Sussex County, Delaware

Communities in Sussex County:

• Bethany Beach
• Bridgeville
• Millsboro
• Georgetown
• Seaford
• Milford
• Milton
• Lewes
• Rehoboth Beach
• Fenwick Island
• Selbyville
• Ocean View

In the 1860's it was common for the women of the long, flat plain of the Atlantic coast to make quilts out of a patchwork of special pieces of fabric and material they had saved for many years. Sometimes during the long, damp, agrarian winters- washed by rain and snow and pounded by the roll of waves along the surf- these women would meet in a social hall, in a sewing club, and knit and make quilts together to discuss farm yields, peach canning and how their menfolk were handling the rigors attendant during the Civil War. War or peace aside, the core of their rural life had only changed for the better in the preceding decade. In 1852 while Rebecca Ellen Dukes Hough of Milton was making the quilt that now hangs in the Delaware State Museum, she would have seen a world that encapsulated the best of the maritime and agrarian tradition of lower Delaware.

Maritime construction was the main industry in Milton with an ancillary brick kiln and button-making factory in the town; while just outside the town, the expanse of the countryside opened up to productive small farms stretching from Milford to Nassau: wheat, rye, barley, blueberries, strawberries, watermelons, quinces, persimmons, apples, tomatoes, cabbages, squash and pumpkins were all grown. At least two dairy farms lay on the outskirt of the town.

The railroads were opening up the rural countryside and providing a faster method to transport crops from local farms to markets in New Castle, on King street in Wilmington, and as far away as Broad street in Philadelphia. Crops yields were being increased by the scientific study of manuring and fertilizers.

From our vantage point, it is hard to think of this rural landscape as a hothouse of innovation. Even as the radical experimentation with farming and the new farm machines were changing how crops were harvested and wheat threshed and ground, it would be hard to believe. Yet, that is exactly what happened. Within a century Celia Steele's relatively inexpensive broiler chickens would be feeding people from Selbyville, Delaware to Vladivostok, Russia and it would be hard to underestimate the contribution the chicken made to Delmarva.

Delaware's neutrality in the Civil War, its citizens reluctance to take part in what many saw as a suicidal conflict, its relative importance to the Union presence on the eastern shore-buffeted by copperhead southern sympathizers- all limited its people's capacity or desire to take sides. When Delaware finally sided with the Union it was partly out of ideological sympathy for abolition, partly it was a matter of principle. Delaware was the first state to sign the U.S. constitution on December 7, 1787 and enter into union; it would be the last state to leave.

In the view of history, the war freed the slaves in Delaware, but recent works question the nature of that freedom. Being "free" on latifundia is hardly freedom at all. The liberation of blacks from the apartheid-like conditions of slavery did not restrain the yoke of racism that those newly freed discovered awaiting them. The overwhelming effect was that rural life in the County continued in the same way it had in preceding years. The old-Democratic party of Sussex County, the self proclaimed "white man's party" made sure of that.

In the wake of the war, farmers who had been mustered as soldiers returned to the land. Now that their men were home, women quilted for new reasons- those who had gone off to war and were injured would sometimes sit with their wives while they worked, their wives tolerantly ignoring their war stories, just happy in the fact that their husband was home- even as many other men never returned.

Still the quilting continued. This was solitary work, and communal, it invited competition to see if one woman, who could sew, could outmatch her neighbor in quilting, even if she was unable to match her in pie making, stewing tomatoes or in other realms domestic artistry. A finely knitted quilt could be an example of local rivalry, an expression of gratitude, a gift for cold grandchildren, or a reason to stay inside on a cold day. It was made of pieces of fabric from every conceivable place. Fabric from the attic, the curtains the specialty shop, from a battered old coat to white linen, all were woven together to tell a story.