Delaware Moors

The Delaware Moors are a mixed-race group in Delaware who descend from free people of color.

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 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.^[3] 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.^[4]

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 court during the late 1700s that the Delaware Moors originated with an Irish woman who married an enslaved chief from the Congo had had been brought to the Port of Lewes.^[5]

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.^[6]

• The Moors of Delaware, genealogical website