The Delaware Moors are a mixed-race group in Delaware and New Jersey who descend from free people of color. Delaware Moors predominantly live in southern Kent County and Sussex County in Delaware. Several state-recognized tribes descend from the Delaware Moors, including the Lenape Indian Tribe of Delaware and the Nanticoke Indian Association in Delaware, as well as an offshoot group in Cumberland County, New Jersey, known as the Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape Tribal Nation.
About
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The Delaware Moors descend from free people of color in Delaware and identify as descendants of African-American, European American, Lenape, and Nanticoke people. Delaware Moor families trace their ancestries back to the 18th century in the Central Delaware counties of Kent and Sussex. Stories exist that their European ancestry is derived from Spanish pirates evading colonial authorities. According to one version of the legend, a group of Spanish Moors were shipwrecked along the Delaware Coast and moved inland where they mixed with Native Americans.[1] The belief in descent from Spaniards is the likely origin of the term "Moors". Delaware Moors were listed as "Black" or "Mulatto" on census records during the 1800s and early 1900s. In 1914, the State of Delaware agreed to recognize "Delaware Moors" as a separate, non-Black race, which effected the voting process and election rights for Delaware Moors.[2] According to the ethnographer James Mooney, the Delaware Moors are "of similar origin" to other mixed-race ethnic groups like the Croatans (Lumbee) of North Carolina, Redbones of Louisiana, and Melungeons of Appalachia.[3]
According to an 1895 report from The New York Times titled "So-Called Moors Farmers of Delaware", the Delaware Moors were farmers of "mixed Indian and African blood" who did not socially mix with the white or Black populations of the region. The Delaware Moors maintained their own schools for Moors that were distinct from the general public education system.[4] Another 1895 article about the Delaware Moors published in The Pick and Gad of Shullsburg, Wisconsin, stated that the Delaware Moors operated their own Methodist church and did not practice Islam.[5]
In a 1935 article published by The News Journal of Wilmington, Delaware, the story about the Delaware Moors being descended from Spaniards was described as a legend. According to the report, a woman named Lydia Clark had testified in an 1855 court case that during the late 1700s the Delaware Moors originated with an Irish woman who had purchased and married an enslaved chief from the Congo who had been brought to the Port of Lewes.[6] The 1855 court case was regarding a successful Millsboro, Delaware businessman named Levin Sockum who sold guns at his store. Sockum identified as Nanticoke, but was viewed by some others as a Black man. Delaware law prohibited Black people from owning or selling guns. Sockum experienced legal trouble after selling gunpowder to another man, his cousin Isaiah Harmon, who also identified as Nanticoke but was viewed as a Black man by white society. Sockum and Harmon were accused of violating the law against Black people owning weapons and ammunition. The prosecution brought Clark to testify and she stated that she was the last surviving Nanticoke person and that both Sockum and Harmon were not of Native heritage, but were rather the descendants of enslaved people and a white plantation owner. Following Clark's testimony, the all-white jury ruled that Sockum and Harmon were "Negro" or "Mulatto" and not Nanticoke. Clark died the year following the trial.[7] The The Nanticoke Indian Association, who refer to Clark as "Princess Nau-Gau-Okwa", maintain an oral tradition that Clark was coerced into committing perjury under duress, stressing that she was elderly, infirm, and dependent upon the white family she lived with.[8]
The State of Delaware has acknowledged the Lenape Indian Tribe of Delaware as a state-recognized tribe. According to the Delaware Legislature, the Lenape Indian Tribe of Delaware descends from the historic Delaware Moors of Kent County.[9] The Lenape Indian Tribe of Delaware, the state-recognized Nanticoke Indian Association in Delaware, and the state-recognized Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape Tribal Nation in New Jersey are related through ancestral and cultural ties. Ancestors of all three groups were historically known as Moors.[10]
Population
editIn 1993, the population of Delaware Moors was about 800 people, most of whom lived in southern Kent County.[11]
Surnames commonly associated with the Delaware Moors include Coker, Norwood, Durham, and Jackson.[12]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ "The History of Sussex County" (PDF). Retrieved 2025-08-06.
- ^ "Black and Native American, The Farmer Family". City of Birmingham, Alabama. Retrieved 2025-08-06.
- ^ "MELUNGEONS, A MULTI-ETHNIC POPULATION" (PDF). Journal of Genetic Genealogy. Retrieved 2025-08-14.
- ^ "SO-CALLED MOORS FARMERS OF DELAWARE; A Race of Mixed Indian and African Blood". The New York Times. Retrieved 2025-08-06.
- ^ "The Delaware Moors". The Pick and Gad. Retrieved 2025-08-10.
- ^ "How an Irish Lady Married a Congo Chief Beginning the Legend of Delaware's Moors". The News Journal of Wilmington, Delaware. Retrieved 2025-08-09.
- ^ "History Matters: Delaware's Forgotten Folks". Delaware Public Media. Retrieved 2025-08-17.
- ^ "The witness: Nanticoke woman forced to testify in court". The News Journal. Retrieved 2025-08-17.
- ^ "Title 29". The Delaware Code Online. Retrieved 2025-08-05.
- ^ "The History of the Lenape Tribe". MilfordLive.com. Retrieved 2025-08-13.
- ^ "Resolution would recognize Lenapes". The News Journal. Retrieved 2025-08-17.
- ^ "Am I Part American Indian?". Delaware.gov. Retrieved 2025-08-17.
External links
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- The Moors of Delaware, genealogical website