Customer Reviews

Delaware (Thirteen Colonies)

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If you were always wondering why Delaware was the first state to ratify the Constitution, Stuart A. Kallen provides the explanation in the introduction to this volume from The Thirteen Colonies series. Larger only than Rhode Island, all of the colonists who lived in Delaware's thee counties were close to the capital city, whether it was New Castle or (after 1777) Dover. Consequently, making decisions was relatively easy for the colonists of Delaware, who were under Dutch, Swedish, English, and American governments in colonial times and had to fend off the claims of New York, Maryland, and especially Pennsylvania at various times. In this volume, Kallen tells you everything you might ever need to know about the colony of Delaware, which because of its central location was essentially at the crossroads of American history and culture.

These volumes in The Thirteen Colonies series follow a rather standard pattern in terms of their five chapters: (1) First Contact talks about the Lenape tribe, the first known inhabitants of Delaware, and the arrival of Henry Hudson and the Dutch traders; (2) European Settlement refers to the establishment of New Sweden, which was then taken over by first the Dutch and then the English; (3) Daily Life in Colonial Delaware covers a wide variety of topics: religion and government, farming and milling, immigration, indentured servants, and slavery; (4) Delaware During the Revolution actually goes back to the French and Indian War to set up the taxation without representation issue, and the chapter is devotes as much time to the American Revolution in general as it does to specifically what happened in Delaware during the war; and (5) After Independence also talks both generally about the move towards the Constitution and Delaware's role in the process, as well as the industries developed by the new state.

Once again I am rather surprised at how much about a lesser known colony is worked into these informative little volumes. "Delaware" has black & white illustrations of the times and people who helped shape its history and makes excellent use of primary and secondary source quotations. The back of the book contains a chronology of the colony from 1609 when Henry Hudson sailed into Delaware Bay to 1792 when representatives met in Dover to write a new state constitution, along with notes, a couple of lists of reference books, and an index. The Thirteen Colonies series is very informative and will serve young students being asked to research a particular colony a perfect place to begin their investigation. Certainly they will learn more details about Delaware than they will ever uncover in a standard American history textbook.