Smyrna times., 1896-01-01


that can be said of them is that thew
are handsome. There is something in
their soulful eyes that reminds one Of
a place beyond the seas, and when they
speak the ripple of words is melliAuous
and not at all the plaintive iargon of
the Southern nanny" or the ami
mated cOlored girl
1t is not often that one of them be-
comes enamored of a black man. for
there are plenty of good-looking Della
ware Moors about to please them.
The Delaware Moor, one might be
led to suppose, would follow the doe
trlnes handed down by their ancestors
and accept the faith of NIohammed.
Such is not the case, however. Their
house of worship is not a mosque. but
simple little frame Methodist church
The building itself is picturesque. 1t
stands on the verge of the village, back
from the road leading in the opposite
direction from the school It's arcbitec
ture has nothing to suggest the bean
tlfuI, but every Sunday its wooden
wall rings with melodious praises. as
sent up in the good, clear tones of the
sweet-volced Delaware Moors, and all
that part Of Kent county for miles
around re-echoes with their heavenly
adulation.
The structure was erected in 1885.
and by dint of hard scraping the Moors
have managed to make the church their
own, paying off a mortgage for S11OO
The contractor who erected the buiId-
ing knocked off few hundred dollars
to begin with, and when the last ioist
was nailed up the jubilation was one
long to be remembered for up to this
time they had.no fixed place of worship.
sometimes accepting the hospitality of
the whites they were relegated to the
rear OF their church together with the
blacks, and this wounded their pride.
The elders of their peculiar race finally
put their heads together, and declared
that unless they had a separate church
Tor themselves the race might become
dlsintegrated and it was this feeling
that prompted them on to secure q
church of their own.
In many of the race the strain is al
most pure white, while in some if is
yellow, in others a deep brown. One
family in Kent County named Durham
IS as fair as any Caucasian, and its
members resemble the Irish more than
any other race. In others the differ
ence between them and pure whites
could never be told, and this is how if
fell about In the case of Isaiah Harmon.
OF Sussex County, who bought the
powderand shot from Levi Sokum. an
other Delaware Moor, which was aired
IN the Sussex court and which estab-
lished the fact that the tribe was not
one of negro blood, and gives a color
OF truth to the story told by the old
MoOrs of Kent County.
In those days there was a law which
forbade anyone from selling or loaning
ammunition to a negro or mulatto.
Sokum had sold to Harmon a quarter
pound Of powder and pound of shot.
and the action was brought by some
envlous white men, who had a grudge
against Sokum When Harmon ap-
peared in court that day, everyone
looked at him in surprise expecting to
hnd, at least, man with ''yaller"
blood, if not the pure black blood. In
stead, young fellow, straight as an
arrow and with a complexion that
rivaled that of any Caucasian present
was introduced as the defendant and
set down by the prosecution as mulatto,
or negro, and that Harmon came of a
race that was altogether distinct
In order to support his claim an old
woman of the tribe named Lydia Clark
was called TO the witness stand and
questioned. She told the story of the
origin of the Delaware Moore as given
above, and showed cOnelusively that
her kinsman was not of negro descent.
According to her story, the original
appeared about twenty
years before the Revolutionary War,
and the succeeding generations we're
confined principally to the southeast
portions of Sussex County, in and
aroundLewes, Millshoro, Georgetown
and Milton. .-PhiiGdelphia Press.