate zone or warm continental climate.
History
Native Americans
Before
Delaware was settled by European colonists, the area was home to
the Eastern Algonquian tribes known as
the Unami Lenape or
Delaware throughout the Delaware valley, and the Nanticoke
along the rivers leading into the Chesapeake Bay. The Unami Lenape in
the Delaware Valley were closely related to
Munsee Lenape tribes along the
Hudson River. They had a settled hunting and
agricultural society, and they rapidly became middlemen in an
increasingly frantic fur trade with their ancient enemy, the Minqua
or
Susquehannock. With the loss of
their lands on the Delaware River and the destruction of the Minqua
by the
Iroquois of the
Five Nations in the 1670s, the remnants of the
Lenape left the region and moved over the
Alleghany Mountains by the mid-18th
century.
Colonial Delaware
The
Dutch were the first Europeans to
settle in present-day Delaware by establishing a trading post at
Zwaanendael, near the site of
Lewes in
1631. Within a year all the settlers were killed in a
dispute with
area
Indian tribes.
In 1638 New
Sweden, a Swedish trading post
and colony, was established at Fort Christina
(now in Wilmington
) by Peter Minuit at the
head of a group of Swedes, Finns and
Dutch. Thirteen years later, the Dutch,
reinvigorated by the leadership of Peter Stuyvesant, established a new fort in
1651 at present-day New Castle, and in 1655 they took over the New Sweden colony, incorporating it into the
Dutch New Netherland.
Only nine years later, in 1664, the Dutch were themselves forcibly
removed by a
British expedition under
the direction of
James, the Duke of
York.
Fighting off a prior claim by Cecilius Calvert, 2nd
Baron Baltimore, Proprietor of Maryland, the Duke passed his somewhat dubious ownership on
to William Penn in 1682.
Penn
strongly desired access to the sea for his Pennsylvania province and leased what then came to be known as
the "Lower Counties on the Delaware" from the Duke.
Penn established representative government and briefly combined his
two possessions under one General Assembly in 1682.
However, by 1704 the
Province of Pennsylvania had grown so large that their
representatives wanted to make decisions without the assent of the
Lower Counties and the two groups of representatives began meeting
on their own, one at Philadelphia
, and the other at New Castle. Penn and his
heirs remained proprietors of both and always appointed the same
person Governor for their Province of Pennsylvania and their
territory of the Lower Counties. The fact that Delaware and
Pennsylvania shared the same governor was not unique.
During much of the
colonial period, New York and New Jersey shared a governor, as did
Massachusetts
and New
Hampshire
.
Dependent in early years on indentured labor, Delaware imported
more slaves as the number of English immigrants decreased with
better economic conditions in England. The colony became a slave
society and cultivated tobacco as a cash crop. Before the
Revolution, it had begun to shift to mixed agriculture.
American Revolution
Like the
other middle colonies, the Lower Counties on the Delaware initially
showed little enthusiasm for a break with Britain
. The citizenry had a good relationship with
the Proprietary government, and generally were allowed more
independence of action in their Colonial Assembly than in other
colonies. Merchants at the port of Wilmington had trading ties with
the British. Nevertheless, there was strong objection to the
seemingly arbitrary measures of
Parliament, and leaders understood that the
territory's existence as a separate entity depended upon its
keeping step with its powerful neighbors, especially
Pennsylvania.
So it was that New Castle lawyer
Thomas
McKean denounced the
Stamp Act in the
strongest terms, and Kent County native
John Dickinson became the "Penman
of the Revolution." Anticipating the Declaration of Independence,
Patriot leaders Thomas
McKean and
Caesar Rodney convinced the
Colonial Assembly to declare itself separated from British and
Pennsylvania rule on June 15, 1776. The person best representing
Delaware's majority,
George
Read, could not bring himself to vote for a Declaration of
Independence. Only the dramatic overnight ride of Caesar Rodney
gave the delegation the votes needed to cast Delaware's vote for
independence. Once the Declaration was adopted, however, Read
signed the document.
Initially led by
John Haslet, Delaware
provided one of the premier regiments in the
Continental Army, known as the "Delaware
Blues" and nicknamed the "
Blue Hen
Chickens."
In August 1777, General Sir William Howe led a British army
through Delaware on his way to a victory at the Battle of
Brandywine
and capture of the city of Philadelphia.
The only
real engagement on Delaware soil was the Battle of Cooch's Bridge, fought on
September 3, 1777, at Cooch's Bridge
in New Castle County. It is believed to be
the first time that the Stars and Stripes was flown in
battle.
Following the Battle of Brandywine, Wilmington was occupied by the
British, and
State President
John McKinly was taken prisoner. The
British remained in control of the Delaware River for much of the
rest of the war, disrupting commerce and providing encouragement to
an active
Loyalist
portion of the population, particularly in Sussex County. Because
the British promised slaves of rebels freedom for fighting with
them, escaped slaves flocked north to join their lines. Only the
repeated military actions of State President Caesar Rodney were
able to harass the British.
Following the
American
Revolution, statesmen from Delaware were among the leading
proponents of a strong central United States with equal
representation for each state. Once the
Connecticut Compromise was
reached—creating a
U.S.
Senate and
U.S. House of
Representatives—the leaders in Delaware were able to easily
secure ratification of the U.S. Constitution on December 7, 1787,
making Delaware the first state to do so.
Slavery and race
Many colonial settlers came to Delaware from Maryland and Virginia,
which had been experiencing a population boom. The economies of
these colonies were chiefly based on tobacco culture and were
increasingly dependent on slave labor for its intensive
cultivation. Most of the English colonists arrived as
indentured servants, hiring themselves
out as laborers for a fixed period to pay for their passage. In the
early years the line between indentured servants and African
slaves or laborers was fluid. Most of the free
African-American families in Delaware before the Revolution had
migrated from Maryland to find more affordable land. They were
descendants chiefly of relationships or marriages between servant
women and enslaved, servant or free African or African-American
men. As the flow of indentured laborers to the colony decreased
with improving economic conditions in England, more slaves were
imported for labor.
At the end of the colonial period, the number of enslaved people in
Delaware began to decline. Shifts in the agriculture economy from
tobacco to mixed farming created less need for slaves' labor. Local
Methodists and
Quakers encouraged slaveholders to free their slaves
following the American Revolution, and many did so in a surge of
individual manumissions for idealistic reasons. By 1810
three-quarters of all blacks in Delaware were free. When John
Dickinson freed his slaves in 1777, he was Delaware's largest slave
owner with 37 slaves. By 1860 the largest slaveholder owned only 16
slaves.
Although attempts to abolish slavery failed by narrow margins in
the legislature, in practical terms, the state had mostly ended the
practice. By the
1860
census on the verge of the
Civil War,
91.7 percent of the black population, or nearly 20,000 people, were
free.
The first independent black denomination was chartered by freed
slave
Peter Spencer in 1813 as the
"
Union Church of Africans." This
followed the 1793 establishment of the African Methodist Episcopal
Church in Philadelphia, which had ties to the Methodist Episcopal
Church until 1816. Spencer built a church in Wilmington for the new
denomination.This was renamed the
African Union First Colored Methodist Protestant Church and
Connection, more commonly known as the
A.U.M.P. Church. Begun by Spencer in 1814, the annual
gathering of the
Big August
Quarterly still draws people together in a religious and
cultural festival, the oldest such cultural festival in the
nation.
At the onset of the
American Civil
War, Delaware was only nominally a slave state, and it remained
in the Union. Delaware voted against secession on January 3, 1861.
As the governor said, Delaware had been the first state to embrace
the Union by ratifying the Constitution and would be the last to
leave it. While most Delaware citizens who fought in the war served
in the regiments of the state, some served in companies on the
Confederate side in Maryland and Virginia Regiments. Delaware is
notable for being the only slave state from which no Confederate
regiments or militia groups were assembled. It did not free its
slaves until forced to by the ratification of the Thirteenth
Amendment to the Constitution in December 1865.
Demographics
Delaware Population Density Map
The five largest ancestries in Delaware are:
African American (19.2%),
Irish (16.6%),
German (14.3%),
English (12.1%),
Italian (9.3%). Delaware has the highest
proportion of African-American residents of any state north of
Maryland, and had the largest percentage of
free blacks (17% of the state's total population)
prior to the Civil War.
Delaware is the sixth most densely populated state, with a
population density of 442.6 people per square mile, 356.4 per
square mile more than the national average, and ranking 45th in
population. Only the states of Delaware, West Virginia, Vermont,
Maine, and Wyoming do not have a single city with a population over
100,000 as of the 2007 census.
The center
of population of Delaware is located in New Castle County, in
the town of Townsend
.
Languages
As of 2000, 90.5% of Delaware residents age 5 and older speak only
English at home; 4.7% speak Spanish. French is the third most
spoken language at 0.7%, followed by Chinese at 0.5% and German at
0.5%.
Legislation has been proposed by both the House and the Senate in
Delaware to designate English as the
official language.
Religion
The religious affiliations of the people of Delaware are:
(source:
American Religious Identification Survey, City
University of New York)
The
Roman Catholic
Diocese of Wilmington and the
Episcopal Diocese of Delaware
oversee the parishes within their denominations. The A.U.M.P.
Church, the oldest African-American denomination in the nation, was
founded in Wilmington. It still has a substantial presence in the
state.
Reflecting new immigrant populations, an
Islamic mosque has
been built in the Ogletown
area, and a Hindu temple in
Hockessin
.
Delaware's population includes approximately 20,000
Jewish Americans, who are served by the
Jewish Community Center in
Brandywine (near Wilmington) and by a number of educational, social
and cultural agencies supported by the
Jewish Federation of Delaware. Synagogues
include Congregation Beth Emeth (Reform) in Wilmington,
Congregation Beth El (Reconstructionist) in Newark, Congregation
Beth Shalom (Conservative) in Wilmington, Congregation Beth Sholom
(Conservative) in Dover, and Adas Kodesh Shel Emeth (Traditional)
in Wilmington. Seaside Jewish Community in Rehoboth Beach
(unaffiliated) There is also a
Lubavitcher community center and synagogue in
Brandywine Hundred.
Economy
250 px
The
gross state product of
Delaware in 2003 was $49 billion. The per capita personal income
was $34,199, ranking 9th in the nation. In 2005, the average weekly
wage was $937, ranking 7th in the nation.
Delaware's agricultural output consists of poultry, nursery stock,
soybeans, dairy products and
corn. Its industrial outputs include chemical
products, automobiles,
processed
foods, paper products, and rubber and plastic products.
Delaware's economy generally outperforms the national economy of
the United States.
The state's largest employers are:
- government (State of Delaware, New Castle County)
- education (University of Delaware
)
- banking (Bank of America,
Wilmington Trust, First USA / Bank One /
JPMorgan Chase, AIG, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, Barclays plc)
- chemical and pharmaceutical companies (E.I.
du Pont de Nemours & Co., Syngenta,
AstraZeneca, and Hercules, Inc.)
- healthcare (Christiana
Care Health System, Alfred I. duPont Hospital
for Children)
- automotive manufacturing (General
Motors, Chrysler)
- farming, specifically chicken farming in Sussex County
(Perdue Farms, Mountaire Farms)
The
Dover Air
Force Base
, located next to the state capital of Dover
, is one of
the largest Air Force bases in the country and is a major employer
in Delaware. In addition to its other responsibilities in
the
USAF Air
Mobility Command, this air base serves as the entry point and
mortuary for American military personnel,
and some U.S. government civilians, who die overseas.
Delaware has six different
income tax
brackets, ranging from 2.2% to 5.95%. The state does not assess
sales tax on consumers. The state does,
however, impose a tax on the gross receipts of most businesses.
Business and occupational license tax rates range from 0.096% to
1.92%, depending on the category of business activity.
Delaware does not assess a state-level tax on real or personal
property.
Real estate is subject to
county
property taxes, school district
property taxes, vocational school district taxes, and, if located
within an incorporated area, municipal property taxes.
Over 50% of US publicly-traded corporations and 60% of the
Fortune 500 companies are
incorporated in Delaware; the
state's attractiveness as a
corporate
haven is largely due to its business-friendly
corporation law.
Franchise taxes on Delaware corporations
supply about one-fifth of its state revenue. Although Delaware is
ranked first tax haven in the world by
Tax Justice Network, it is not listed on
the OECD's 2009 "Black List", despite objections of Luxembourg´s
and Switzerland's authorities.
Title 4, chapter 7 of the Delaware Code stipulates that alcoholic
liquor only be sold in specifically licensed establishments, and
only between 9:00 AM and 1:00 AM.
Transportation
The transportation system in Delaware is under the governance and
supervision of the
Delaware Department of
Transportation, also known as "DelDOT". DelDOT manages programs
such as a Delaware
Adopt-a-Highway
program, major road route snow removal, traffic control
infrastructure (signs and signals), toll road management, Delaware
Division of Motor
Vehicles, the Delaware Transit Corporation (branded as "DART
First State", the state government public transportation
organization), among others. Almost ninety percent of the state's
public roadway miles are under the direct maintenance of DelDOT
which far exceeds the United States national average of twenty
percent for state department of transportation maintenance
responsibility; the remaining public road miles are under the
supervision of individual municipalities.
Roads
One major branch of the U.S.
Interstate Highway System,
Interstate 95, crosses
Delaware southwest-to-northeast across New Castle County. In
addition to I-95, there are six
U.S.
highways that serve Delaware:
U.S.
Route 9,
U.S. Route 13,
U.S. Route
40,
U.S. Route 113,
U.S.
Route 202, and
U.S. Route 301.
There are also several state highways that cross the state of
Delaware; a few of them include
Delaware Route 1,
Delaware Route 9, and
Delaware Route 404. U.S. 13 and DE Rt 1
are primary north-south highways connecting Wilmington and
Pennsylvania with Maryland, with DE 1 serving as the main route
between Wilmington and the Delaware beaches. DE Rt.
9 is a north-south
highway connecting Dover and Wilmington via a scenic route along
the Delaware
Bay
. U.S. 40, is a primary east-west route,
connecting Maryland with New Jersey. DE Rt.
404 is another
primary east-west highway connecting the Chesapeake
Bay Bridge
in Maryland with the Delaware beaches.
The state
also operates two toll highways, the Delaware Turnpike
, which is Interstate 95, between Maryland and New
Castle and the Korean War Veterans
Memorial Highway, which is DE Rt. 1, between Wilmington
and Dover.
A bicycle
route, Delaware Bicycle Route
1, spans the north-south length of the state from the Maryland
border in Fenwick Island
to the Pennsylvania border north of Montchanin
. It is the first of several signed bike
routes planned in Delaware.
Delaware has around 1,450 bridges, ninety-five percent of which are
under the supervision of DelDOT. About thirty percent of all
Delaware bridges were built prior to 1950 and about sixty percent
of the number are included in the
National Bridge Inventory. Some
bridges not under DelDOT supervision includes the four bridges on
the
Chesapeake and
Delaware Canal, which are under the jurisdiction of the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and
the
Delaware Memorial
Bridge, which is under the bi-state
Delaware River and Bay
Authority.
Ferries
There are three ferries that operate in the state of Delaware:
Rail and bus
Amtrak has two stations in Delaware along the
Northeast Corridor; the relatively quiet
Newark
Rail Station
in Newark, and the busier
Wilmington
Rail Station
in Wilmington.
The Northeast Corridor is also served by
SEPTA's R2 Regional Rail line, which serves
Claymont
, Wilmington, Churchmans
Crossing
, and Newark. The major freight railroad in
Delaware is the Class 1
Norfolk
Southern, which provides service to most of Delaware. It
connects with two shortline railroads, the
Delaware Coast Line Railway and
the
Maryland &
Delaware Railroad. These two shortlines serve local customers
in Sussex County. Another Class 1 railroad,
CSX,
passes through northern New Castle County parallel to the Amtrak
Northeast Corridor.
The public transportation system,
DART
First State, was named "Most Outstanding Public Transportation
System" in 2003 by the
American Public
Transportation Association. Coverage of the system is broad
within northern New Castle County with close association to major
highways in Kent and Sussex Counties. The system includes bus,
subsidized passenger rail operated by Philadelphia transit agency
SEPTA, and subsidized taxi and paratransit modes, the latter
consisting of a state-wide door-to-door bus service for the elderly
and disabled.
Air
Delaware is the only state in the Union without commercial air
service.
New Castle Airport
near Wilmington has been served by commercial
airlines in the past, the last being Skybus Airlines, which provided service to
Columbus,
Ohio
and Greensboro, North Carolina
from March 7, 2008 until its bankruptcy on
April 5, 2008.
Delaware is centrally situated in the
Northeast Corridor region of cities along
US Interstate 95
I-95.
Therefore, Delaware
commercial airline passengers
most frequently use Philadelphia International
Airport
(PHL) and Baltimore-Washington International
Thurgood Marshall Airport
(BWI) for domestic and international
transit. Newark
Liberty International Airport
(EWR) and Ronald
Reagan Washington National Airport
(DCA) are also within a 100 mile radius of New
Castle County.
The large
Dover Air
Force Base of the USAF Air Mobility Command is located in the
central part of the state, and it is the home of the 436th Airlift Wing and the 512th Airlift Wing.
Other
general aviation airports in Delaware include Summit
Airport
near Middletown
, Delaware
Airpark
near Cheswold
, and Sussex County Airport
near Georgetown
.
Law and government
Delaware's fourth and current constitution, adopted in 1897,
provides for executive, judicial and legislative branches.
Legislative branch
The
Delaware General
Assembly consists of a
House of Representatives
with 41 members and a
Senate with 21
members. It sits in Dover, the state capital. Representatives are
elected to two-year terms, while senators are elected to four-year
terms. The Senate confirms judicial and other nominees appointed by
the governor.
Delaware's U.S. Senators are
Edward
Kaufman (Democrat) and
Thomas
R. Carper (Democrat).
Delaware's single U.S. Representative is
Michael N. Castle (Republican).
Judicial branch
The Delaware Constitution establishes a number of courts:
Minor non-constitutional courts include the
Justice of the Peace Courts and
Aldermen's Courts.
Significantly, Delaware has one of the few remaining Courts of
Chancery in the nation, which has
jurisdiction over
equity cases, the
vast majority of which are corporate disputes, many relating to
mergers and acquisitions.
The
Court of Chancery and
the Supreme Court have developed a worldwide reputation for
rendering concise opinions concerning
corporate law which generally (but not always)
grant broad discretion to corporate boards of directors and
officers. In addition, the
Delaware General Corporation
Law, which forms the basis of the Courts' opinions, is widely
regarded as giving great flexibility to corporations to manage
their affairs.
For these reasons, Delaware is considered to
have the most business-friendly legal system in the United States;
therefore a great number of companies are incorporated in Delaware, including
60% of the companies listed on the New York
Stock Exchange
.
Delaware was the last US state to use
judicial corporal punishment,
in 1952.
Executive branch
The executive branch is headed by the
Governor of Delaware. The present
governor is
Jack A. Markell (Democrat), who took office January
20, 2009. The lieutenant governor is
Matthew P. Denn.
Counties
Delaware has three counties: Kent County, New Castle County, and
Sussex County. Each county elects its own legislative body (known
in New Castle and Sussex counties as
County
Council, and in Kent County as
Levy
Court), which deal primarily in zoning and development
issues. Most functions which are handled on a county-by-county
basis in other states — such as court and law enforcement — have
been centralized in Delaware, leading to a significant
concentration of power in the Delaware state government. The
counties were historically divided into
hundreds, which were used as
tax reporting and voting districts until the 1960s, but now serve
no administrative role, their only current official legal use being
in real-estate title descriptions.
Politics
Presidential elections results
| Year |
Republican |
Democratic |
| 2008 |
37.37% 152,356 |
62.63%
255,394 |
| 2004 |
45.75% 171,660 |
53.35%
200,152 |
| 2000 |
41.90% 137,288 |
54.96%
180,068 |
| 1996 |
36.58% 99,062 |
51.82%
140,955 |
| 1992 |
35.33% 102,313 |
43.52%
126,054 |
| 1988 |
55.88%
139,639 |
43.48% 108,647 |
| 1984 |
59.78%
152,190 |
39.93% 101,656 |
| 1980 |
47.21%
111,252 |
44.87% 105,754 |
| 1976 |
46.57% 109,831 |
51.98%
122,596 |
| 1972 |
59.60%
140,357 |
39.18% 92,283 |
| 1968 |
45.12%
96,714 |
41.61% 89,194 |
| 1964 |
38.78% 78,078 |
60.95%
122,704 |
| 1960 |
49.00% 96,373 |
50.63%
99,590 |
The Democratic Party holds a
plurality of registrations in
Delaware. Until the
2000 presidential
election, the state tended to be a Presidential
bellwether, sending its three
electoral votes to the winning candidate for
almost 50 years in a row. Bucking that trend, however, in 2000 and
again in
2004, Delaware
voted for the Democratic candidate. In the 2000 election Delaware
voted with the winner of the popular vote,
Al
Gore, who subsequently lost the
Electoral College to
George W. Bush.
John Kerry
won Delaware by eight percentage points with 53.5% of the vote in
2004. In 2008, Democrat
Barack Obama
defeated Republican
John McCain in
Delaware 62.63% to 37.37%. Obama's running mate was
Joe Biden, who had represented Delaware in the
United States Senate since
1973.
Historically, the Republican Party had an immense influence on
Delaware politics, due in large part to the wealthy
du Pont family.
Ralph
Nader assembled a
working group to
investigate ties between Delaware's politicians and industrialists,
resulting in a book published in 1968 entitled
The Company
State. As DuPont's political influence has declined, so has
that of the Delaware Republican Party. Democrats have won the past
four gubernatorial elections and currently hold seven of the nine
statewide elected offices (Governor, Lieutenant Governor,
Treasurer, Insurance Commissioner, Attorney General, and two U.S.
Senators), while the Republicans hold the remaining two (the
state's at-large House seat and the office of Auditor).
The Democratic Party gains most of its votes from developed New
Castle County, whereas the less populated Kent and Sussex Counties
generally vote Republican.
Municipalities
Wilmington is the state's largest city and its economic hub. It is
located within commuting distance of both Philadelphia and
Baltimore. All regions of Delaware are enjoying phenomenal growth,
with Dover and the beach resorts expanding at a rapid rate.
Top 10 richest places in Delaware
Ranked by
per capita income
- Greenville
: $83,223
- Henlopen Acres
: $82,091
- South Bethany
: $53,624
- Dewey Beach
: $51,958
- Fenwick Island: $44,415
- Bethany Beach
: $41,306
- Hockessin: $40,516
- North Star
: $39,677
- Rehoboth Beach
: $38,494
- Ardentown
: $35,577
Education
Delaware was the origin of
Belton
v. Gebhart, one
of the four cases which was combined into
Brown v. Board of Education, the
Supreme Court of the United
States
decision that led to the end of segregated public schools.
Significantly,
Belton was the only case in which the state
court found
for the plaintiffs, thereby ruling
that segregation was unconstitutional.
Unlike many states, Delaware's educational system is centralized in
a state Superintendent of Education, with local school boards
retaining control over taxation and some curriculum
decisions.
A "three-tiered diploma" system fostered by Governor
Ruth Ann Minner, which awarded "basic,"
"standard," and "distinguished" high-school diplomas based on a
student's performance in the Delaware Student Testing Program, was
discontinued by the General Assembly after many Delawareans
questioned its fairness.
Colleges and universities
Miscellaneous topics
Media
There are no network broadcast-television stations operating solely
in Delaware.
A local PBS station from
Philadelphia (but licensed to Wilmington), WHYY-TV
, maintains a studio and broadcasting facility
in Wilmington and Dover, while ION
Television affiliate WPPX
is
licensed to Wilmington, but for all intents and purposes, maintains
their offices in Philadelphia and their digital transmitter outside
of that city and an analog tower in New Jersey. Philadelphia's
ABC affiliate,
WPVI-TV
, maintains a news bureau in downtown
Wilmington. The northern part of the state is served by
network stations in Philadelphia and the southern part by network
stations in Baltimore
and Salisbury, Maryland
. Salisbury's CBS
affiliate, WBOC-TV
, maintains bureaus in Dover and
Milton.
Tourism
While Delaware has no places designated as national parks, national
seashores, national battlefields, national memorials, or national
monuments, it does have several
museums,
wildlife
refuges,
parks,
houses,
lighthouses, and other
historic
places. Delaware is home to the second longest
twin span suspension bridge in the world,
the
Delaware Memorial
Bridge.
Rehoboth
Beach, together with the towns of Lewes, Dewey
Beach, Bethany Beach, South Bethany, and Fenwick Island, comprise Delaware's beach resorts. Rehoboth
Beach often bills itself as "The Nation's Summer Capital" due to
the fact that it is a frequent summer vacation destination for
Washington, D.C., residents as well as visitors from Maryland,
Virginia, and in lesser numbers, Pennsylvania. Vacationers are
drawn for many reasons, including the town's charm, artistic
appeal, nightlife, and tax free shopping.
Delaware is home to several festivals, fairs, and events.
Some of
the more notable festivals are the Riverfest held in Seaford
, the World Championship Punkin Chunkin held at
various locations throughout the county since 1986, the Rehoboth
Beach Chocolate Festival, the Bethany Beach Jazz Funeral to mark
the end of summer, the Apple Scrapple Festival held in Bridgeville
, the Rehoboth Beach Jazz Festival, the Sea
Witch Halloween Festival and Parade in Rehoboth Beach, the Rehoboth
Beach Independent Film Festival the Nanticoke Indian Pow Wow in
Oak
Orchard
, and the Return Day Parade held after every
election in Georgetown.
Festivals
Sports
In place of in-state professional sports teams, many Delawareans
follow either Philadelphia or Baltimore teams, depending on their
location within the state, with Philadelphia teams receiving the
largest fan following, though before the
Baltimore Ravens entered the NFL, the
Washington Redskins had a
significant fan base in Sussex County and the Baltimore Colts had a
significant fan base in northern counties. In addition, the
University of Delaware's football team has a loyal following
throughout the state, with Delaware State University's team
enjoying popularity on a much lesser scale.
Delaware
is home to Dover International
Speedway
and Dover Downs
. DIS, also known as the
Monster
Mile, hosts two
NASCAR races each year.
Dover Downs is a popular
harness
racing facility. In what may be the only co-located horse and
car-racing facility in the nation, the Dover Downs track is located
inside the DIS track.
Delaware has been home to
professional wrestling outfit
CZW, particularly the annual Tournament of
Death, and
ECWA,
particularly the annual
Super 8
Tournament.
Delaware is home to the Diamond State Games, an amateur
Olympic-style sports festival. The event is open to athletes of all
ages and is also open to residents beyond the borders of Delaware.
The Diamond State Games were created in 2001 and participation
levels average roughly 2500 per year in twelve contested
sports.
Delaware is home to
Michael Stewart,
a boxer who was on the second season of
The Contender. He is a former
USBA Light Welterweight
Champion and a former WBU and IBF contender having notable
fights with
Sharmba Mitchell and
Ricky Hatton. Clearence Taylor is a
former
WBC USNBC
Super Welterweight Champion.
Larry
Marks once fought Cory Spinks on an undercard at an
HBO event.
Delaware Native Americans
Delaware is also the name of a
Native American group
(called in their own language
Lenni
Lenape) that was influential in the colonial period of the
United States. A band of the Nanticoke tribe of American Indians
resides in Sussex County.
Namesakes
- Several ships have been named USS
Delaware in honor of this state.
Notable Delawareans
See also
References
- Random House Dictionary
- While the U.S. Census Bureau designates Delaware as one
of the South Atlantic States, many consider
it part of the Mid-Atlantic States or the Northeastern United States.
Examples include other U.S. government agencies (such as the
Library of Congress, Geological Survey, Environmental Protection Agency, National Park
Service, and Department of Energy), and public service
organizations (such as Alcoholics Anonymous and Amtrak). Google's categorization scheme includes it in
both the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions.
-
http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/voting/011400.html
- Due to surveying errors, the actual line is actually several
compound arcs with centers located at different points in town New
Castle
- Simon Schama, Rough Crossings: Britain, The Slaves, and the
American Revolution, New York, HarperCollins, 2006
- Paul Heinegg. Free African Americans in Virginia, North
Carolina, South Carolina, Maryland and Delaware Accessed 15 Feb
2008
- Peter Kolchin, American Slavery: 1619–1877, New York:
Hill and Wang, 1994, pp.78, 81-82
- Peter Kolchin, American Slavery: 1619–1877, New York:
Hill and Wang, 1994, pp.81-82
- Historical Census Browser, 1860 Federal Census,
University of Virginia Library, accessed 15 Mar 2008
- SB 129, assigned 2007-06-13 to Senate Education
Committee.
- HB 436, stricken 2006-06-15
- Note: value of $937 per week was for the 4th quarter of
2005.
- Delaware Division of Corporations
- Delaware 2007 Fiscal Notebook - State General Fund
Revenues by Category (F.Y. 2002 - F.Y. 2005)
- Delaware Bicycle Facility Master Plan
- Note: replacement current URL (2008-07-23) is
http://www.corp.delaware.gov/aboutagency.shtml .
- Red Hannah: Delaware's Whipping Post.
- The Hundreds of Delaware: 1700–1800, Delaware Department
of State:Division of Historical and Cultural Affairs
website
External links
crosses the mouth of the Delaware Bay between
Lewes, Delaware and Cape May, New Jersey
.
with Fort Delaware
and Fort Mott
in New
Jersey
is the state's highest court.
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