The Great Migration in Delaware
The history of migration in Delaware stretches across thousands of years, beginning with the movements of Indigenous peoples long before European contact and continuing through waves of colonial settlement, forced displacement, and modern immigration. Migration has fundamentally shaped the land, culture, and demographic character of Delaware, making it among the most layered stories of human movement in the northeastern United States. From the oral traditions of the Lenape people describing their origins in a distant homeland to the arrival of Dutch and Swedish settlers in the seventeenth century, the patterns of migration in and through Delaware reflect both the universal human impulse to seek new territory and the specific historical pressures of colonialism, war, and economic opportunity.
Indigenous Origins and the Walum Olum
Long before European explorers arrived on the shores of the Delaware Valley, the Lenape people — also known historically as the Delaware — inhabited the region. Their understanding of their own origins is preserved in a migration legend known as the Walum Olum, a narrative account that traces the journey of the Delaware people from a distant land to the territory they eventually called home.[1]
The Walum Olum first appeared in print in the nineteenth century and has since been the subject of scholarly discussion regarding its authenticity and origins. There is some dispute over how the Delaware first came to their land, and the Walum Olum sits at the center of that debate.[2] The story itself, however, carries deep cultural significance regardless of debates over its documentary status. According to the narrative, the Great Spirit created the earth, and the Delaware people originated in a faraway land. In the telling, the people are invaded by an evil force, and their journey toward the Delaware Valley is part of a larger cosmic and historical struggle for survival and belonging.[3]
This oral and recorded tradition situates the Lenape as a people shaped fundamentally by migration — by the experience of moving across great distances and establishing a homeland through resilience and adaptation. Their presence in the Delaware Valley represented the culmination of a long historical journey, and their relationship with the land was intimate, complex, and spiritually grounded. Understanding this context is essential to appreciating the full scope of migration in Delaware, because the Indigenous story of movement predates and in many ways frames all subsequent chapters of migration in the region.
Early European Settlement and Colonial Migration
The seventeenth century brought the first sustained waves of European migration to the Delaware Valley, transforming the region's demographic landscape permanently. Delaware's immigrant population has a rich historical context, beginning with early migrations in that century by Dutch and Swedish settlers.[4]
Swedish colonists arrived in the Delaware Valley as early as 1638, establishing a settlement in what is now Wilmington, Delaware. This settlement became the foundation for the first European government in the region.[5] The Swedish presence in the area was part of Sweden's broader colonial ambitions during the seventeenth century, a period when several northern European powers competed for territory and trade routes along the Atlantic coast of North America. The colony they established, known as New Sweden, drew settlers from both Sweden and Finland, creating a small but distinct cultural community along the western bank of the Delaware River.
The Dutch also played an early role in the region. European settlement of the area on both sides of the Delaware River dates to the early seventeenth century and grew rapidly after 1682, when the territory came under the influence of William Penn and the broader development of what would become Pennsylvania and its neighboring counties.[6] The period after 1682 saw a dramatic increase in the pace and scale of European migration into the region, driven by Penn's policy of religious tolerance and his active recruitment of settlers from across Britain and continental Europe.
The colonial migration to Delaware and the surrounding region was not a single uniform movement but rather a layered accumulation of different ethnic, religious, and national communities arriving at different times and for different reasons. English Quakers, Welsh settlers, German-speaking immigrants, and Scandinavians all contributed to the emerging demographic mosaic of the lower Delaware Valley. These migrations created the social and cultural foundation upon which the later state of Delaware would be built.
The Impact of European Settlement on the Lenape
The arrival of European settlers had profound and lasting consequences for the Lenape people. As colonial populations expanded and European land claims grew more aggressive, the Lenape faced increasing pressure on their territory, their way of life, and their autonomy. The colonial era initiated a long process of displacement that would eventually push the Delaware people far from their ancestral homeland.
The conflicts and negotiations of the colonial period were complex, involving a range of European powers — Swedish, Dutch, and later British — as well as internal divisions among Indigenous groups. The Lenape occupied a strategic position in the region and engaged in trade and diplomacy with multiple European powers, but they were ultimately unable to resist the cumulative pressure of colonial expansion. The period leading up to and following the American Revolution marked a decisive turning point in the Delaware people's relationship with their homeland.
Post-Revolutionary Displacement and Western Migration
Following the American Revolution, the situation for the Delaware people became increasingly precarious. Different Delaware groups migrated north and west to Canada and Spanish Territory in order to escape American retaliation for their varied roles during the conflict.[7] This post-revolutionary migration represents among the most significant and painful chapters in the history of the Delaware people, as communities that had maintained connections to their ancestral lands for generations were forced to seek safety and survival far from their origins.
The movement of Delaware groups to Canada and Spanish Territory — which encompassed large portions of the trans-Mississippi west before American acquisition — was not a single event but a series of movements spanning decades. Different bands and communities made different choices and followed different routes, leading to the dispersal of the Delaware people across a vast geographic area. This dispersal had lasting consequences for tribal cohesion, cultural continuity, and the political status of Delaware communities in subsequent centuries.
The story of post-revolutionary Delaware migration is also a story about the limits of neutrality in a time of war and colonial conflict. Delaware groups that had attempted to remain neutral or had allied themselves with the Americans found that the end of the war did not bring security or stability. The pressure of American expansion westward continued relentlessly, pushing Delaware communities further and further from their homeland in the northeast. The removal history of the Delaware Tribe documents this extended process of displacement and the resilience with which Delaware communities maintained their identity and governance structures across vast distances.[8]
Continued Immigration and Demographic Change
While Indigenous peoples were being displaced from Delaware and the broader region, the state itself continued to attract waves of new immigrants from Europe and elsewhere. The historical context of Delaware's immigrant population reflects successive phases of migration driven by economic opportunity, religious freedom, and the search for political stability.[9]
The development of Wilmington as an industrial and commercial center in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries made Delaware an attractive destination for workers seeking employment. The state's position along the Delaware River and its proximity to Philadelphia gave it access to major trade networks and made it a node in the broader regional economy. These economic factors drove sustained migration into Delaware across multiple generations and from multiple origins.
The colonial-era migrations described by the Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia established patterns of settlement and community formation that shaped Delaware's later demographic history. The networks of community, kinship, and religious affiliation that early immigrants established created pathways for subsequent arrivals from the same regions and backgrounds. Migration, in this sense, tends to be self-reinforcing: communities that become established in a new place often draw additional migrants from their places of origin, creating chains of migration that can persist across generations.
Legacy and Significance
The great migrations that have shaped Delaware's history represent a complex and often contradictory set of movements. For European settlers and their descendants, migration to Delaware meant opportunity, freedom, and the building of new communities. For the Lenape and other Indigenous peoples, the same period of colonial migration meant displacement, loss, and a forced migration away from ancestral territory.
The Walum Olum tradition reminds contemporary observers that the Delaware people themselves understood their identity in terms of migration and movement — that the experience of journeying across distances and establishing a homeland was central to their cultural self-understanding long before European contact.[10] This Indigenous perspective on migration as a formative and spiritual experience provides an important counterpoint to purely economic or political explanations of human movement.
Today, Delaware remains a state shaped by its history of migration. The layered demographic character of the state — reflecting Indigenous presence, early European settlement, and subsequent waves of immigration — is visible in its place names, its cultural institutions, and its ongoing engagement with questions of identity and belonging. Understanding the full arc of migration in Delaware, from the ancient movements of Indigenous peoples through the colonial era and beyond, is essential to understanding the state as it exists today.
The removal history of the Delaware Tribe, in particular, serves as a powerful reminder that migration is not always voluntary and that the movements recorded in historical sources reflect human choices made under conditions of great pressure and uncertainty.[11] The descendants of those who migrated — both those who came to Delaware seeking opportunity and those who were driven from it — carry the legacy of these movements forward into the present.