Delaware's Forgotten Folk: The Story of the Moors and Nanticokes

by C.A. Weslager

"It is offered not as a textbook nor as a scientific discussion, but merely as reading entertainment founded on the life history, social struggle, and customs of a little-known people."—From the Preface

C. A. Weslager's Delaware's Forgotten Folk chronicles the history of the Nanticoke Indians and the Cheswold Moors, from John Smith's first encounter with the Nanticokes along the Kuskakarawaok River in 1608, to the struggles faced by these uniquely multiracial communities amid the racial and social tensions of mid-twentieth-century America. It explores the legend surrounding the origin of the two distinct but intricately intertwined groups, focusing on how their uncommon racial heritage—white, black, and Native American—shaped their identity within society and how their traditional culture retained its significance into their present.

Weslager's demonstrated command of available information and his familiarity with the people themselves bespeak his deep respect for the Moor and Nanticoke communities. What began as a curious inquiry into the overlooked peoples of the Delaware River Valley developed into an attentive and thoughtful study of a distinct group of people struggling to remain a cultural community in the face of modern opposition. Originally published in 1943, Delaware's Forgotten Folk endures as one of the fundamental volumes on understanding the life and history of the Nanticoke and Moor peoples.

Genres: History

232 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1943

About the author

The late Dr. Clinton A. Weslager was a History Professor Emeritus of Brandywine College of Widener University and was nationally known for his 24 books dealing with the early history of the Delaware valley, including Indian, Dutch, Swedish and English occupations.

Known for his engaging writing style, Dr. Weslager was awarded the University of Delaware Medal of Distinction, and the DAR History Medal. He received two citations from the American Association of State and Local History, and was elected a Fellow of the Archaeological Society of New Jersey.

Reviews

[Doreen Petersen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting and informative book.

[Michelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is a product of its time but it can't mask the fact that this was written by a white, middle-aged amateur anthropologist. Not even a professional, college-trained anthropologist. The Nanticokes deserve a better book with more insights into actual Indigenous perspective and not a white-washed approximation. It is fascinating to see Delaware in the 1940s but that is the only silver lining to this painful book. If I didn't have to read this for work, I wouldn't have read it at all. In fact, I could barely force myself to finish.

[Lori · Rating 5 out of 5]

Published in 1943, this is an ethnography of Delaware's two mixed white-Indigenous populations (one called the Nanticokes after their ancestors, the other erroneously designated "Moors"), genetically isolated groups that occupied an uncomfortably liminal space in a post-slavery state that recognized only white and "Negro." The dark absurdity of such a predicament could really only have been related in a book actually written during the Jim Crow era, when this injustice could be witnessed first-hand and racist white people could talk frankly rather than hide behind dogwhistles. Widener University history professor Clinton A. Weslager was a white man sympathetic to people of color, but he still has his moments, believing, for example, that Black people were generally happy in a society that proclaimed them the "untouchable" caste. My favorite jaw-dropper is when he describes "woolly hair" as a "diagnostic Negro feature." On the Nanticokes and "Moors":

It is evident from the brief picture already presented that the folk in the two communities are living examples of race mixture, or hybridization. They are first the products of cross-breeding, representing a blend of primary racial stocks - Indian and white. Some individuals have a dark-skinned admixture, but this by no means a universal condition. Secondly, inasmuch as they have married among themselves, they represent products of inbreeding, and fall into a class with such hybrid groups as the offspring of Tahitians and English mutineers of the Bounty of Pitcairn Island fame. The effect of this combination of cross-breeding and inbreeding among humans is not yet thoroughly understood, but in the two Delaware groups there is wonderful material for genetic study.

Yeah, you can tell this is the racial milieu The Shadow over Innsmouth was written in.

Unfortunately, though valuable, this lurid contemporary context is easily distracting to the modern reader from the story of the Nanticokes (as they are collectively called today) themselves. A updated book for the twenty-first century is badly needed. I visited the Nanticoke Museum in Millsboro this weekend and was recommended 1742: The True Story of the Nanticoke Indians' Plot to Unite the Tribes, Massacre the English, and Take Back the Eastern Shore by Christopher Slavens, which unfortunately seems rather hard to get hold of.

On New Castle County (Northern Delaware):

The Peninsula's southern manners disappear north of Dover, where the residents are under the influence of Wilmington, the largest city. Shipbuilding, chemical manufacture, production of leather goods, steel, fiber, and other commodities give the city a cosmopolitan atmosphere. There has been an importation of manual and office workers from all parts of the country, but the native white Delawarean still contributes the larger part of Wilmington's population. The native has been exposed to influences and associations which have barely reached those living in the South. Wilmington is in effect a northern city with the South at its back door. Someone has said that it lies in the Shallow South.

Delaware is a Mid-Atlantic border state, NOT Southern. Northern Delaware is where most of us live and we are Metro Philadelphia. I will die on this hill.