Michael Morgan

Special to Salisbury Daily Times

“This morass (of the Great Cypress Swamp) extends six miles from east to west and nearly 12 from north to south including an area of nearly 50,000 acres of land ... This swamp contains a great variety of plants, trees, wild beasts, birds and reptiles,” ,” G.A. Thompson wrote in an early 19th century textbook, “

Several decades later, the artist Howard Pyle explored the swamp with the help of a local guide.

In many places, logs provided a footpath through marshy spots; and Pyle noticed that before stepping on a log, his guide would tap the timber with his boot. He asked, “What do you kick these hollow logs and stumps for?” The guide’s single word answer: “Snakes.”

Sometimes called the “Delaware Everglades,” the Great Cypress Swamp was a fearsome place; but in 1790, the first census takers entered the swamp looking for residents of southern Delaware

The recently-ratified federal Constitution created a House of Representatives based on the population of each state; and to insure an accurate distribution of the representatives, the Constitution also mandated that a census be taken every 10 years.

In 1790, U.S. marshals enlisted local workers and began the first census of the American population. Census workers were armed with hand-written ledger sheets that listed only a half dozen questions dealing with age, sex, race and whether they were free or a slave.

Some places in southern Delaware, such as Lewes, were easy to reach and simple to count. When the census takers moved west and south to communities located on the Indian and Nanticoke rivers, however, they faced numerous difficulties.

The roads were often little more than wide paths that led through the thick forests. In addition, the census takers had to navigate the trackless reaches of the Great Cypress Swamp, where they had to deal with bears, snakes and other critters.

Many of the people who lived in these isolated areas of the county were suspicious of outsiders; and sometimes these recluses did not take kindly to the intrusion of strangers.

The census began on the first Monday in August 1790, and was to last for nine months. The census takers were each assigned a portion of the district in which they worked.

Before they began, the marshals and assistants were required to take an oath that they would make a “just and perfect enumeration and description of all persons” who resided in their districts. The assistants received compensation at the rate of $1 a person that they counted.

When the first count was completed, it was discovered that Delaware was the least populous state in the Union. The state had only 59,096 residents. Rhode Island, which was smaller by area, had 10,000 more people.

Delaware’s population was spread rather evenly among the state’s three counties; but Sussex’s population of 20,488 residents was slightly greater than New Castle County’s 19,688 and Kent County’s 18,920.

At the time of the first census, just over 20 percent of Delaware’s residents were African-Americans. Approximately one-third of these were free. In Kent County, the number of free blacks outnumbered slaves 2,570 to 2,300; but in Sussex County, there were 4,025 slaves and only 690 free African Americans.

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The 1790 census takers had overcome numerous logistical difficulties in counting the people of Delaware.

The coronavirus pandemic has created a new hazard for the 2020 Census, but today the count may be taken by mail, phone or internet; and the census workers do not have to tap their boots against the logs to scare away the snakes in the Great Cypress Swamp.

Principal sources:

G. A. Thompson, The Geographical and Historical Dictionary of American and the West Indies, London, 1812, p. 9.

Howard Pyle, “A Peninsular Canaan,” Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, May 1879, pp. 203-206.

Carroll D. Wright, The History And Growth of the United Sates Census, Prepared for the Senate Committee on the Census, Washington: Government Printing Office, 1900, pp. 13-17.