Colonial arts & crafts

Women made pots, baskets, and clothing. The women painted their beautiful pottery with geometric designs and decorated their baskets with spruce roots and porcupine quills. They made most of their family's clothing from deerskin and furs, which they painted and fringed.

African Americans

There about 4,000 slaves were brought to Delaware by 1730, most of them owned by English, Welsh, and Scotch-Irish colonists. The number of African-Americans had increased to about 10,000, of whom about 6,300 had received their freedom.

Housing

In the 18 century, people did not have the money to buy, or build expensive houses, but wealthy people got their houses built out of brick, or clay.
They did not have lots of rooms, but they did have a cellar. In the cellar they kept fruits, and vegetables at a cool temperature.
They did not have a lot of furniture. They kept a chest for storage and a table and chairs; dinning ware was stored in the chest. They also had a trestle for storage. They had benches located around the fire place. Sometimes they used the big fireplace for cooking. They also had beds that had trundles underneath them. (Trundles were a pullout bed.) Bed clothes were sheets, covers, pillows, and pillow cases. Sometimes they used feather beds.
The window frames had leather hinges so that they could close the windows. Rugs were sometimes used for window coverings or bed coverings.

Native Americans

Their Clothing
The Native Americans of Delaware where the Lenni-Lenapes. Lenape women wore knee-length skirts. Lenape men wore breechcloths and leggings. Shirts were not necessary in the Lenape culture, but the Lenapes did wear deerskin mantles when the weather was cool. Both genders wore earrings and deerskin moccasins on their feet. In colonial times, the Lenapes adapted European costume such as cloth blouses and jackets, decorating them with fancy beadwork. Here are some pictures of Lenni Lenape clothing, and some photos and links about Native American clothing in general.

Men's and women's roles
Lenape men were hunters and sometimes went to war to protect their families. Lenape women were farmers and also did most of the child care and cooking. Both genders took part in storytelling, artwork and music, and traditional medicine. In the past, Lenape chiefs were always men, but today a Delaware Indian woman could be chief too.

Where they lived
The Lenni Lenapes were original people of the mid-Atlantic area: New Jersey, Delaware, and parts of New York and Pennsylvania. Most Lenape Indians were driven out of their homeland by the British. Here is a partial map of the forced travels of the Lenape Indians. The Americans eventually relocated them to Oklahoma, where the modern Delaware Indian tribes are located today. Other Lenape people joined the Nanticoke or Munsee Delawares. There are also some small Lenne Lenape communities remaining in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

Clothing

Before colonial times in warm weather the only clothing our men wore was a breechcloth and moccasins made of deerskin. Sometimes leggings were added when going into brushy areas, or during colder weather. Nearly all our clothing was deerskin except for some fur robes worn in winter time.
Our women also wore moccasins and a deerskin skirt that reached from the waist to the knees or below. This was a large rectangle that was wrapped around the body. In warm weather that was all they wore.
Another special item was turkey feather capes worn by both men and women.
One item worn by Delaware men was the Bandolier Bag. This had a wide, fully beaded shoulder strap attached to a beaded bag.

Government

Form of Government- the Swedish colony of Delaware was governed by a council. The council appointed a governor. The colony used Swedish laws. The Dutch colony director-general, Peter Stuyvesant, had total authority. Under English rule, Delaware was controlled by representatives of The Duke of York. Later Delaware became part of Pennsylvania and was ruled by its elected council and assembly. In 1704, Delaware became a separate royal colony. It was governed by its own assembly and court system using English laws.

Economy/Trade/Crop/Jobs

Before colonial times, the Lenape lived as farmers, hunters, and fishermen. Lenape men hunted while the women farmed. Men made tools and weapons. The women were in charge of planting seeds in the spring, tending fields in the summer, and harvesting crops in the fall.The jobs took so much time they took their babies with them, strapped to cradle-boards, pieces of wood with leather straps. They wore the cradle-boards while working. Girls helped their mothers and tended the fields. They were taught to cook many different dishes. They did most of their cooking inside houses called wigwams. Boys spent most of the time with their fathers. They were responsible for hunting and fishing, and they taught their sons these things as well. Villages were located along rivers and bays to ensure the Indians had a plentiful supply of fish. The sons were also taught how to build dugout canoes that could be paddled along the rivers while fishing. They were made by burning and then hollowing out tree trunks. They used nets or wooden traps called weirs to catch their fish. The Indian boys were taught to spear fish with haerpoons made from deer antlers.. When a fish was caught, it was cleaned, wrapped in clay, and cooked in the warm ashes from a fire. The clay was then cracked and the fish inside eaten.