Early Census Records Tell Story of Freedom and Slavery

Back in Revolutionary War times, things were tough in Delaware. The millers in Brandywine Village were told by George Washington to hide their mill stones so that the Redcoats would not get them. Old George himself even took over what we now call the Hale-Byrnes House on White Clay Creek, south of Wilmington in 1777 and cleaned out the food the people in the area were storing to keep them over the winter.

This is just the background for a story told by the 1800 Census for Delaware. The first official Census had been done in 1790, and a certain mill owner in Brandywine Hundred on the Shellpot Creek was noted as "Henery Webster, New Castle County, Brandywine Hundred."   Ten years later, we get more information on this man (only names of men were recorded). His household included, Henry Webster, then it enumerates: 1 free white male from age 16-26, 1 free white male from 26-45, 1 free white female over 45, 2 free white females, under 10 years, 1 negro. They would have had no reason to call the first people "free" if there had not been those household members who were not free, right?

In checking some of the other area landowners like the Talleys, I found that when William Talley died in 1790, he owned 2 negroes, valued at 30 pounds.  These early settlers owned hundreds of acres, mills, and farms and they maintained this with the help of free and enslaved labor.  The picture of the Webster mill is from the 1880's and is in the collections of the Delaware Historical Society.

The Henry Webster House (which was close to the mill), a historic home for sale,  is holding an Open House on Sunday, July 29 from 1-3 PM. For more information on this historic home, click here.