Interviewees:
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Charles Fithian
- Delaware Archeologist, Delaware Historical Society
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Joseph Sullivan
- Welcome Center Supervisor, Delaware Public Archives
Delaware was one of early America's most culturally layered regions, settled in succession by the Dutch, Swedish, and English, with people of African descent present from the 1620s and Indigenous Nations who had inhabited the land for millennia before. Its economy began with tobacco, shifted to grains and mixed husbandry, and proved highly productive. Administratively, Delaware occupied an unusual position. It was joined to Pennsylvania under a shared governor but maintained its own assembly from 1704, a semi-autonomy that bred frequent friction with the Penn government. This drive for self-determination shaped Delaware's distinctive path to independence. The colony had to make not one but two separations, from Pennsylvania on June 15, 1776, and from Britain itself weeks later.
