The Delaware Colony

The Delaware Colony was first settled by the Dutch, but their

settlement didn't last a year. The Indians massacred the settlers and

burned their forts. In 1638, the first permanent settlement was

founded. Swedish leader Peter Minuit founded the colony of New

Sweden. New Sweden was captured by Stuyvesant in 1655, and

remained under Dutch rule for nine years. In 1664, the Delaware

region was captured with New Netherland. The Delaware colony

was formed to expand the trade routes in the Americas. In 1684

William Penn asked the Duke of York to give him the Delaware

region as a territory of his colony Pennsylvania. Providing him

with a connection to the Atlantic Ocean.

The Delaware Colony had a legislature that first met in 1704.

Only, after they refused to met with the one from Pennsylvania.

They asked Penn for a separate legislature and he consented. A

legislature government has an upper house and a lower house. The

Upper House is mainly made up of the governors council. In the

Lower House was an elected assembly. They approved laws and

protected the rights of citizens that lived in the colony. The first

governor of Delaware was Peter Minuit.

In the 1760's Britain enforced taxes that were very unpopular

on the colonies . Delaware sent delegates to Philadelphia to attend

the very first meeting of the Continental Congress in 1774. Nearly

a year after the Revolutionary war started Delaware finally joined

the other colonies in fighting for their independence. Later that

year the Delaware region became the Delaware state and adopted

the first constitution.

Some of the things that we could not find information on were:

What king or queen ordered the charter

What were the reasons the settlers left England to go to Delaware

What goods did the colonist exported to England

When was the charter revoked by the king or queen